BIG BOSS
2012/ 26 min
Big Boss documents the life story of Baymarrwangga, from her time as a young girl on the island, the coming of the mission in 1922, to being photographed by Donald Thomson in 1937, and to her current role as custodian and initiator of the Crocodile Rangers Program and the Yan-nhangu Dictionary project.
Baymarrwangga (aka “Big Boss”) is the keystone of traditional knowledge vital to Yan-nhangu-speaking Yolnu people, and she the last full speaker of their dialect. No other person has a comparable knowledge of the islands, seas, and the ways of the elders. Baymarrwangga sees it as her challenge to pass on her knowledge of culture and law to the next generation, and restoring the language is a vital element of this process.
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