Ngurdungurdu

The animation depicts the story of the Tiger Shark Dreaming, showing the journey that the Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor takes as he travels to Manankurra carrying a bundle of cycad nuts. The Tiger Shark Spirit Ancestor is associated with the Rrumburriya clan of the Yanyuwa people; members of this clan are the descendants and living embodiments of the Tiger Shark. 

Manankurra is located twelve kilometres upstream on the eastern bank of the Wearyan River; for the Yanyuwa people it is wirrimalaru awara or ‘big place’. The food of the cycad palm can be described as ma-wurrama, the food of authority, and sometimes but more rarely, ma-wirrimalaru, the food of great spiritual power.

This Dreaming story is therefore highly significant for the Yanyuwa people because it tells the story of how the Tiger Shark brings the cycad palm food to Manankurra, how he names places in the land and the sea, and how he makes Yanyuwa law, ceremony and song.