Warumungu

Kinyuwurru grows on the side of creeks. It grows after the rainsand we wait until the plant dries off before we dog for the bulbs. They are like little onions excepts they're sweet, not hot. Sometimes we eat them raw but they are hard to peel then. We just eat the white part inside. Sometimes we cook them quickly for a couple minutes in hot ashes. Then it's easy to run off the skin.

Kuntilja grows in floodouts, creeks and swamps. You bend the grass and break off the top part, leaving the roots to grow again. You boil it in a bucket, and then cool it to just be lukewarm temperature. You can pour some into a bath and bathe in it, or use it like soap for washing. But don't wipe it off - it leaves a scent on your body. You can also use dried kuntilija potpourri.

First of all you have to catch your turkey. They live on the plains and spend a lot of time on the gound, but they are good at flying so they can be hard to catch. You clean the turkey and pluck the feathers, then stuff it with gum leaves. Also wrap the gum leaves around the outside. Have a really good fire going with slow burning wood and dig a pit. Fill the pit with hot coals, put the turkey in and cover it with more coals and the fire. The gum leaves add a really delicious flavour to the meat. Alternatively, but the bird up and wrap the pieces in foil, then cook them in the fire. It is a really good tucker and you get a lot of meat from one bird. Serve kurtinja with vegetables or salad.

Bush cocout is an insect gall that grows on bloodwood trees. It is a bush tucker. We check to see that it is green and fresh. We open it with a stick or rock, and eat the inside, even the little insect. It's good to eat. These are also used for children's toys.

This grows on plains - it is 'bush Rinso'. You break the little green bits that are like beans and you put them in cold water and rub your hands with them. Your hands get soapy. This is also bush food. You get all the black beans, and then you grind them up on a big flat stone, rubbing them with a little stone. You make them flat like a johnnycake. Then you put it in soft sand and cover it with hot ashes.

This is a herb-like plant. It grows in many places, on the sides of hills and in floodouts. There are two kinds, male and female. The male jungurrayi jungurrayi has bigger leaves than the female. You pull up the whole plant and take it home. You trim it there. The new shoots are better - you can put them under a blanket with a baby sleeping on top, and the baby can smell that plant. Or you put them in a coolamon or at the pillow side. This is good for anyone with colds, coughs or flu. You can also boil the new shoots and make kids have a bath with the water or steam them as an inhalation.

The fruit appears when it starts to get hot. We eat them whole. The fruit is eaten for constipation.

Jitarna grows in many places, including the sand country. It is bush medicine. You can cut the bark and burn it till it's black, then scrape the black off. Your grind it fine and mix it up with hard fat. If you have scabies or burns, you rub it all over your body until it's black, or if you have gumboils you put it in your mouth on the gum. You can also mix it up with hard fat and put it around your mouth to make a fake moustache. The bark can also be boiled until it turns the water red. You can use this to wash sores, boils and skin rashes. The tree flowers from August to September. You can suck the flowers for nectar.

"I am happy, smiling with all my heart. Many of the objects displayed here were taken away a long time ago to various locations, both interstate and international. The removal and disposession of our ancestor's belongings - things they made and used, gave and received as gifts, objects associated with Dreamings and dreaming sites - left an empty space. 'We, their descendents, went on trips to the store rooms of the South Australian and Melbourne museums, where many pf these objects were located, and held discussions with the curators about the artefacts and other materials held in their collections. They agreed to return the materials to us to store here at Kyinkka Nyunyu. Now our children have access to these objects, resources and language materials.' The objects displayed here were collected from the Tennant Creek area, mostly in the early 1900s for state museum collections. The anthropologists or collectors who acquired the objects rarely recorded the names of their makers or owners. Yet the objects themselves tell us much about the old people and their skills identities, technologies and ways.

The Warramunga, and its northern neighbour the Tjingilli tribe, are famed for their knives, which are traded far and wide among the Central tribes.' Knives were usually made from pale rock (chert or flint), or quartsize (warntirrki), which was obtained from particular quarries. The handles were made of spinifex resin and sometimes had wooden extensions. The sharp-edged knives were often protected in paperbark sheaths bound with string, and the blades required careful flaking to keep their edge. Today we use metal blades instead.