Ngapa yawulyu 'Rain dreaming songs'

Yurntumu-wardingki juju-ngaliya-kurlangu yawulyu: Warlpiri women's songs from Yuendumu.

This series consists of four short films in which Warlpiri women sing, dance and tell the stories of different ancestral beings who travel across Warlpiri country. Each part contains footage of these women singing, painting their bodies with red and white ochre and performing the accompanying dances. The first part presents the Minamina yawulyu and tells of group of ancestral women as they emerge from Minamina, in the far west of Warlpiri country and begin their journey eastwards. Part 2 presents the songs and stories of the Watiyawarnu ancestors from Ngurlulirri-nyinanya, to the north-west of Yuendumu, telling of their travels as they search for varieties of acacia seed, grinding them and making seed cakes along the way. Part 3 presents the famous songs and story of the two Jangalas from Warlukurlangu whose evil blue-tongue lizard father lights a raging bush fire, forcing them to run away southwards out of their country before they return home, weak and exhausted. And finally, part 4 presents the songs and stories of the Ngapa ‘Rain’ Dreaming that travels westwards across the country to the north of Yuendumu. Warlpiri women from Yuendumu have presented these yawulyu so that the songs and their associated knowledge can be remembered and performed by future generations of Warlpiri women. These films appear on a DVD which comes as an accompanying insert in the book ‘Yurntumu-wardingki juju-ngaliya-kurlangu yawulyu: Warlpiri women’s songs from Yuendumu’ (Batchelor Institute Press, 2017).