1. Bilingual books
2. Noongar / Nyungar / Nyungah people (WA41) (WA S150)

This bilingual story is about a young man who follows a kangaroo track deep into the old people’s country. Along the way he meets some spirit creatures (‘mambara’) who allow him to go on. But after he has hunted down the kangaroo, one mambara is angry and demands a fight (‘bakitj’). All day they fight, until the Noongar discovers he is a magic person and defeats the mambara.

Noongar Mambara Bakitj is inspired by a story Bob Roberts and Freddie Winmer told the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931. It was lost until Laves’ papers were returned to Australia by his family in the 1980s. They required extensive workshopping in a series of meetings, which included some of the contemporary family of both Bob Roberts and Freddie Winmer. This story is told in old Noongar, contemporary Noongar and English. Aboriginal artists created colourful illustrations to accompany the traditional story, guided in picture book design by Frane Lessac.

Series: Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project

1. Bringing the stories home: the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project by Jarrad Long, Curtin University https://research.curtin.edu.au/story/bringing-stories-home-wirlomin-noongar-language-stories-project/
2. Mamang and Noongar Mambara Bakitj : Noongar stories keeping heritage strong – ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/13/3338688.htm