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In northern Western Australia, a unique Christmastime character visits Gija country
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
12/19/2024
Across Australia, families are preparing for the arrival of Santa Claus, but in one outback town a different Christmas icon is about to make its annual appearance.
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00:00
He is mysterious, feathered, rarely seen and slightly scary.
00:10
His name is Wankernal and he's here to deliver presents to the children of the Warman community
00:15
in the remote East Kimberley.
00:17
Every year we get to celebrate our tradition again from our old people that taught us and
00:23
again through Ngarangerni, our dream time, so we dress the car up to bring in the Wankernal
00:30
and yeah to give out the kids present each year and yeah the kids love it.
00:35
The tradition has its origins in the creation stories of the Gidja people, which elder Eileen
00:40
Bray teaches to children at the local school.
00:43
Wankernal and the eagle are the dreaming of woman, always told they were brother and sister,
00:51
they got same skin like Ngarangerni and Yangerni like me.
00:55
Wankernal is the Gidja word for crow.
00:59
We don't have Santa here, never had him for about 50 years.
01:04
We still carry our tradition, which is the crow.
01:09
Wankernal the crow has been part of Christmas celebrations here since the 1970s, when Gidja
01:14
elders established the Warman community and invited the Catholic Church to help them develop
01:19
a two-way learning system at the local school.
01:21
We need to keep our language and culture strong and the young people need to find a job as
01:30
well.
01:31
Wankernal is now the highlight of the annual school Christmas concert, with excitement
01:36
building ahead of his arrival.
01:37
Feeling gula gula that Wankernal is coming today, tonight, a lot of people are going
01:44
to be here.
01:47
After music and awards, it's time to summon Wankernal, who is tonight travelling as a
01:58
pair.
02:03
As you can hear there's lots of terrified screams but also a lot of laughter here at
02:07
Ngalalumpin school as Wankernal has arrived.
02:11
There's a looming thunderstorm but so far the rain has held off and everyone's in very
02:15
good spirits.
02:16
So Wankernal the black crow looks scary, black, feathers, long nose.
02:23
It's been pretty good having Wankernal come to give us presents today and I'm happy that
02:32
we got presents from him.
02:35
After a feed, it's time for the Wankernal crow to rest his wings, disappearing into
02:40
the night for another year.
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