Dog Dreaming
Clip 2: Womwarr
2 min 22 sec
Taken from the documentary Dog Dreaming (2001)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.
Curator’s clip description
The elder walks the country following the steps of the two ancestral dogs Adjumalar and Womarr. As he walks, he tells us the story of the two dogs, and follows in the path they travelled. We learn where the male Adjumalar and the female Womarr came to a waterless hole and Adjumalar called it Womwarr. The two ancestral dogs continued across the land, naming it as they went.
Curator’s notes
This clip gives an insight into how story provides a map, and the elder, in knowing the story of the Dog Dreaming, can tell us where the dogs went and the names they gave each area. We begin to get a sense of the importance of story in Indigenous cultures, as the story is also a passageway through country. The fence line in the frame which the elder mentions cuts across the land and, as an artificial boundary, gives us a sense of different times – one ancient and one more recent.
Romaine Moreton, curator
