In the Time of Their Lives. Wangka kutjupa-kutjuparringu: How talk has changed in the Western Desert

The Western Desert Verbal Arts Collection is a unique compilation of audio-visual recordings of the oral traditions and endangered speech styles of the Ngaanyatjarra, Ngaatjatjarra and Pitjantjatjara people who reside in the ‘Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the south-east of Western Australia. Between 2012 – 2019 Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, Inge Kral and Jennifer Green documented endangered Western Desert verbal arts in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands communities of Western Australia. We (sic) filmed the traditional practice of ‘mirlpa’ (telling sand stories), and we recorded younger storytellers’ adaptations of this drawing practice to iPads.