This short film explains the sounds associated with the consonant-vowel syllable pattern in Goldfields Aboriginal languages. Enjoy and check out our YouTube channel for more new films each week!

Two men of the Yirritja moiety perform the "Salt water dance", leaping past one another, representing waves meeting and crashing; the dancers constantly leap up and down, representing a choppy sea. The women dance along the side, their hands held horizontally. The men then run …

The men of each of the two moiety groups (Yirritja and Dua) run around their respective "Jirawara" ceremonial forked poles; the leader of their moiety then climbs on the "Jirawara" and gives the Mardayin calls, naming the sacred places connected with the ceremony; the men …

Men and women, painted with red and yellow ochres, walk towards the seashore to the sound of clapsticks. Every few metres the men of each moiety, supported by their women, do their typical dances with ceremonial cries. Having arrived at the water's edge the men plunge in and …

Men of the Yirritja moiety enter the ceremonial ground to the sound of clapsticks, lightly hopping on each leg, a dance associated with the Catfish totem; they group around the "Jirawara" ceremonial forked pole which is the focal point of the ceremony and perform the Bandicoot …

Men of the Yirritja moiety, painted with red ochre and white clay, emerge from the secret ground and perform the dance associated with the Catfish totem, with light steps, hopping on each leg; this is followed by the Bandicoot totem dance, where they sit on their haunches, moving …

Every late afternoon during the weeks the "Mardayin" or "Ngarrag" ceremony takes place, the men paint up and perform various totem dances in their respective moiety groups (Dua and Yirritja) Some men have ceremonial "power bags" in their mouths. The ceremonies start with the …