Mary Anne Jebb and Malcolm Allbrook are in Port Hedland until Thursday 28th May to meet anyone who would like to talk about their history of the Pilbara. Mary Anne and Malcolm are researching the hidden histories of the Pilbara for Wangka Maya. This is a chance for people to change the balance of WHO tells the history of the Pilbara. It is a chance for Pilbara Indigenous people to tell their stories. The stories can be wonderful or tragic (or anything in between) and hopefully this project will establish a proper, ongoing, Hidden History recording project. 

If you want to share your story or want to find out more about the project, contact project coordinator Lesley Woods on 9172 2344 or email Lesley at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hidden Histories researchers Malcolm and Mary Anne with project coordinator Lesley.

A HUGE thankyou goes to Link Up for putting on the Wangka Maya stall at Welcome to Hedland Night on the 15th May. They reminded the community that Wangka Maya is still open and operational. As an added bonus, the team sold several books and recruited several people to do Cultural Awareness Training on the 18th June 2009. Thanks again to Margaret, Beverley, Joyce, Sylvia and Daniel for a fantastic job.

Joyce and Beverley from Link Up

Wangka Maya staff and committee welcomed WA Chief Justice Wayne Martin and his staff in the Wangka Maya conference room, which is our office at the moment.

The Chief Justice has spent the week touring the state and has visited organisations in towns and communities to discuss issues surrounding the WA justice system and Indigenous people. He has been promoting the funding of a proper state-wide interpreting service for Indigenous Languages and also wants to make sure all justice staff get proper and relevant Cultural Awareness training.

Over in the admin corner, Alicia and Gina hard at work...

Lesley and Jessica at work in the language corner.

The morning after the April 20 fire.

Wangka Maya staff have been in the new building for nearly 6 months and they are now more or less settled in and just about back on track.

There was a little setback to the settling in process on the 20^th of April, when someone set fire to one of the annexes of the building. The annexe was completely destroyed and the three nearest offices need refurbishment. The rest of the main building needs a bit of paint and clean and police are tracking down a suspect. Thank you to the fire officers and people who helped put the fire out, the police officers who guarded the building afterwards and another big thankyou to Margaret and the Link Up staff for looking after us during the first few days after the fire.

Wangka Maya staff are operating from their conference room and they can be contacted through the usual channels.

Wangka Maya staff reconvened in the Link Up office and ready to continue.