Bringing Wangka Arabana to Life: Language, Art, and Culture Thrive at Finniss Springs

In the old schoolroom at Finniss, Arabana mob learned and spoke wangka Arabana, played language games, and did karpanda (woodworking) and malka malka (painting).

For wangka Arabana, kids and adults learned the colours warru (white), waka (black), miraka (red), ngadlyurru (green), mathu (yellow), arkapa (ochre/brown) by big rolling dice with coloured sides and playing bingo, and people played games to learn the names of body parts like mara (hand), thidna (foot), and midlha (nose). This was a fun game with a lot of dancing, laughing, and learning. 

For karpanda, wardu-kari (children) and adults did woodburning on clapsticks cut from urinjingka, gidgee tree. People drew circles and designs but also kapirri (goanna) and wabma (snakes). By the second day, a lot of people were hooked on karpandaa, and came back to the schoolroom to finish designs! There are a lot of Arabana karpanda experts now!

For malka malka, people painted on kira (boomerangs) as well as paper and canvas. People painted warrukathi (emus) and muyu (the sun) and kardipirla (stars) and many other things. Some of these designs might become a T-shirt for the Arabana Corporation.

It was great to see wangka Arabana being learned in a classroom that was previously only used to learn English, and to see the schoolroom full of wardu-kari, lhuka (mums), apityi (dads) and other family members like it was when Finniss Springs Station and Mission were operational.

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