Wurnan

Ngarinyin is our tongue, our language, whereas Wilinggin is our land, our Country and our lore. These terms are distinct in Ngarinyin; however, they are generally used interchangeably in English.

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, a group of Ngarinyin people have been engaging with archival material and travelling back to Country to remember and record traditional harvesting and craft-making practices for future generations. This book takes you there, around the campfire where stories are shared and knowledge is passed on. Where memories bubble up about the old days when single-use rafts were hastily constructed using dry pandanus wood and sheets of paperbark to cross a swollen river during the wet season; when a messenger carried news of an upcoming ceremony on a carved wooden stick for hundreds of kilometres across the countryside; when the crack of clap sticks awoke the earth, bringing on the rains and keeping the Country fresh.

Wilinggin Country is an area as vast and varied as Tasmania. The landscape offers distinctive materials that inform the traditional crafts that are made, such as string from the bark of a boab tree, or spindles made from the cypress pine. Understanding this emporium of materials available, and the stories embedded within, brings the Country to life. Combining evocative photography with first-hand quotes and stories from Wilinggin people, this book takes the reader to this far-flung corner of Australia and immerses them within longstanding cultural traditions that are being given a new life in a modern context, providing an ancient perspective on contemporary sustainable design.