2025 Seminars
Loading...
Presentation Type
Presentation
Location
The University of Notre Dame Australia Broome Campus, 88 Guy Street
The Kailis Room in the Library Building
Start Date
29-8-2025 12:30 PM
Description
Over the past two years, Merridoo and Erin have collaborated to create the AB C podcast Expanse: Nowhere Man.
The six-part series revisits the strange saga of Robert Bogucki, who in 1999 disappeared into the Great Sandy Desert on a personal spiritual quest. But the podcast tackles much deeper and more complex questions, around Australia’s tense relationship with its remote landscapes, the attention given to survival feats by wealthy white people, and why so many Indigenous men have gone missing in northern Western Australia. The series also captures the little-known story of Merridoo Walbidi, who grew up in Yulparija country in the Great Sandy Desert, and saw white people for the first time in 1964.
It’s a complex and ambitious narrative that’s been a learning curve for both reporter and subject, with recordings undertaken during desert camps and numerous cups of tea in Broome.
With the final episode releasing in mid-August, Merridoo and Erin will come together to discuss what they learnt, the challenges of cross-cultural storytelling, and why it’s crucial the media builds trust to capture the personal, raw and sometimes traumatic stories of the Kimberley region.
Recommended Citation
Parke, Erin and Walbidi, Merridoo, "Nowhere Man: Podcasting and Storytelling in the Kimberley" (2025). Talking Heads Seminar Series. 17.
https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_talkingheads/2025/schedule/17
Nowhere Man: Podcasting and Storytelling in the Kimberley
The University of Notre Dame Australia Broome Campus, 88 Guy Street
The Kailis Room in the Library Building
Over the past two years, Merridoo and Erin have collaborated to create the AB C podcast Expanse: Nowhere Man.
The six-part series revisits the strange saga of Robert Bogucki, who in 1999 disappeared into the Great Sandy Desert on a personal spiritual quest. But the podcast tackles much deeper and more complex questions, around Australia’s tense relationship with its remote landscapes, the attention given to survival feats by wealthy white people, and why so many Indigenous men have gone missing in northern Western Australia. The series also captures the little-known story of Merridoo Walbidi, who grew up in Yulparija country in the Great Sandy Desert, and saw white people for the first time in 1964.
It’s a complex and ambitious narrative that’s been a learning curve for both reporter and subject, with recordings undertaken during desert camps and numerous cups of tea in Broome.
With the final episode releasing in mid-August, Merridoo and Erin will come together to discuss what they learnt, the challenges of cross-cultural storytelling, and why it’s crucial the media builds trust to capture the personal, raw and sometimes traumatic stories of the Kimberley region.
