Mamang was created as part of an Indigenous language recovery project led by Kim Scott and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project.
From a creation story told to the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931 and returned to the Noongar people by his family after his death in the 1980s, the story was workshopped through a series of community meetings involving elders – some of whom told stories to Laves in 1931 – artists and linguists.
Presented in both Noongar and English language, this art book will inspire and delight all ages.
Kim Scott is a descendant of the Wirlomin Noongar people. The only Indigenous author to win the Miles Franklin Award, he has now won it twice, in 1999 for Benang and in 2011 for That Deadman Dance, which also won the South-east Asia and Pacific Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Kim currently works at Curtin University, as Professor of Writing and also in Curtin’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies and at the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute. Kim Scott’s new novel, Taboo, is published in July 2017 by Picador Australia.
Iris Woods is an Aboriginal Health Worker who has worked extensively in education promoting Noongar language and culture.
She has been awarded the Barry Hayward Outstanding Achievement Aboriginal Individual Award and nominated for the Premier’s Active Citizenship Awards, Australia Day for services to her community.
The Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project Incorporated Reference Group comprises family members who are descended from the South West of Western Australia and are interested in publishing and promoting some of the stories from that area.
The Group’s main objective is to reclaim Wirlomin stories and dialect, in support of the maintenance of Noongar language, and to share them with Noongar families and communities as part of a process to claim, control and enhance Wirlomin Noongar cultural heritage.
Inspired by creation stories told to the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931 and returned to the Noongar people by his family after his death in the 1980s, the stories in this series - Mamang; Noongar Mambara; Bakitj; Dwoort Baal Kaat; Yira Boornak Nyininy; Ngaawily Nop and Noorn were workshopped through a series of community meetings involving elders – some of whom told stories to Laves in 1931 – artists, and linguists.
with artwork by Jeffrey Farmer, Helen Nelly and Roma Winmar
Roma Winmar has worked significantly in Indigenous education and the arts where she is continuously working with promoting Noongar language and cultural activities and has translated many children’s songs into Noongar.
She has extensive language skills and is presently employed as a Noongar language teacher at Western Australia’s Moorditj College. She has delivered sessions at conferences on language and sits on the Department of Education’s Curriculum Council in setting standards and educational expectations for Noongar language taught at secondary and TEE levels.
Roma was the language and cultural consultant on the playYibiyung written by her daughter Dallas Winmar. Roma, under the name of Yibiyung, has worked with the Carrolup School of artists.