Deep Time Connections: Language, Lore and the Trapdoor Spider

20 May

Late in March, UDLA's Walyalup studio welcomed Dr Cass Lynch for an evening exploring how language, story and ecology can reconnect us to place. Cass is a Koreng Wudjari Noongar woman, writer, and Research Fellow, with connections to the Great Southern region of Western Australia – the Country her work draws from and speaks to.

During the conversation, Cass shared her experience of rescuing 40 trapdoor spiders from construction in the Porongurup Range National Park, alongside Dr Leanda Mason and the Friends of the Porongurup Range. We learned that trapdoor spiders are the oldest recorded living spiders known to science – ancient presences in a landscape that holds its own deep time. Her retelling of the rescue effort wove together themes of habitat protection, grief, and the quiet power of collaboration. Facing no specific legal protection for the spiders – and a bitumen path that would be laid long before any legislation could be changed – the team chose collaboration over protest. As Cass reflected, it's not individuals who successfully protect Country, it's communities.

Cass also spoke about her work with Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories, an Aboriginal corporation focused on the revitalisation of culture and language connected to south coast Noongar people, and introduced First Lights – Kinjarling, a new series of immersive experiences along ancestral pathways led by Menang knowledge-holders and artists. She shared a snippet of Borongur – a story of the Porongurup Range as a place of totems and rain, alive with Gondwanan species and ancient songs. Seen through the eyes of a granite peak, a trapdoor spider, and the moon, it reflects on time, home-building, and the endurance of culture.

Sam Shepherd, a Jaru woman from Wyndham and one of the team at Kaala Barna, then prompted the conversation that followed.

Thanks, as always, to our speakers; to Cole Baxter for the great photos; and to everyone who joined us. Big thanks too to the Fulcrum crew for letting us borrow your sound equipment.

Let us know at hello@udla.com.au if you'd like to receive an email about our next conversation.

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