Maliyangaa Ngurra Languages, Arts & Cultural Centre
Maliyangaa Ngurra Cultural Centre is located in Quambone beside the ecologically significant marshlands in Wayilwan/Weilwan Ngurambaa (Country). These marshlands have been a meeting place for the Wayilwan/Weilwan, Wiradjuri, Ngemba, Ngiyampaa, Gamilaraay & Yuwaalaraay people for countless generations. Our peoples met here at the marshes to gather for important ceremonies.
The cultural centre grew from Wayilwan/Weilwan families gathering on Wayilwan/Weilwan Country to maintain and renew cultural practices with Aboriginal company Milan Dhiiyaan since 2014. Milan Dhiiyaan founded Maliyangaa Ngurra Cultural Centre in 2025/2026 at the request of Wayilwan/Weilwan families involved in Wayilwan/Weilwan cultural camps at the marshes that we’ve been running annually since 2023.
Members of our cultural centre have been participating in cultural connection activities in Wayilwan/Weilwan Country over a long period of time. Significantly, in 2016 we organised the first Aboriginal Corroboree held within the Coonamble town boundaries since colonisation, involving 40 local children & adults dancing and around 200 local Aboriginal community members at the event. Since then, these families have ongoing support, with mentorship for their youth and families as well as regular cultural events where they can participate in dance and ceremony. This work grew to the holding of cultural camps on Country at the marshes and now has culminated in the creation of our new cultural centre: Maliyangaa Ngurra Languages, Arts & Cultural Centre.
Staying true to the history of the marshes as a gathering place of many peoples, we continue to lead in keeping alive the languages of our peoples including speaking and singing the Wayilwan/Weilwan, Wiradjuri, Ngemba, Ngiyampaa, Gamilaraay & Yuwaalaraay languages. We practice ceremony, dance and cultural practices associated with these peoples.
We believe in strengthening connection to Country, community, culture and improved social and emotional wellbeing through understanding our interconnectedness as mob. Through sharing and renewing our songlines that traverse across Countries and across languages that connect us all, we learn of our joint and related responsibilities. Through sharing and renewing our kinship systems we are reminded of our interrelatedness and our co-creating of Ngurambaa (Country) in our togetherness with Country and living culture.
Although our cultural centre is physically located in Wayilwan/Weilwan Country we also travel throughout surrounding neighbouring mob Countries for cultural activities with community. For example, members of our cultural centre have been dancing in Ngemba Country, Brewarrina at Baiame’s Ngunnhu Festival most years over the last 11 years.
We support many skilled artists & craftspeople within our community who create in areas of performing arts, visual arts, cultural crafts and handmade tools and weapons. Our leaders have been taught by Elders who have passed on our dreaming and songlines, and we continue to share this knowledge through our activities and created objects. We bring our culture to life daily through cultural woodcrafting, weaving, string-making, dance, song, ceremony, bush food & medicine where our making takes place through ceremony with Country.
Recent activities for our members of our cultural centre have included Winhangadurinya Healing Space at the Australian Museum in Sydney, where we facilitate an Aboriginal meditation workshop based on ancestral knowledge and Aboriginal spirituality. These workshops are available until December 2026.
In 2024 members participated in Ngunhi Wayilwan Dhumbullu – Sharing a Wayilwan Story exhibition commissioned by Powerhouse, Sydney and exhibited at Medellin Museum of Modern Art, Colombia. This photographic and storytelling exhibition focussed on the Wayilwan/Wailwan cultural camps at the marshes. These camps will continue annually.
We are a registered not-for-profit Aboriginal community organisation. We offer cultural tours and workshops. While entry to the cultural centre is free, cultural tours and activities do attract a cost. Bookings are essential and minimum numbers apply for these activities.
The cultural centre grew from Wayilwan/Weilwan families gathering on Wayilwan/Weilwan Country to maintain and renew cultural practices with Aboriginal company Milan Dhiiyaan since 2014. Milan Dhiiyaan founded Maliyangaa Ngurra Cultural Centre in 2025/2026 at the request of Wayilwan/Weilwan families involved in Wayilwan/Weilwan cultural camps at the marshes that we’ve been running annually since 2023.
Members of our cultural centre have been participating in cultural connection activities in Wayilwan/Weilwan Country over a long period of time. Significantly, in 2016 we organised the first Aboriginal Corroboree held within the Coonamble town boundaries since colonisation, involving 40 local children & adults dancing and around 200 local Aboriginal community members at the event. Since then, these families have ongoing support, with mentorship for their youth and families as well as regular cultural events where they can participate in dance and ceremony. This work grew to the holding of cultural camps on Country at the marshes and now has culminated in the creation of our new cultural centre: Maliyangaa Ngurra Languages, Arts & Cultural Centre.
Staying true to the history of the marshes as a gathering place of many peoples, we continue to lead in keeping alive the languages of our peoples including speaking and singing the Wayilwan/Weilwan, Wiradjuri, Ngemba, Ngiyampaa, Gamilaraay & Yuwaalaraay languages. We practice ceremony, dance and cultural practices associated with these peoples.
We believe in strengthening connection to Country, community, culture and improved social and emotional wellbeing through understanding our interconnectedness as mob. Through sharing and renewing our songlines that traverse across Countries and across languages that connect us all, we learn of our joint and related responsibilities. Through sharing and renewing our kinship systems we are reminded of our interrelatedness and our co-creating of Ngurambaa (Country) in our togetherness with Country and living culture.
Although our cultural centre is physically located in Wayilwan/Weilwan Country we also travel throughout surrounding neighbouring mob Countries for cultural activities with community. For example, members of our cultural centre have been dancing in Ngemba Country, Brewarrina at Baiame’s Ngunnhu Festival most years over the last 11 years.
We support many skilled artists & craftspeople within our community who create in areas of performing arts, visual arts, cultural crafts and handmade tools and weapons. Our leaders have been taught by Elders who have passed on our dreaming and songlines, and we continue to share this knowledge through our activities and created objects. We bring our culture to life daily through cultural woodcrafting, weaving, string-making, dance, song, ceremony, bush food & medicine where our making takes place through ceremony with Country.
Recent activities for our members of our cultural centre have included Winhangadurinya Healing Space at the Australian Museum in Sydney, where we facilitate an Aboriginal meditation workshop based on ancestral knowledge and Aboriginal spirituality. These workshops are available until December 2026.
In 2024 members participated in Ngunhi Wayilwan Dhumbullu – Sharing a Wayilwan Story exhibition commissioned by Powerhouse, Sydney and exhibited at Medellin Museum of Modern Art, Colombia. This photographic and storytelling exhibition focussed on the Wayilwan/Wailwan cultural camps at the marshes. These camps will continue annually.
We are a registered not-for-profit Aboriginal community organisation. We offer cultural tours and workshops. While entry to the cultural centre is free, cultural tours and activities do attract a cost. Bookings are essential and minimum numbers apply for these activities.
