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AB & TSI
Aboriginal and New Zealand flag
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Janbal (Quandong)
Janbal (Quandong) is good bush tucker. We gather the fruit from August to January when they are sweet and soft. The kernel of the fruit is very pretty and we often use it to make body adornments such as necklaces and earrings.
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Spinifex
“When I went back to County, I thought how beautiful the spinifex was. How the sun glazed against the spinifex. The County that I speak of is Jilukurru, my grandfather’s country.”
– Kathleen Maree Sorenson
Martu Country is dominated by striking permanent tali (sandhills) covered with spinifex, gums, and other trees and shrubs. Spinifex is a pale green, spiky grass that grows in clumps throughout the Central and Western Deserts of Australia. Some varieties yield edible seeds and another contains a resin.
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Janbal (Quandong)
Janbal (Quandong) is good bush tucker. We gather the fruit from August to January when they are sweet and soft. The kernel of the fruit is very pretty and we often use it to make body adornments such as necklaces and earrings.
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Jilji
“This one near my countryside. It’s kayili (north) of my Country. Big one Jilji. Lots of tuwa (sandhills). My nana mili (denotes ownership) Country, mama mili, daddy mili Country. They walk around there, get kuwiyi (meat). The old people would cook ’em up! This a pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) place. I was a young girl with my nana and mama, walking around there. I been loose them. They finished.”
– Yikartu Bumba
Jilji is a water source north of Wirnpa and in Juwaliny Country- Yikartu’s ngurra (home Country, camp). Her ngurra lies at the northern boundary of Martu Country, around the Percival Lakes region and further northward. Jilji is one of the water sources Yikartu would stop and camp at as a young woman.
As described in her account, Yikartu moved around this area seasonally with her family, walking between water sources, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time knowledge of water sources was critical for survival, and today Martu Country is still defined in terms of the location and type of water. Each of the hundreds of claypans, rockholes, waterholes, soaks and springs found in the Martu desert homelands is known by name, location, quality and seasonal availability through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives.
225182374109
Janbal (Quandong)
Janbal (Quandong) is good bush tucker. We gather the fruit from August to January when they are sweet and soft. The kernel of the fruit is very pretty and we often use it to make body adornments such as necklaces and earrings.
225182374108
Kurranji (Cassowary)
The cassowary is one of the most important animals for our Kuku Yalanji people. The cassowary is the boss of the rainforest. He is dangerous but he also helps grow many of the plants we used to collect for food, medicine and tool making.
How does he do this? He eats many different fruits, digests them in his stomach, and then drops his dung mixed with the leftover seeds onto the ground. This way seeds grow into new plants wherever he walks. This helped us Kuku Yalanji in the past to survive.
The cassowary is a spirit bird and celebrated to this day in public ceremonies with song and dance. You must be very careful of them because they can attack. Never feed them. You must always be alert when walking in the rainforest.
225182374107
Kurranji (Cassowary)
The cassowary is one of the most important animals for our Kuku Yalanji people. The cassowary is the boss of the rainforest. He is dangerous but he also helps grow many of the plants we used to collect for food, medicine and tool making.
How does he do this? He eats many different fruits, digests them in his stomach, and then drops his dung mixed with the leftover seeds onto the ground. This way seeds grow into new plants wherever he walks. This helped us Kuku Yalanji in the past to survive.
The cassowary is a spirit bird and celebrated to this day in public ceremonies with song and dance. You must be very careful of them because they can attack. Never feed them. You must always be alert when walking in the rainforest.
