In northern Western Australia, a unique Christmastime character visits Gija country

ABC NEWS (Australia)

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.

Transcript

00:00He is mysterious, feathered, rarely seen and slightly scary.

00:10His name is Wankernal and he's here to deliver presents to the children of the Warman community

00:15in the remote East Kimberley.

00:17Every year we get to celebrate our tradition again from our old people that taught us and

00:23again through Ngarangerni, our dream time, so we dress the car up to bring in the Wankernal

00:30and yeah to give out the kids present each year and yeah the kids love it.

00:35The tradition has its origins in the creation stories of the Gidja people, which elder Eileen

00:40Bray teaches to children at the local school.

00:43Wankernal and the eagle are the dreaming of woman, always told they were brother and sister,

00:51they got same skin like Ngarangerni and Yangerni like me.

00:55Wankernal is the Gidja word for crow.

00:59We don't have Santa here, never had him for about 50 years.

01:04We still carry our tradition, which is the crow.

01:09Wankernal the crow has been part of Christmas celebrations here since the 1970s, when Gidja

01:14elders established the Warman community and invited the Catholic Church to help them develop

01:19a two-way learning system at the local school.

01:21We need to keep our language and culture strong and the young people need to find a job as

01:30well.

01:31Wankernal is now the highlight of the annual school Christmas concert, with excitement

01:36building ahead of his arrival.

01:37Feeling gula gula that Wankernal is coming today, tonight, a lot of people are going

01:44to be here.

01:47After music and awards, it's time to summon Wankernal, who is tonight travelling as a

01:58pair.

02:03As you can hear there's lots of terrified screams but also a lot of laughter here at

02:07Ngalalumpin school as Wankernal has arrived.

02:11There's a looming thunderstorm but so far the rain has held off and everyone's in very

02:15good spirits.

02:16So Wankernal the black crow looks scary, black, feathers, long nose.

02:23It's been pretty good having Wankernal come to give us presents today and I'm happy that

02:32we got presents from him.

02:35After a feed, it's time for the Wankernal crow to rest his wings, disappearing into

02:40the night for another year.

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