Dhäwu Ramingining'puy

JB Fisher is Marraŋu and spends much of his time living on his outstation just outside of Ramingining.

Tolbert Dharramanba, Ross Dhapuwuy and Oscar Dhurrikayu travel to JB’s outstation to hear him talk about his family history and painting.

JB talks about his traditional painting techniques using bark, ochre, grass (mewana) bush and natural glue.

09 JB Fisher

In 2019 Tolbert Dharramanba, Oscar Dhurrikayu, Ross Dhapuwuy travelled with Bula Bula Arts to the GARMA festival.

They met up with Sebastian Wanambi from Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts and visited the various art centre stalls and interviewed some of the stall holders about their experiences at Garma.

Later they meet up with star Yolŋu Radio presenter and musician Andrew Gurruwiwi.

08 Garma 2019

Bobby Bunungurr is Ganalbingu and is from Gurrwiliny (Arafura Swamp). His people are fresh ‘water people’. In this interview Bobby speaks in his own language Ganalbiŋu,  about Yolŋu survival, bush foods, and the introduction and health impact of introduced ‘balanda foods’. Bobby goes on to talk about tradition life and culture and how this has changed over the years since the arrival of europeans.

07 Bobby Bunungurr

Tolbert Dharramanba and Ross Dhapuwuy go to the Ramingining school to talk with Peter Djumbu Djurrurŋa about the morning routine ‘walking school bus’. This is a community run service aimed at supporting families to get kids to school on time.

Along the way we also hear from the school canteen manager who is responsible for school meals, health and nutrition program.

06 Walking School Bus

Joy Burruna gives a quick run through of the rules of ‘dopulu’, a gambling card game played in Ramingining.

Joy also gives some insight into how the winnings a distributed around the community.

05 Dopulu - Playing Card Games

Oscar Dhurrikayu speaks with visiting artist Julie Shaw and the Bula Bula weavers.

Julie worked on a collaboration project for the 2019 ‘From Country to couture’ Fashion show as part of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair in 2019.

Featured weavers in this project are Margaret Djarrbalabal, Eyvonne Munuyngu and Mary Dhapalany.

04 DAAF Fashion - Weavers - Hat

Mary Dhapalany is Liya-Galawuymirr and tells these stories about Mewana speaking Mandhalpuy.

Mewana is native grass used for making bags and baskets when collecting food near the swamp areas. Foods such as warraga (Cycad nuts), räkay  (Water chestnuts), djitama (yams). These types of bags or baskets were sometimes used when soaking cycad nuts in fresh water to leach out toxins.

Mewana is also sometimes used to bind fish traps.

Mewana grass is used to make ceremonial dilly bags which are passed down from generation to generation and less likely to get mold or rot in the intense tropical climate.

03 Mewana Grass Story

We hear from Daphne Banyawarra again speaking Ganalbiŋu.

Banyawarra explains the technique of using coconut ash to dry mix with natural yellow/orange colour.

Then this added to the ‘balgurr’ (kurrajong bark) which collected and pounded with a rock to break apart the fibre.

Small amounts of water are then sprinkled into the mix and the fibre magically changes from yellow to deep red.

Banyawarra talks about traditional use of these materials.

Today natural colours are found using various plants from the bush to dye and use in fibre art.

02 Natural Dyes Yolngu Matha

We hear from Daphne Banyawarra again, this time talking about techniques for collecting and processing natural bush dyes to make fibre art.

Kurrajong bark is also collected and made into string for bags and lamp shades.

Banyawarra talks about traditional use of these materials and how in the “olden days” no colour was used.

Today natural colours are found using various plants from the bush to dye and use in fibre art.

02 Natural Dyes English

In this episode we hear Joy Burruna, who is Djambarrpuyŋu speaking Djambarrpuyŋu and english.

Joy introduces some of the senior weavers from BulaBula Arts and helps to translate some of the various languages spoken by the weavers to english.

We also hear from Mary Dhapalany who is Liya-Galawuymirr and speaks Mandhalpuy.

Dhapalany talks about making lamp shades, fish traps, mats and baskets using pandanus and natural bush dye. Later in this recording Dhapalany then talks about the use of djilpara as a material use to make bush string. This is called balgurr in Djambarrpuyŋu (Kurrajong).

Evyonne Munuyngu is also Liya-Galawuymirr speaking Mandhalpuy.

Munuyngu talks about weaving bags and baskets that are made today for the art centre and how they same bags and baskets have been used traditionally to collect foods.

Margaret Djarrbalaba is Malibirr / Gurrumba Gurrumba speaking Ganalbiŋu.

Djarrbalaba talks about making fish traps and scoops using traditional weaving techniques.

01 Weaving Stories

Bula Bula Arts Chairperson Daphne Banyawarra introduces the podcast series in Yolŋu Matha.

Banyawarra is a Malibirr woman and speaks in Ganalbiŋu language. She explains the background to this project to listeners, describes where Ramingining is in North-East Arnhem Land, making mote of the many different clans groups in Ramingining with many languages.

00 Podcast Introduction Yolŋu matha

Bula Bula Arts Chairperson Daphne Banyawarra introduces the podcast series in english.

00 Podcast Introduction English

In this episode Billy Black Durbuma talks about the Morning Star and Hollow log ceremonies. He introduces the key concepts in english and then gives details in Djinang for future generations to know and learn his language and culture.

11 Billy Black Morning Star

Billy Black Durbuma tells some details of his life story speaking in Djinang.

Durbuma is Murrungun and comes from Ngangalala – Reny. Through out his life he has travelled extensively across Arnhem Land.

He reflects on his early upbringing and schooling, many different work experiences and when he first learnt how to paint and carve.

10 Billy Black

Produced by Bula'bula Arts, Ramingining, NE Arnhem Land, the project involves the co-creation of a Yolngu arts and language themed podcast series in Djinang, Ganalbingu, Gupupyngu and English.   Ramo Dhawu (Stories from Ramingining) encourages and supports the preservation of Yolngu cultural heritage through the recording and sharing of oral traditions and stories, music, cultural arts practices and languages, and innovative forms of digital art practice. Listeners can immerse themselves in the richness of Yolngu culture and life through its stories, characters and languages. The podcast will accommodate interviews, story sharing, cultural education and language instruction in studio-based and mobile recording formats.

Ramo Dhäwu

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