In May 1986 Paddy Roe (Lulu) was interviewed by Ray Aitchison on behalf of the National Library of Australia. In the second half of the audiotaped interview, Aitchison enquires about Lulu’s wife who passed away some four years earlier and then asks where Lulu will go when he dies. That leads into the matter of the spirits of those who have passed, known as balangnun.

The story was told to me by Billing-gi, whose father, Lee-berr, owned the big Area that is now known as “Broome” area, North West Australia…“Grown-ups” called Billing-gi’s people “The black or dark people of Broome, North West Australia”, and Billing-g’s people lived (in) and owned the land his fathers called “Jajjala”, which white people call “Broome”, but Billing-gi’s own baby-land was the Ngargalulla country that all the little black babies come from and which they call “Jimbin”.

“Did I tell you about that fella?” Lulu asked.

“No,” I replied, with a clear feeling he had not, even though I had no idea who.

“Mirdinan, that fella. He campin’ with his missus at Kunin, ah, Fishermen Bend you fellas call ‘im. We bin put ‘im in that book I make with Stephen.” He was referring to the 1983 book Gularabulu.

The story was about events in the 1920s when Mirdinan, a maban, was captured by two horse-mounted police on Thangoo Station about a two-day walk southeast of Broome.