Wanjina Wunggurr Traditional Owners, Northwest Australia

In November 2023, Leah Umbagai and Pete O'Connor from the Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation and Rona Charles and Lloyd Nulgit from the Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation, accompanied by Australian anthropologist Kim Doohan, were guests at the Weltkulturen Museum.

In preparation for the exhibition 'Country bin pull'em' at the Weltkulturen Museum from November 2024, they worked with Richard Kuba and Christina Henneke from the Frobenius Institute, Matthias Claudius Hofmann (Curator Oceania) and Isabel Kreuder (Research Assistant Oceania) on the collections of the 1938 Frobenius expedition. The group visited the archives and depots in Frankfurt. They discussed the significance and structure of archive materials and collections, such as the rock art copies, portraits and photographs held at the Frobenius Institute and the material culture objects at the Weltkulturen Museum.

The exhibition project focuses on the Frobenius Institute's historical expedition to the Kimberley region of north-west Australia in 1938/39 and the relevance that the materials collected there have for Indigenous communities today. During the three-week residency in Frankfurt, Indigenous perspectives on the expedition were discussed and new artworks were created in dialogue with the collections of both the Frobenius Institute and the Weltkulturen Museum. The new works were acquired by the museum and will be on display in the collaboratively curated exhibition 'Country bin pull'em' from November 2024.

Leah Umbagai

Leah Umbagai is a senior Woddordda woman born in 1974 living in the Mowanjum Community near Derby town in the Kimberley of North West Australia. Leah’s traditional country lies to the north of Derby and she along with others of her family and the wider Wanjina Wunggurr community are establishing homelands in their country with the aim of returning permanently to their Country.
Leah is an accomplished artist, language maintenance and recovery worker as well as mother to many children she has, and is, growing up. At only 20 years of age Leah was awarded the prestigious Marlene Bruce Art Award for Kimberley Aboriginal Art and continues to be a national and internationally significant artist. In 2011 she was inducted into the WA Women's Hall of Fame as a youth advocated.

Leah had the privilege to be grown up with Senior knowledgeable men and women in her community; these people recognised and developed her talent and passion for learning and being in Country. This generosity nurtured Leah’s dedication to the youth and her passion about her traditions and cultural expressions. These skills and dedication were assiduously applied to the preparation of cultural significant documents and records in the Dambimangari Future Generations Living Culture Project which culminated in the publication of the book Barddabardda Wodjoonangorddee in 2027 and other culturally sensitive publications.
Leah’s artistic strength and love of her culture ensures sensitive, appropriate, and nuanced responses to preparation of publications, exhibitions, and information documents; these skills have been utilised in the “Country bin pull’em” exhibition.

Rona Gungnunda Charles
Rona Gungnunda Charles is a Ngarinyin and Nyikina (First Nations, Western Australian Kimberley Region) singer, dancer, cultural teacher/consultant, multi-disciplinary artist,  and researcher.
She is the Chair of the Mowanjum Artists Spirit of the Wandjina Aboriginal Corporation and is a Environment & Cultural Heritage Ranger.
Charles serves the Law, Language and culture interests of Wanjina-Wungurr people as well as Nyikina people and has co-authored several papers that address music sustainability, research collaboration and ethics.

Lloyd Nulgit
Lloyd Nulgit is a member of the Wanjina-Wunggurr Community living in Derby, Western Australia. He is a Ngarinyin man. He grew up in his traditional Country with his grandparents caring for him and instructing him in Wanjina-Wunggurr culture and revealing the import places in his Country. Lloyd had been working with Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation for the past 15 years as a cultural adviser and with the Wilinggin Rangers caring for Country.  Lloyd has a particular interest in ensuring cultural continuity, caring for Ngarinyin Country and ensuring appropriate respect is afforded to his people.

Pete O’Connor
Pete O’Connor is a member of the Wanjina Wunggurr Community living at Looma Community in Northwest Australia. He is a Woddordda man with ancestral connections to Denmark through his father’s father.

Pete O’Connor is working as the Cultural Advisor to Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation staff and in particular advising and assisting in the Dambimangari Ranger Program. He has a particular commitment to ensuring cultural continuity through joonba practice (song-dance tradition), establishing respectful cultural archives for his people, and caring for Woddordda Country. 

Kim Doohan
Dr. Kim Doohan is an anthropologist and human geographer and works as an independent consultant. The majority of Doohan’s research and work over the past 35 years is based on decolonising and participatory methods conducted in remote regions of northern Australia with members of local Aboriginal communities. The essence of the research engagements requires travelling with Traditional Owners in their land and sea Country. Her work focuses on projects related to asserting and gaining Indigenous Native Title to traditional lands and waters; participating and advising in negotiation processes for exploration and mining agreements; collaborating on cultural heritage mapping, management, and protection strategies; conduct of social impact assessment projects; assisting in community development and planning processes as well as recording and presenting local Indigenous family histories and ethnographic records.

In the last ten years efforts have been directed to assisting senior Traditional Owners to prepare a range of private and public materials for future generations of Wanjina Wunggurr Traditional Owners to ensure access to the elders’ knowledge. Most recently Doohan has collaborated with Traditional Owners of the Wanjina Wunggurr Community, members of the Frobenius Institute, the Weltkulturen Museum and the Five Continents Museum and University of Western Australia in reviewing, updating, repatriating, and curating materials collected and created during the 1938 Frobenius Expedition and the Andreas and Katarina Lommel expedition of 1954/55 to Gibb River Station in the Country of the Wanjina Wunggurr community. One outcome of this project is the collaborative co-curated “Country bin pull’em” exhibition.

Group picture
Back from left to right: Matthias Claudius Hofmann, Richard Kuba, Lloyd Nulgit, Pete O'Connor
Front from left to right: Isabel Kreuder, Eva Raabe, Kim Doohan, Leah Umbagai, Rona Charles, Christina Henneke