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You may be aware of my relationship with my great friend and mentor Aboriginal Elder Yidumduma Bill Harney. I have been visiting and learning from Bill for 20 years in his Wardaman homeland in the Victoria River country of the Northern Territory of Australia.
For 15 years I have been presenting Land Of the Lightning Brothers, a slide show of rock art, stories and songs from Bill's country. In 2003 Bill asked me to film and document his rock art sites and associated stories for his people. So in 2004 we formally began the Wardaman Dreaming Project (WDP).
Yidumduma Bill Harney is an Elder and the last Senior Male Aboriginal custodian of the Wardaman people of the Victoria,
Flora, and Katherine River Districts of the Northern Territory of Australia. Born in MUY MUY clan country in the early 1930's, Yidumduma is of the YBULYAWAN clan.
Raised and educated in Wardaman traditional ceremony, Yidumduma is a fully initiated Wardaman man and speaks seven languages. He worked at an early age on cattle stations and throughout his life has prospered in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds.
He has been described as one of Australia's living 'National Treasures'.
Paul Taylor has been visiting, studying and documenting Yidumduma since 1988. With Bill's permission, Paul presents a special slide show on Wardaman culture, Land Of the Lightning Brothers, featuring rock art slides, stories and didjeridoo. Under Bill's direction Paul has initiated the Wardaman Dreaming Project to actively seek funding to create a film archive of the art and culture for the future generations of Wardaman children. Paul has been honored with the Wardaman name Jalala.
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