From the desk of Justin, Songlines & Sustainability Project Officer.

Congratulations to our project partner, Wirlomin Noongar Language & Stories (WNL&S), on the remarkable success of Songlines & Sustainability!

For many years, Wirlomin have worked to heal the connections between their people, culture, and ancestral Country. Under the guidance of Elders, WNL&S has been activating both historical archives and community memory to consolidate and enhance cultural heritage and its links to significant places in the landscape.

The Songlines and Sustainability project, supported by Lotterywest, has allowed South Coast NRM to walk alongside WNL&S, collaborating to expand on this earlier work and to share Wirlomin language, stories, and song with ‘ever-widening circles’ of people. 

Songlines and Sustainability culminated in March with the ‘Kayang Walk’, an incredible 3-day on-Country camp to the heart of Fitzgerald River National Park. The camp brought together more than 30 Wirlomin community members, including Elders, emerging leaders, and youth, as well as South Coast NRM staff and other invited guests.

The event provided an amazing opportunity for cross-generational exchange, with Elders handing down traditional ecological knowledge while being re-invigorated by an enthusiastic group of young people, eager to embrace their Wirlomin culture. The camp also provided a forum for the core working-group to share recent successes with the wider community, and to discuss strategies to harness the project’s momentum for continued exploration of the links between cultural heritage and caring for country practices.

South Coast NRM is proud to have partnered with WNL&S on Songlines and Sustainability. Although the project is coming to an end the next chapter will undoubtedly be just as exciting. We look forward to seeing this incredible story continue to unfold! For more information about the project contact Justin Benson at justinbenson@southcoastnrm.com.au.