Western Desert Verbal Arts Project
Date
Authors
Kral, Inge
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Volume Title
Publisher
Australia: PARADISEC
Abstract
This is a collection of the verbal arts and speech styles in the Western Desert of Australia, in particular those of the Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra peoples. The mutually intelligible Western Desert dialects Ngaanyatjarra, Ngaatjatjarra and Pitjantjatjara are still spoken by approximately 2000 people who reside in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands region of south-east Western Australia. Their oral traditions are central to cultural practice and social interaction and they embrace special respectful ways of speaking, sign language and gesture, narrative practices and the use of graphic symbols to accompany sand story narratives and evident in song, dance, and games. These multimodal speech arts are a valued part of the traditions of Western Desert people, yet they are highly endangered. From 2012 - 2017 Ngaatjatjarra linguist Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis worked with Inge Kral and Jennifer Green to document these endangered verbal arts. With women and girls we filmed the traditional practice of mirlpa, or sand storytelling, and with younger storytellers we recorded their adaptation of this drawing practice to iPads. Tjuma or other oral stories were also documented, with male and female storytellers. We also recorded children's games and songs 'Tjilkuku - for children' as well as traditional sign language.
From 2010-2017 Ngaatjatjarra linguist Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis worked with Inge Kral to document Yirrkapiri Wangka an auxiliary respect register, known variously in Western Desert dialects as tjaa nyantulypa, tjaa paku, wawanypa, or anitji, and used openly by all kin in ceremonial and secular contexts. This collection draws on various project sources.
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Citation
Inge Kral (collector), 2012; Western Desert Verbal Arts Project (WDVA1), Digital collection managed by PARADISEC. [Open Access] DOI: 10.26278/5b589e9084c3b
Collections
Source
Type
Dataset
Sound recording
Podcast
Sound recording
Podcast
Book Title
PARADISEC (Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures)
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access via publisher website
License Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International License.