This story comes from the wise and ancient language of the First People of the Western Australian south coast. Noorn is a story of alliances between humans and other living creatures, in this case a snake. It tells of how protective relationships can be nurtured by care and respect.
Noorn is written in Noongar, with a literal English translation and English prose with with artwork by Alta Winmar.
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.
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.
