Wilma Walker

Kuku Yalanji
b.1929

Wilma Walker is a senior member of the Kuku Yalanji people, and was born at Mossman Gorge (Jinkalmu) in 1929. Her Aboriginal names are Ngadijina and Babimilbirrja. She is one of a few senior Aboriginal women who continue to weave black palm baskets — kakan in her language — in the traditional method. For many years Walker has promoted her culture, particularly with the teaching of weaving.

When she was a very young child Walker’s mother secreted her away from mission authorities. Subsequently her early childhood remained more or less traditional, and she remembers the ‘mission time’ when blankets and clothes were distributed to the Aboriginal families gathered at the Daintree Mission at Mossman Gorge.

In her early teens she was sent to work as a domestic at a nearby farm, but was permitted to visit her family at the Mission. She was married to Norman Walker at the age of 16. Later, three of her children were removed from her by mission authorities while they were living at Daintree. Wilma Walker took up weaving when she moved from Daintree back to Mossman Gorge.

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  See also . . .

Learn about Kakan (Baskets).
Learn about the community of Mossman Gorge.
Wilma Walker references.