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The twenty-nine songs performed for Marett on this occasion were selected by the performers from a much larger set of approximately 100 songs in the 'Muyil lirrga' set, named for Marri Ngarr country in the Moyle River floodplain. 1 The same singers also composed and recorded another set of eighteen lirrga songs known as 'Church lirrga', which I have discussed in a previous article. 2 Marett recorded two other repertories of lirrga songs in the Daly region in the 1980s and 1990s: one set belonging to Jimmy Numbertwo, a Marri Ngarr man resident at Daly River, and another set belonging to the Ngen'giwumirri singer and composer Long Harry Kilimirri. 3 Lirrga songs are public didjeridu-accompanied dance songs performed for two important public rituals at Wadeye: circumcision ceremonies of young boys, and 'rag-burning' ceremonies for the disposal of the belongings of a deceased person (typically performed eighteen months to three years after death), as well as for a 1 The repertory is also sometimes referred to as the 'Wudipuli lirrga', after the Marri Ngarr outstation of that name situated on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Moyle River (see Figure 2). Recordings of Muyil lirrga songs have been made at Wadeye by

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In 2010 the authors visited various Central Australian communities, including Willowra, Tennant Creek, Alekarenge, Barrow Creek and Ti Tree, to interview some of our research collaborators past and present about how they saw the present and future of their yawulyu/awelye traditions. Yawulyu (in Warlpiri and Warumungu) and Awelye (in Kaytetye and other Arandic languages) are cognate names for women's country-based rituals, including songs, dancing, ritual objects and knowledge surrounding particular country and Dreaming stories. In the course of our research we spoke to women from different communities, different age groups, different language groups, and different clans, seeking to open discussion about past and contemporary practices of learning, performing and teaching this performancebased knowledge, to help us understand what the practitioners saw as the most fruitful ways of sustaining the traditions, as well as what difficulties they saw in their way. In this article we present statements from many of the women interviewed, highlighting the key issues that emerged and discussing the importance of recordings and other documentation of performances for the future sustainability of the various yawulyu/awelye traditions discussed.