We found a White Man

'ŊANAPURRU MAḺŊ'MARAMA BALANDANHA RUNU'ŊURU BAMAN'
'We Found a White Man on an Island Long Ago'

This page seeks to make available the translation of Wandjuk's story - as a work in progress. Difficulties arise because the story was presumably dictated by Wandjuk in Yolngu Matha ~ Dhungel within the Dhangu language group and then rendered into Gumatj, for printing into a small illustrated storybook, to be used as an educational tool at the Yirrkala School. It was a story very near to the heart of Roy Marika who often spoke about it and was naturally keen to see it preserved. At the time we did not know that Milirrma was so intimately connected to the loss of HMAS Patricia Cam and had been buried beside Stoker Percy Cameron - following the Japanese attack on the ship in 1943 - their remains being unrecovered.