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(LS): Kookaburra
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(LS): Ngujay (Freshwater Turtle)
Ngujay (Freshwater Turtle) was a source of meat as well as a surface for decoration. Traps for catching them were made from lawyer vine and spider’s web was used to make fishing line. To clean the shell for decorating, we would leave it near a green ant nest and then go through a process of soaking and drying it prior to painting. Culturally it is forbidden for pregnant women to eat either freshwater or saltwater turtle.
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(LS): Diwan (Scrub Turkey) with Eggs
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(LS): Rainforest Parrot
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(LS): Yindili (Kingfisher)
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Turtle Eggs
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Quandongs
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Scrub Turkey Eggs
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Kakan (Black Palm) Dillybag.
Our ancestors used Kakan (Black Palm) dilly bags to carry food when out hunting and gathering or soak bitter yams in creeks before cooking them. They were also used to hold personal items.
When I was a young girl my grandmother would teach me how to make Black Palm dillybags. We used to set up camp with other Kuku Yalanji women at a creek near Helenvale. It is very hard work. The men would help us cutting down the palm trees and separate the crownshaft from the trunk and the leaves. Then the women used to peel away the outer leaves until they felt strong threads they could pull out. They cleaned these threads from pulp with a mussel shell. When we moved away from Helenvale I forgot how to make them. Luckily years later I asked a relative of mine, Wilma Walker, who is great weaver, if she could refresh my memories. From then on I kept making dillybags as long as my health allowed it. I really enjoyed making them.