Mamang retold by Kim Scott, Iris Woods and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project

A brave young man travels the seas in the abdomen of a large whale (‘mamang’). The man squeezes the heart of the whale and the old song he sings spurs it on to take him on a very special journey. It transports him far west of his home country, where his life is changed forever.

Mamang is inspired by a story Freddie Winmer told the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931 and has been workshopped in a series of community meetings, which included some of Freddie Winmer’s contemporary family. Told in old Noongar, contemporary Noongar and English, Mamang captures the deep spiritual connection of the Wirlomin people with the sea.

Mamang was created as part of an Indigenous language recovery project led by Kim Scott and the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project. From a creation story told to the American linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931 and returned to the Noongar people by his family after his death in the 1980s, the story was workshopped through a series of community meetings involving elders some of whom told stories to Laves in 1931.