In the Classroom
Animals
Hunting animals for food depended on a knowledge of each animal’s life cycle, where it could be found, and at what time of the year. Ask Aboriginal educators if they could share knowledge about animals in the bush they regarded as food.
Mervyn Abraham tells of how he used to catch djilgies (small crayfish)
“…. they were lovely all year around. Dig them out of their hole. Get a basket…put some meat - kangaroo or rabbit, whatever meat was available - in the cage, put it in the water, come back, and pull it out. Half a dozen or more in there. … we’d cook them on the fire or the coals or whatever. Some wrap them up …put them in the ashes. Beautiful….”
https://www.wheatbeltnrm.org.au
• In what season did they find them?
• Where did they find them?
• How did they catch them?
• How did they prepare them?
Activity
Timeline for Hunting Animals:
SIX SEASONS CALENDAR
Using the information gained from Aboriginal educators, and from the Noongar Calendar of Seasons, construct a seasonal calendar in the classroom.
Highlight each season with drawings of the animal, together with its Noongar name, that Noongar people found in each of the seasons.
• djilba, the Season of Conception (August, September), is the time when some animals in the southwest are hunting for a mate. Kangaroo (yonga), bandicoot (quenda), emu (waitj), were hunted, and possum (koomal) were driven from tree hollows with smoke.
• kambarang, the Season of Birth, (October, November) was a season of plenty. Birds eggs, frogs (kooyal), tortoise (yaakin, yakkan) and gilgies (freshwater crayfish) were also collected from wetlands.
• birak, the Season of the Young, (December, January), was the time of firing the bush, to flush out the game and to encourage new shoots (when the rains came).
• bunuru, the Season of Adolescence, (February, March), the time when young animals are growing. This was the time when there was an abundance of food, including mammals, birds, reptiles, grubs, frogs, kangaroo (yonga), wallabies, bandicoot (kwenda), lizards, possum (koomal) and echidnas (nyingarn).
• In djeran, the Season of Adulthood, (April and May), hunting focused on kangaroos and kangaroo skins, and coats were prepared for winter. The diet comprised grubs, frogs, goanna, bandicoot, echidna, and possum
• During makuru (the Season of Fertility), the cold months of June and July, Noongar people hunted kangaroo (yonga)
Noongar Calendar From: https://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/nyoongar.shtml