AustLit

'The Pilbara is not a part of Australia that gets much attention in the literature. Of the traditional languages of the region we know little, and of the songs we know less. There is Carl Georg von Brandenstein’s book of song poetry, Taruru (Brandenstein & Thomas 1974), which includes some Ngarla songs and other, more recent, recordings of song performances from the region to the west by Mike Burns and by the filmmakers Frank Rijevec and Noellene Harrison. Ngarla songs provides some 68 song texts in Ngarla, with English translations. Ngarla is the language of Port Hedland and east past the De Grey River for which little has been recorded beyond a dictionary (Brown et al. 1991).'  (Introduction)