About Yirrkala

Catalogue

Archive

Mulka:

Hold, take hold of, touch, feel, grab, reach, arrive at

The Mulka Project houses a video, sound and image archive on country.  The databases are administered by full-time Yolngu staff, who manage cultural protocols, metadata and community access solutions.

Video is hosted in the Saltwater Auditorium and computer booth, featuring nearly 100 years of Yolngu cinema history.

Audio is accessed in the museum and on our wireless network, which is made up of locally recorded music.

Images are shared on LCD screens and imacs.

The Mulka Project holds a unique place in digital heritage practices because it is something that is growing from the community and the culture, with community control and access, rather than being imposed from outside as has so often been the case.

Yolngu leaders want control of digital records related to artwork, artefacts, text, video, audio and photographic materials, past and present.  To prove it cultural leaders, artists, community members and staff funded The Mulka Project building, a 150 square meter purpose-built space annexed to the Art Centre, containing areas for a 50 person Theatrette, Computer Booth and Project Room. 

The investment in infrastructure and leadership from community Elders is due to the belief The Mulka Project can educate youth, promote cultural celebration, and provide a focal point in Arnhem Land to collect and protect Yolngu knowledge.

The community have embraced using audiovisual media to sustain ceremonial performance traditions and promote song cycles (manikay) and dance (bunggul). It is through song, dance and associated ceremony that Yolngu people teach the Law and social structure. The recordings of Yolngu performance is therefore one of the highest priorities for The Mulka Project.

The archive has become a Yolngu library network across Northeast Arnhem Land that develops indigenous knowledge around existing clan relationships and connections.

Cultural Heritage

We want to bring knowledge of the past to the present, to preserve it for future generations and to understand what meaning it has in the present day and age.

Dr Marika, Inaugural Cultural Director of The Mulka Project                                                                                         

Traditional Yolngu knowledge systems encompass and express stories, art and cultural practices related to Yolngu life and society. The Mulka Project plays an important role in maintaining and documenting these traditions.

Yolngu culture is a system of knowledge different in many ways from that of Western culture, and may be broadly described as viewing the world as a related whole rather than made up of separate objects. Yolŋu typically have English as a second or third language. Yolŋu have systems of law, kinship and artistic expression that have been practiced for thousands of years. Providing resources and opportunities for Yolngu to research, celebrate and renew their own culture, rather than rely on outside researchers fulfils a sustainable cultural future.

Yolngu seek engaging ways to share and protect their culture. Making the collection accessible, active and productive is achieved in many ways - by turning recordings into a public access library, providing a media service in language, giving artists material for use in new media productions, self-curated daily screenings of films, innovative award-winning exhibitions, bi-lingual educational programs, video and audio products, and website access.

muthimuthi video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TyHM7eHLXA&feature=player_embedded

Community

The Elders of North East Arnhem Land have proactively engaged the task of running an institution of national significance that can repatriate and renew cultural material to enrich their future generations.

The need for the Project, and urgency of this need, is informed by the following:

- Many young people have limited employment opportunities and are ‘at  risk’

- Mulka can provide meaningful employment, ongoing training and careers to young people and elders with special cultural knowledge

- There are few existing employment, income-generation or business development opportunities for Yolngu in the region, particularly ones that utilise their interests and high level cultural knowledge and skills.

- There is no public access library, nor home computers in any Yolngu house in Yirrkala

- Cultural material, some of it irreplaceable, needs urgent conservation and archiving

An older generation of people, witness to incredible social change over the last 70 years, are approaching the end of their lives. Only they are able to identify people and interpret context for the thousands of images that flow from public and private sources.

The Projects philosophy is to provide strong community participation and engaging educational outreach. This has led to activities that have affected cultural heritage practices at local and national levels. Programs and products have earned scholarly review, popular acclaim, media attention, national awards and professional recognition.

"It's important for my people to have their cultures going strong. We don't want our cultures fading away. It's really fun, you know, to see the kids come in and enjoy themselves. It makes me very proud because the kids are there all the time. I know that they are learning. Sometimes when you are making up a new film or something, the kids are always constantly asking, asking, when are you going to finish that new one, when can we look at that new one? Makes me feel good. And I know my work is very important, you know?" Randjupi Mununggurr – Mulka Cultural Director, quoted from:

ABC Darwin news article: Yirrkala goes digital http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/07/30/2641381.htm

Education

 

The Mulka Project brings together the rich archives of knowledge in the minds of contemporary Yolngu artists and community leaders. The Mulka Project opens up significant educational and economic opportunities for Yolngu, allowing them to use their unique cultural resources to benefit themselves and also other Australians.  

Professor Howard Morphy, Director of the Research School of Humanities

Australian National University

At this stage, the community can see over thirty thousand images dating from Dr. Donald Thomson’s 1930’s photographs to the present, hear over 2000 audio tracks from Dr. Richard A. Waterman’s 1952 fieldwork up to a series of podcasts from local secondary students, and view over 130 movies from 1948’s Australian-American Expedition to films done by Mulka Project staff in recent months.

The Mulka Archive offers a range of services to help Yolngu access our library services and learn more about their screen and sound heritage.

Access to the Archive: Finding, viewing, copying or purchasing items is facilitated by staff for a wide range of educational, ceremonial and personal purposes.

Collection Access points: View and listen to films, recorded sound, photographs and more from the collection in communal and private IT spaces.

Loans: DVD’s, CD’s, prints and other formats may be used for events in Homeland centres.

Media Project Office: Develop resources and activities that can enhance the archive collection.

Community Networks: Local businesses host events and workshops whose aims and activities support Yolngu knowledge.

Cultural consultants: Assist external institutions to interpret their collections

The Collection

The Mulka Project Archive plays a key role in documenting and interpreting Yolngu society and its expression. We collect, store, preserve, interpret and make available screen and sound material relevant to Yolngu culture. Through our staff’s cultural and technical skills we promote Yolngu leadership and development. Our cultural protocols and community orientated services  make us leaders in the development of Indigenous knowledge centres in Australia

 

Cultural Director – Wukun Wanambi and Deputy Chair – Yumitjin Wunungmurra

L - R: Board member - Djambawa Marawili, Chairman – Wanyubi Marika & Cultural Director – Randjupi Munungurr

Building and maintaining an archive of historical and contemporary digital records that are accessible to the local community requires support from a range of financial, cultural, technical, institutional and local organizations. If you can help and want to be involved, do not hesitate to contact us. As a non-profit initiative of an Aboriginal Community Council, any donations over $2 are tax-deductible. If you can help or have any suggestions, big or small, please let us know.

If you have any photos, video or sound recordings you've made in the area and would like to contribute, please contact us!