When the World Was Soft

About the Author

Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation is based in Roebourne and Ngurrawaana Community, in WA's Pilbara region. Its purpose is to collect and promote knowledge of Yindjibarndi culture - our Ngurra, plants and animals; our language, genealogy, mythology, social history, and biography - to sustain our Yindjibarndi identity, giving self-esteem, respect, and other values we consider vital to our lives, our well-being, and our culture's future. We do this for our children and our future generations so that they too, are inspired to contribute to our Australian national community. Juluwarlu's cultural recording and archiving project was started by Lorraine Coppin in the Ngurrawaana Community on the Yindjibarndi tablelands in 1998 with Elder Woodley King and his grandson, Michael Woodley, and was incorporated in 2000.

Alex Mankiewicz is an illustrator and artist who specialises in graphic journalism. Based in Kyoto and Byron Bay, Alex has lived and worked in France, the UK and USA, and has been shortlisted twice in the Comic Arts Awards of Australia, and recognised by Australian & New Zealand Illustration Awards and American Illustration. Alex was commissioned by Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation to create a graphic novel interpretation of the Yindjibarndi cultural stories that appear in this book. Time spent on Country with Elders and other custodians, while with an unrelated film crew in 2021, made the renderings of the images and stories possible - both visually and in connection to spirit of place.