Storyteller: Senior Nyikina Cultural Custodian, Annie Nayina Milgin
In this program, we’re privileged to be travelling through the West Kimberley region with senior knowledge holder and Nyikina Mangala Cultural Custodian Annie Nayina Milgin. Annie carries a story that was passed to her by her father, it’s the story of Woonyoomboo: The Night Heron. Woonyoomboo was a major Creation Ancestor for the Nyikina people. During this program we’ll travel with Annie and producer Liz Thompson as Annie shows Liz how and where the story of Woonyoomboo lives in the land. As Woonyoomboo travelled he sang the Nyikina world into being. He left law, language, ceremonies, dances, kin and skin relationships for the Nyikina people in an epic songline.

Woonyoomboo also left botanical, ecological and cartographic knowledge that forms an intricate map of Nyikina Country and how to care for it. In this program we’ll visit some of the most important sites on Woonyoomboo’s journey, hearing about the ceremonies and events that happened at them, a journey which culminated Woonyoomboo forging the mighty Fitzroy River on the back of a Giant Rainbow Serpent and transforming from a man to a night Heron.

Liz and Annie are travelling with Taz Miller and Missi Mel Pesa from SharingStories Foundation, an organisation founded by Liz, which collaborates with Indigenous communities across the country in the holding and sharing of important cultural knowledge. Like many other custodians involved in the organisation’s work, Annie, who is also a SharingStories board director, is keen to teach non-Indigenous people something of the depth of her connection to Country and culture, to inform and inspire in ways that build respect and recognition.

SharingStories Foundation extends thanks to Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation for additional song recordings used in this program and special thanks to the Australia Council for the Arts and the Indigenous Language and Arts Program for assistance in the recording and interpretation of the Woonyoomboo story and songline.

Duration: 28min 40sec
Broadcast: Tue 6 Jun 2017, 11:05am
Credits
Producers – Annie Nayina Milgin and Liz Thompson