Mondalmi was an Aboriginal woman of the Maung people. Besides Maung, Mondalmi spoke Yiwadja, Gunbalang and English, and understood Gunwinggu. Mondalmi was taken to the Methodist mission station on South Goulburn Island as a child in 1916. Here she learnt to read and write English, sew and make baskets. Later she worked in domestic service for the missionaries. On 27 June 1927 she married a Gunwinggu-speaking man from the mainland, Gadawar also known as Ganaraidj. Together they had seven sons and two daughters who were all schooled and raised on the mission. She maintained her place as a Maung woman ensuring that their children were taught their traditional language and ways. One of her sons 'little Bunug' later went to Kormilda College, near Darwin, and he and a group of other Aboriginal students compiled Djugurba: Tales from the Spirit Time (Canberra, 1974). On the 23 October 1969 Mondalmi died at Goulburn Island and is buried there.
SOURCE: Catherine Berndt. ' Mondalmi (c. 1910 - 1969)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, p.553.,
Subject
Women,
Northern Territory,
Related materials
Fighters and singers : the lives of some Australian Aboriginal women / edited by Isobel White, Diane Barwick, Betty Meehan. Sydney : George Allen & Unwin, 1985. NTC 305.89915 FIG,
Reverend Lazarus Lamilami. Lamilami Speaks : the cry went up a story of the people of Goulburn Islands, North Australia. Sydney : Ure Smith, 1974. 305.89915 LAM,
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