Waymamba is the lecturer in Yolngu studies at Charles Darwin University in Darwin. She is a Gupapuyngu woman who for 15 years has shared and taught her culture and language with people all around the world.

When students begin her classes they are first introduced to ‘gurrutu’ or Yolngu kinship. Initially every student is given a ‘mälk’, through which they share kinship with not only all the other students in their class, but also with all Yolngu.

The chart shows the names of Yolngu Studies students above their mälk. Names below the same female figure are sisters, and below the same male figure are brothers. Women and men either side of an equal sign call each other husband and wife. The people directly below the ‘husband’ are his, and his wife’s children. For example: Bulany is Galidjan’s husband. Their children are Gudjuk and Gutjan.

Yolngu kinship repeats itself every four generations. For example:

• Galidjan’s daughter is Gutjan.
• Gutjan’s daughter is Bilinydjan
• Bilinydjan’s daughter is Baŋaditjan
• Baŋaditjan’s daughter is back to Galidjan.

The Galidjan in the first generation above and the Galidjan in the fourth generation call each other sister.

The chart and example above are greatly simplified. In real life kinship is far more complex, it also incorporates living and non-living entities in the environment and universe. The sun, moon, stars, winds, clouds, animals, fish, first nation estates, seas (sea-land), and so on, are all kin.