Walking on Water: Spirit of the Swan Coastal Plain

Welcome to Rare Stories from the West - a State Library of Western Australia podcast. Through these podcasts we hope to unearth tales of Western Australia’s past and present. Walking on Water: Spirit of the Swan Coastal Plain is the first of three podcasts produced by Gina Pickering. The Walking on Water podcast explores the significance of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) in the creation of the city of Perth. The podcast features Aboriginal elders Noel Nannup and Marie Taylor explaining the Aboriginal history of the river through the Waugal creation story on Whadjuck Noongar Boodjar (now metropolitan Perth) and a cultural evocation of the river through the words of poets Dr Nandi Chinna, Jennifer Kornberger and Daniel Hansen. The environmental context of the river is explored and then the first historical and colonial perceptions of the Swan River by Freycinet and Stirling in the early nineteenth century are discussed. This content roots Derbarl Yerrigan at the heart of any discussion of Perth from its Aboriginal origins to its place at the heart of our twentieth-century multicultural and diverse city, showing why the river is such an important influence for the State Library in its role of telling the story of Western Australia. Podcasts created by Gina Pickering - Latitude Creative Services and commissioned by the State Library of Western Australia.