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Yorgas kaala katitje is a podcast and short film exploring the fire knowledge of Aboriginal women. Such knowledge has been essential to the survival and cultural practices of Indigenous communities across millennia.

However, it was not within early explorers’ frame of reference to see women as fire managers, and these European understandings have shaped the way we have thought about fire management in this country. Over three centuries later, fire is pivotal to land management across a nation seasonally ravaged by fatal bushfires.

Increasingly, Aboriginal women and men are creating better management by sharing their knowledge through the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Perth and the Kimberley Land Council’s Nyul Nyul female ranger program based in Beagle Bay on the Dampier Peninsula.

In the short film, we hear Nyungar Elder Irene Stainton AO; Traditional Custodians Barbara Hostalek, Marlene Warrell and Gladys Yarran; Wetlands Centre Elder in Residence Marie Taylor; Nyungar Maaman Neville Collard; and Professor Susan Broomhall, Director of the Gender and Women’s History Research Centre at Australian Catholic University.
The podcast features these voices along with Traditional and Cultural Fire Officer Clifton Bieundurry; Whadjuk Nyungar Ballardong Nyungar and cultural fire practitioner Oral McGuire; the Kimberley Land Council’s Sarah Parriman, Jackie Wemyss and Zaripha Barnes; Nyul Nyul rangers Sharon Cox, Helena Williams and Lilian Lawford; Dutch texts read by Dr Arvi Wattel, The University of Western Australia, and producer Gina Pickering.

Yorgas kaala katitje has recently been donated to the State Library’s West Australian heritage collection and is available online through the catalogue .

Executive produced by Professor Susan Broomhall, supported by Australian Catholic University, and written and produced by Gina Pickering from Latitude Creative Services.

The short film is available on the State Library of Western Australia website slwa.wa.gov.au

Join writer and storyteller Sisonke Msimang when she asks Elders Aunty Irene and Uncle Albert McNamara, Elder Farley Garlett and youth leaders Ezra Jacobs-Smith and Sophie Coffin to share their stories, thoughts and hopes on what the future will look like for all Australians in the next chapter of our shared history.

In 2023, Australians will vote on whether to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. To help inform individual decisions in relation to this important national event, the State Library held two free public panel conversations called Voices.

This is Panel 2, recorded at a live event in the State Library theatre on 4 October 2023.

Former Liberal Cabinet Minister the Hon Ken Wyatt, academic and expert on Indigenous human rights law, Dr Hannah McGlade, storyteller and intercultural dialogue specialist Shenali Perera, former Chair Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service Jackie Oakley and moderated by award-winning journalist Victoria Laurie to discuss the background to the Voice vote, why this referendum has become a political hot potato and what it looks like from an international perspective.

Recorded at a live panel event at the State Library of Western Australia on 31 August 2023.

In 2023, Australians will vote on whether to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. To help inform individual decisions in relation to this important national event, the State Library held two free public panel conversations called Voices.

Marilyn has the great honour of being the first West Australian female referee to crash into the male-dominated game in the late 1970’s. She progressed quickly from officiating schools’ football to State League, and in 1992 became the first woman to run the line in a National men’s Soccer League game. Marilyn also had the line for the 1992 Australia-Brazil youth international friendly.

Goalkeeper for international Women’s Super League clubs and Australia’s national team the Matildas, Lydia is a proud Nyungar woman who grew up playing in the red dirt of Kalgoorlie, a small town north-east of Perth, before moving to Canberra to pursue her career in soccer. She has been inducted into the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame.

Growing up in Margaret River and not truly taking soccer seriously as a career, Tash took an unusual route to becoming the current Captain of the Perth Glory Women’s League, replacing former captain Sam Kerr in 2019. Tash believes in making space for others to lead through their strength, and is honoured to join a movement of strong women paving the way for future generations of soccer-lovers.