Background

Movies

Below are some of the short movies made by Walkatjurra members.

Fat-tailed Dunnart - Spotted!

Here the Walkatjurra Rangers captured some valuable footage of the Fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), a native marsupial not often seen by many due to is nocturnal habits.

The motion sensor camera's have a red LED light that activates when they are triggered to record. You can see the little guy staring straight at it, having never seen anything like it before!

Nice capture team!

Naluti

The Walkatjurra Aboriginal Ranger group heads out on country in search for evidence of the extinct lesser stick nest rat. They locate ancient 'middens' once used by Leporillus apicalis, hidden under the rock over-hangs.

Elders share Tjukurpa stories with the youth - what does this animal mean to Aboriginal people...

GPS recordings are taken and entered into their digital heritage database.

The group plan to survey new locations in 2010, using traditional ecological knowledge to locate more middens. Contemporary technologies such as motion sensor cameras will be used to assist with the survey.

Stay tuned for updates.

Music courtesy of Lucky Oceans en.wikipedia.org/​wiki/​Lucky_Oceans

Papinmaru

Back in 2007 several youth from the Walkatjurra Cultural Centre made a video about goanna (papinmaru) hunting in the goldfields. They entered a short three minute version into the international Lonely Planet "less than three" short film competition. They beat hundreds of entries to take runner up.

A longer 15m version of 'Papinmaru' is available for purchase as DVD. Contact the WCC for detail.

Goanna - Spotted!

Recently the Walkatjurra Rangers purchased two Bushnell Trophy cameras to use in their Habitat Assessment Project. They operate via motion detection.

They set the cameras up near an area with visible evidence of animal activity, left them over night and returned to see if anything triggered the camera.

Here we managed to capture footage of a fat Pupinmaru returning to it's burrow after sunning itself during the first morning light.