Two Hours At Malkirr

This video was made at Malkirr on Croker Island on the 17th April 2004. Joy Williams Malwagag, a senior traditional owner of the Karturra clan estate in which Malkirr is located, demonstrates the richness of the resouces available within a relatively small area over a period of a couple of hours. After collecting a few marrkika ‘long bums’ (Telescopium telescopium) to be used as fishing bait later that day, Joy harvests some stems of wurnululu ‘bush sugar cane’ (Heteropogon triticeus), demonstrating their use as an alternative water source.

Joy then enters a mangrove mud flat where she collects ngarlwak ‘mud mussels’ (Polymesoda erosa) and demonstrates a traditional cooking technique referred to by the verb stem ngardani, as in a-bana-ngardani meaning ‘I’ll cook shells by standing them up in the sand, arranging some combustible material on top of them, and setting fire to it’.

The film was made and edited by Bruce Birch and Sabine Hoeng with funding from the DoBeS (Documentation of Endangered Languages) program of the Volkswagen Foundation. Transcription and translation of the text was by Bruce Birch and Joy Williams Malwakak, jointly funded by the DoBeS program and the Australian Government’s MILR (Maintenance of Indigenous Languages and Records) program.