Dwoort Baal Kaat

Abstract

A man goes hunting for some tucker with a pack of dogs, but he doesn’t get what he expected. Dwoort Baal Kaat is the story of how two different animals are related to one another. This story comes from the wise and ancient language of the First People of the Western Australian south coast, the Noongar people. Inspired by a story George Nelly and Bob Roberts told the linguist Gerhardt Laves at Albany, Western Australia, around 1931, it has been workshopped in a series of community meetings that included some of the contemporary family of both those men, as a part of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project to revitalise an endangered language. Dwoort Baal Kaat is written in Noongar, with a literal English translation and English prose, and accompanied by original artwork from Noongar artist Helen (Ing) Hall.