Western Desert Verbal Arts Project Collection: Tjalaku - Bethany Cooke with Claudine Butler

Added by Ngaanyatjarra Council (Aboriginal Corporation)

Description Western Desert Verbal Arts Project Collection

From 2012 - 2017 Ngaatjatjarra linguist Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis worked with Inge Kral and Jennifer Green to document the endangered verbal arts of the Australian Western Desert.

The Western Desert dialects spoken in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Communities include Ngaanyatjarra, Ngaatjatjarra and Pitjantjatjara.

With women and girls we filmed the traditional practice of 'mirlpa', or sand storytelling, and with younger storytellers we recorded their adaptation of this drawing practice to iPads.

Made with the support of The Australian National University, The University of Melbourne
& Australian Research Council Grants:
Discovery Indigenous (IN150100018)
DECRA (DE160100873)
Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CE140100041)