Did you know that the Aboriginal game Walle ngan werrup is similar to hide and seek? One or two players are either a jamarra (the Gooniyandi word for a male kangaroo) or an emu and the other players are the hunters.

The ‘animals’ are given a short time to hide in the bush and the other players pretend to hunt. When the hunters manage to ‘capture’ the jamarra or the emu they shout out ‘kai! kala! ngan barrin’ (‘Hurrah! I’ve got him’) and then take the captured players back to their camp.

Walle ngan werrup is just one of more than 100 games and activities from all over Australia and the Torres Strait Islands explored on the Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games CD-ROM.

Yulunga has been available free online since 2008 but now the Australian Sports Commission is offering all schools a free CD-ROM that contains all the games.

Yulunga provides a unique opportunity for children to learn about and participate in traditional games and sporting activities — which can be modified for people of all ages and abilities — which is proving very popular with school teachers.

The games and physical exercises available on the CD-ROM are the result of over a decade of research carried out by Dr Ken Edwards to document and promote Indigenous Australia’s sporting heritage and reflects the major role of sport in Indigenous cultures.

Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games is free to all Australian schools and a CD Rom can be ordered from the Indigenous Sports Program at isp@ausport.gov.au or the games downloaded through the Australian Sports Commission website.