When We Go Walkabout

Set on Groote Eylandt, this beautiful book invites children to look for animals in different habitats throughout the course of one day.

Yirruwa yirrilikenuma-langwa, amiyembena yirrirringka yirruwa?
When we go walkabout, what do we see?

Up in a tree there is something flapping its wings at us. Duwedirra! Cockatoo!
Down in the river we see something staring at us. Dingarrbiya! Crocodile!

Back home there is someone waiting for us. Dungkwarrika! Grandma!

A beautiful story for the very young that brings to vivid life the unique world of Groote Eylandt.

'We want our children to hear a story and know where it's come from and where it's travelled.' Rhoda Lalara

'As children we used to go walkabout with our grandmothers and see the animals. Now we take our own kids out.' Alfred Lalara

This edition includes a QR code link to hear Rhoda Larlara read the text in Anindilyakwa.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that this book contains images and voices of deceased persons

This book was produced through the Emerging Indigenous Picture Book Mentoring Project, a joint initiative between The Little Big Book Club and Allen & Unwin, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

About the Author

Rhoda Dugururru Lalara was a language officer at Groote Eylandt Linguistics for over 33 years. Rhoda was passionate about the Anindilyakwa language, culture and heritage and used her literacy expertise to keep this ancient language alive. 'We want our children to hear music and start singing. To hear a story and know where it's come from and where it's travelled,' she said. Before writing her own story, Rhoda had worked with many other storytellers in the communities of Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island. 'Some were make believe stories, some real stories, some Dreamtime stories which go from one community to another, stopping at all different places. They connect people together. The stories connect them.'

Alfred Lalara was born in 1964. Like his sister-cousin, Rhoda, he is from the Lalara clan and he grew up in the Warnindilyakwa community of Angurugu on Groote Eylandt. One of many talented artists in the Lalara clan, Alfred uses the traditional Groote Eylandt line work, which in the past was used for painting on bark and is now used for works on canvas and paper. Alfred usually works collaboratively with his wife, Alice Durilla, who did the raak cross-hatching on the illustrations in Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa.