Mary Carmel Charles (15 July 1912 – 1999) was an author and the last fluent speaker of the

Nyulnyul language Nyulnyul is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language, formerly spoken by the Nyulnyul people of Western Australia. Mary Carmel Charles is documented as the last fluent speaker of the Nyulnyul language of Western Australia. Phonology Consona ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. She was born to the Nyulnyul tribe in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of

at the

Beagle Bay Mission Beagle Bay is a medium-sized Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, Aboriginal community on the western side of the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome, Western Australia, Broome in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Wes ...

. She played an important part in the documentation of the language and the writing of a Nyulnyul grammar, despite the fact that she was

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

. The text in Charles's book, ''Winin'', is bilingual and at the back of the small book is a guide to pronunciation of Nyulnyul words and word lists translating to and from English. The story is a

traditional story Traditional stories, or stories about traditions, differ from both fiction and nonfiction in that the importance of transmitting the story's worldview is generally understood to transcend an immediate need to establish its categorization as imagi ...

written for children. It is set "In the

dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

...", when the emu flies higher than all the other birds, and lives in the Milky Way. The other birds who fly close to the ground are jealous. The brolga tell the emu that if its wings were made smaller it would be able to fly even higher, and because the emu wants to fly higher it lets the other birds trim its wings. With small wings, the emu can't fly at all and will always stay that way. In the book Charles is quoted:

Bibliography

* ''Winin : Why the Emu Cannot Fly''

Magabala Books Magabala Books is an Indigenous Australian publishing house based in Broome, Western Australia, founded in 1987. Their stated objective is "restoring, preserving and maintaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures". The name ''Magabal ...

, 1993 illustrated by Francine Ngardarb Riches, translated by Bill McGregor

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Mary Carmel Indigenous Australian writers Australian children's writers 1912 births 1999 deaths Kimberley (Western Australia) Australian women children's writers 20th-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian writers Indigenous Australians from Western Australia Last known speakers of an Australian Aboriginal language 20th-century Indigenous Australian people Indigenous Australian women Australian deaf people Deaf writers Australian writers with disabilities