Ngarla Songs

Alexander Brown learned the Ngarla Nyamal and Coastal Nyangumarta languages as a child as well as the niceties and intricacies of their cultures, and the Aboriginal knowledge and skills of bush living. He is also a writer who has been recording aspects of his language and culture.

Ngarla Songs is a unique bilingual presentation of 68 Yirraru, or anecdotal songs composed by the Ngarla people. These cameos of everyday life in the Pilbara have been translated and recorded in English for the first time. For ten years Alexander Brown and Brian Geytenbeek worked together to capture the wit, humor, wisdom and vibrancy expressed in these songs, describing the thrill of the hunt, the wonder of whales and other events and life experiences as seen through Ngarla eyes. Alexander ("Sandy") Brown was born in a bough shade on De Grey Station in 1930. As a boy he learned the Ngarla, Nyamal, and Coastal Nyangumarta languages, the intricacies of their cultures, and all the Aboriginal knowledge and skills of bush living. He is particularly gifted at remembering Yirraru songs. In most cases he knew the composer personally, knew the people involved and was aware of the situation that prompted the song. Translator Brian Geytenbeek is a linguist at the Summer Institute of Linguistics.