Return to Walkali (2017)

On 21-27 May, 2017, the Pilbara and Kimberley Aboriginal Media (PAKAM) team, Clint Dixon, Quinton Milner, Ronald Mosquito and Magali McDuffie, were privileged to cover the Walkali Return to Country Trip. Seven hours from Balgo in the Central Tanami Desert, they travelled with Senior Elders Joe Brown, Butcher Wise and their extended families, women from the Kapululangu Centre in Balgo, and the Paruku Rangers from Mulan Community. This trip had been in planning for nearly two years, and was organised by the Kimberley Land Council. It was a very emotional return to country for some of the community members who had not been there in more than 20 years, or whose grand-parents were from there but never had the chance to return. The highlights of the trip included a very moving smoking ceremony, visits to two significant rock holes, story-telling of country, making clap-sticks and bush medicine, a women's dance, hunting bush turkeys, and even the opportunity for two PAKAM crew, Clint Dixon and Quinton Milner, to go up in a helicopter to get some fantastic footage of country from the air.