The word Noongar means 'a person of the south-west of Western Australia', an area that extends from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. Noongar is their official language, and there are several ways in which it is spelt and pronounced: Noongar, Nyungar, Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, Yungar and Noonga. There are fourteen dialects that are associated with Noongar language : Nyaki Nyaki, Bibbulman, Yuat, Minang, Wardandi, Kaniyang, Goreng, Pinjarup, Wiilman, Wudjari, Wajuk, Balardung, and Tjapanmay.
Follow this link to explore records for all people listed in AustLit with Nyoongar heritage.
From the award-winning author of Benang, and his Aunty Hazel, comes this monumental history of the south coast Noongar people of Western Australia. Kayang - meaning, respectfully, Old Lady - was born in 1925. Through her candid voice comes the story of her people and her country, interwoven with traditional tales.
Award-winning novelist Kim Scott and his elder, Hazel Brown, have created a monumental family history of the Wilomin Noongar people. Kayang & Me is a powerful story of community and belonging, revealing the deep and enduring connections between family, country, culture and history that lie at the heart of Indigenous identity.
(...more)'Set amongst the low scrub of the Mogumber sand plain north of Perth, the Moore River Native Settlement was, for thirty years, "sort of a place like home" for thousands of Aboriginal people. Sanctuary, work camp, orphanage, prison and rural idyll, the settlement was part of a bold social experiment by the Chief Protector of Aborigines, A. O. Neville, the aim of which was nothing less than the total eradication of a race and a culture.
Making extensive and imaginative use of oral resources and hitherto unseen documents, the book paints a vivid and intimate picture of the life experience of Moore River inmates, while documenting the appalling bureaucratic incompetence, official indifference and occasional outright brutality that made Moore River notorious.
(...more)Noongar Mambara Bakitj is part of the series created by the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project workshopped through a series of community meetings involving ellders - some of whom told stories to American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Australia in 1931.
Graeme Dixon's mother was a Noongar woman from Katanning and his father was an English migrant orphan who grew up at Fairbridge Farm. He spent several years in Sister Kate's Children's Home, Perth.
Between ten and fourteen, Dixon lived in a Salvation Army Boys Home, before being expelled from high school. Subsequently, he was in and out of reformatories, and at sixteen he was sent to Fremantle Prison where he spent most of the next nine years. His first poetry was written in prison.
'Graeme Dixon's journey is one that has been made too often by too many Aboriginal people. It is a journey that lies within a legal system that has at its core a lock and key: on doors and windows, in hearts and minds it incarcerates whole communities. Graeme's poems and stories speak from the heart and they speak from experience, the living voice of Aboriginal prisoners past and present.' Source: Holocaust Revisited: Killing Time (2003)
(...more)Alf Taylor was a member of the Stolen Generations. He and his brother were removed from their family as infants and placed in the New Norcia Mission, which he recounts in God, The Devil, and Me. Taylor only discovered his heritage when he left the mission at age sixteen and searched for his family.
As a young man, Taylor worked in the Perth and Geraldton areas as a seasonal farm worker, before joining the armed forces and living in several locations around Australia. Taylor and his wife had seven children, of whom only two survived.
Noongar Elder, Maxine Fumagalli, daughter of Violet and Elijah Jones was a writer, poet, artist, healer and conservationist.
Maxine Fumagalli remembered much of the folklore that her mother had told her before she became absorbed in learning western ways, growing up and having a family. For the past 30 years Maxine made her home in the town of Denmark on the south coast where she raised her family (The Aboriginal word for Denmark is Kurrabup, which means place of the black swan).
She had a deep love for the land and people of the Southwest and also had a vital interest in promoting Noongar culture and heritage.
Jack Leonard Davis grew up at Yarloop, Western Australia. His mother was forcibly removed from her parents, and Davis himself later discovered the details of her family history. Sent to the Moore River Native Settlement to learn farming at the age of 14, Davis' experiences there would later provide a foundation for his dramatic writing. After nine months, he left the Settlement. His father's subsequent death created a family crisis, which led to the first of many jobs for Davis. He has worked as a stockman, boxer, horse-breeder, train driver and truck driver.
A collection of poems by Jack Davis that were inspired by his life, and that of his family.
(...more)South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) is a native title representative body which works in the interests of the Noongar people. Their informative website contains information such as the history of the Noongar people, their culture, demographic information, and produces and distributes newsletters, media releases and other publications for its members.The website also contains useful links to other organisations.
The Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project Incorporated Reference Group comprises of 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. Their aim 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.
The Kaartdijin website contains relevant and informative information relating to Noongar people. The aim of the website is to share the richness of their knowledge, culture and history in order to strengthen their community and promote will understanding.
The author talks about the gulliabity and trust of Aboriginal people of others' motives in regards to their cultural property. She argues that Aboriginal people are 'naive when it comes to protecting their cultural material', but they are learning fast'.
(...more)'...the Aboriginal people, have been recording our history for thousands of years. Our medium has been stone, hair wood, the walls of caves; and the flat surface of rock has been the canvas of our ancestors. Hiar string manipulated by fingers can tell a myraid of stories and the land was our drawing board.' (Source: Jack Davies 1983)
(...more)'In February 1983 a significant event took place at Murdoch University - the first Aboriginal Writers' Conference. And, as the editors point out, no mere collection of papers can do justice to that historic gathering,. Nevertheless, anyone interested in Aboriginal writing - from its proud beginnings as an oral tradition through its exciting contemporary voice to the strong promise of its future - will want to read Aboriginal Writing Today.'
'Faith Bandler gives a fascinating account of how she researched her novels.
(...more)Letters by Noongar people pleading for the return of their stolen children or requesting access to the old age pension after a lifetime's work will come together in a new project aimed at uncovering a hidden side of Indigenous history.
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