yaama gayrr ngaya djidjidan, yinarr Yuwaalaraay Muruwari. hello, my name is jedison wells, i am a Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari woman, therapist and researcher and i am travelling back through historical records of Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari language because i'm not convinced that the language that our Ancestors shared was recorded accurately

this page is still in draft and may take around ten minutes to read or ten minutes to listen to if you click here. it's a quick intro to the project and it would be of great benefit to me if you shared your thoughts, even if you don’t want to participate directly. Also even though I am both Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari, the language of this study is Yuwaalaraay, because I am not yet fluent in Muruwuri. I would have preferred to focus on both languages

what is it

this project asks yaamanda yanay barriyaygu? [will you come to the window?]. the window is a method called barriyay that i developed as a counsellor to support people and communities in revisiting historical trauma. in the study, the trauma to be revisited is the ignored and misinterpreted voices of our Ancestors when they shared language in historical whitefella1 research. Barriyay will help to understand the many influences and intentions that were at play at the time

where did it start

i can’t remember what the first story i ever heard was, but I can tell you that I have never had any trouble in understanding how Narrative gives power to a story. What that meant was that when I was first exposed to learning Yuwaalaraay, through the kindness and passion of people sharing on youtube and community pages, I could see that English and all of its rules were already burnt into the delivery. Not only in the form of syntax and phenomes but also in the historical interpretation of early Aboriginal² Australia. For example, in Mitchell's 18?? recollection of a runaway convict, my Ancestors are already tagged as being an "unfortunate race of men".

to connect more deeply to my culture, I started seeking out historically early records of Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari language collection believing them to be less exposed to Colonial assumptions than opinion pieces. For instance, in Ridley’s 1873 account of discussing constellations with the Yuwaalaraay, he records Maliyan-ga as an eagle in flight. As Maliyan-ga still means an eagle in flight, at first glance it seemed his recording more factual than subjective.

i traversed through different centuries of collection, such as the euahlayi tribe by k. langloh parker, written around 1905 and recordings collected by janet mathews and corinne williams from around the 1960s to the 1980s. Langloh-Parker was of particular interest to me because the Author, at the time of publication, was not regarded as having used the proper anthropological methods so she was seen as almost co-researching with my Ancestors, them sharing language and culture and her documenting it for others to know. I say almost because we have no idea if our people truly volunteered their data or were coerced in some way. I began this book with great excitement but after several chapters, something just wasn't quite right, there were the "usual influences" at play. That is the power of labelling and the plight that Colonialism had in store for what was then termed "the Aborigine". My country was telling me lies

even Langloh-Parker though ...

 as i didn’t live on country, learning options were limited until dubbo tafe began online classes run by elders Aunty Beth and Uncle John. These yarns gave me a new understanding of the purpose and reason [words Uncle John would never let us forget] of language and each word within it. After the courses finished, i started two facebook groups, dhubaanmala to keep in touch with other speakers, and tinnenburra-baa to increase Hooper / Johnston connection across the borders. These relationships reinforced Uncle John’s wisdom and i realised that in the past, i had been learning how to say Yuwaalaraay, but not how to tell it.

I went back to the books with this new “telling” and I started seeing stories different to the published interpretation. for example, some Authors had moulded our knowledge into a colonised view, like Barlow (cite) in the passage below, where our Ancestors appear to not have the capacity to count rather than the truth of having no need for it

research methods and ways of recording history are much more inclusive in this century with cultural knowledge holders having more control in clarification and publication. For language research, it means our culture and purpose are recognised as part of the words, and the words are recognised as part of the culture and purpose. Much of this came about because of the courage of past Indigenous researchers who not only acknowledged the absence of our voice but created new methods to ensure it would be heard

while that change is itself a cause for celebration, for me it is important that it is not left at that. All unclarified historical research³ impacts future studies because it constricts the view of the past. Our new knowledge holders, our emerging elders, who now have wider access to the world and less access to community and elder confirmation will find these Ancestoral voices when looking up historical records but they will hear them within the limitations of how they were first collected

how can it be done

as a narrative therapist, I work with people to break down historical truths that were imposed by others. People like parents, teachers, government, religion etc who had the power of definition in a particular circumstance. I find that when people seek healing, they come clutching a story that they and others may only have considered from a select viewpoint. i combine these skills with my experiences of yarning and other Aboriginal² ways to expand those viewpoints. One of the methods is yaamanda yanay barriyaygu, i call it barriyay for short. The approach invites clients to journey through a story from several vantage points: AS IT WAS KNOWN, AS IT WAS TOLD, AS IT IS KNOWN, and AS IT WILL BE TOLD to to unveil possible political, social, personal and experiential constructions previously unseen.

barriyay means window in Yuwaalaraay, but not as in some glass you look out of but rather a frame you look through .. think of windows in nature, a particular vantage point to see something without everything else around it, a wombat hole, holding someone's hand and being quiet and listening, try to imagine something that is not wood and glass

barriyay ngarra-la! n look at the window burree-yay yurrala https://exploreparks.dbca.wa.gov.au/site/loop-and-natures-window

and i named this ‘place of viewing’ with language to remind myself of the multiple authorities necessary to understand a story, i.e. no one view can give a full picture and each view informs the complete picture. I see it as a window because i don’t want to rewrite a story, or make up a story or forget about one part of a story. I want to see the whole view and all the reasons why it became that way. When we know how something is constructed, we can then deconstruct it.

barriyay will be the guide to help deconstruct the texts in this study, so our energy is pulled away from defeating the colonial conclusion (we already know that) and be pushed towards making known what our Ancestors were actually saying, what other institutions of knowledge were at play, what needs were filled by our Ancestors sharing the information and what story we tell going forward

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What Barriyay does, is asks firstly what was going on when the interpretation was made, so it is inviting the Knowledge finder to be an active participant in the learning process. Then to seek the other influences, the last window being again an action rather than a product of the three previous deconstructions This innovation seeks to re-visit those colonised conclusions through the Narrative Practice technique of Barriyay to explore what other understandings could have been possible. Barriyay is short for “Yaamanda yanay barriyaygu?” which translates to “Will you come to the window?”. It dissects an events dominant conclusion by exploring multiple perspectives or windows during and since the event. By using various Narrative Tools such as absent but implicit, double story development and re-authoring, Barriyay uncovers as much of the story as possible to reconstruct what is being seen and bringing preferred stories to light. This journey of re-theming unpacks dominant discourses that tainted the original findings, e.g. people deemed cowardly when fighting back would have seen their children taken away. It begins with viewing the text as is, or AS IT WAS KNOWN and moves through to AS IT WAS TOLD to explore the dominant plots created and/or maintained at the time of publication. AS IT IS KNOWN, the third window, takes onboard all the information that we now know about both the Coloniser and the Euhalari people. AS IT IS TOLD, the last window, is a conscious, community decision of how the story will be told going forth. Note that the goal is not so much disseminating the European conclusion so much as it is revisiting the primary information outside of the 19th century European discourse for an alternative conclusion to be made. 

what does participation look like

together, we are going to step into the role of researcher using what we know to be the systems and practices of what is knowledge and the forms of authority that go with that.

and academy that go with that how language has been collected and how history has been told and retold reword original texts, well collections of text like that of K Langloh Parker and Lynette Oates. we are going to yarn about specific passages. We are going to use barriyay questions (and all the questions that we bring up ourselves) to see if our Ancestors were saying other things and why their voice didn't make it through

the expected time commitment of participants (which we call Maniilayndindaay meaning hunters) would be around four yarns: twice on the phone, zoom or in person just with myself, and twice in a group of Yuwaalaraay descendants, over the age of 18, who have an understanding of Yuwaalaraay language

- 1st yarn for each individual over zoom or phone to talk about the study, possible dates of availability and ask any questions

- formal arrangements will be made, such as specific texts and/or recordings, informed consent, participant information sheets, dates and times of next yarns and physical meeting spaces

- 2nd yarn for group to yarn about what it is we are looking for and set up agreements around safety and mens and womens business etc

- 3rd yarn for group to participate in the actual research

- 4th yarn either as individual or group to yarn about the experience and check in

- 2026 research will be analysed and Maniilayndindaay will have the opportunity to comment on the findings

- 2027 finalised phd will be submitted

forming the Elders Group

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who is backing it

charles darwin university has been really supportive on my wanting to use our own methods on this project, and in accepting that the presentation of data may not follow the “normative” models of 2025 language collection. There are still stringent ethics to follow though, and for good reason. Our mobs have been used for research for centuries, and it is important that decisions around any discoveries are respectful within our definitions, our meaning past, present and emerging. It is of little use to our Ancestors experience if we simply replace a colonial limitation with our own limitation

what are the possible benefits

on a community level, the study will be set up so that descendants contribute alongside Ancestors to explore their material, apply our contexts and where necessary, re-tell the stories. I am interested in what might be shared back to us, what elements of communication worked well and whether barriyay actually helped locate alternative stories. Also whether the experience supported us in investigating our own histories and identities and whether we felt it was on our own terms. 

i am also interested in what happens when this request of analysing historical conclusions is brought to us, the Yuwaalaraay people, with our history and capacity. My hopes are that it will strengthen us by making known that we now, contribute to historical interpretation, and we do it differently. Differently because we are accountable to past and future Yuwaalaraay, by holding knowledges about us up against the light and seeing the different kinds of knowers and practices of knowing that were mutually present, and never acknowledged

on a wider level, i want to add to existing knowledge around the power of Indigenous interpretation of historical research. Could our experiences support other language groups in similar journeys, can this country known as Australia start to recognise the diversity in Australian Indigenous language and geographic groups. Were different social, material or semantic configurations of knowledge work revealed. Did we make known forgotten or different requirements for authorisation and continuation of stories. Can future researchers develop a more complex perspective on what makes an authoritative account of peoples, places and cultures, when revisiting archival sources

what could go wrong

staying within our own institutions of knowledge is not only a form of resistance against colonisation, but one of the ways in which our knowledge survives. Our knowledge is not just language, it is the appropriate sharing practices that are lived between us. It is these practices that will require a slow step and careful consideration

this became visible for me, when i accessed Uncle Jimmy Barker’s tapes at AIATSIS in Canberra. The descriptions included references to hunting and ceremonial rituals, which as a woman, I would not have been privy to. As an australian researcher though, it is all readily available to me. I spent the next month navigating through community for guidance and ultimately chose not to access the data.

it is significant that as a group, we negotiate gender and generation based information. Part of our second yarn will include whether we have enough participants that if we come across specific mens or womens or elder business (or other protections that might come up) that we can split into groups or whether we don’t access the information.

also, we do not know what we do not know. We can’t foresee how any of us will respond to being exposed to the material or any new findings. The best we can do is put in place safe spaces and processes to keep each other safe from trauma when revisiting, and further individual protocols may come up in our second yarn

what is the phd question

the official question is

are alternative understandings possible

when Euhalari descendants deconstruct historical texts

written about their Ancestors by non-indigenous researchers

using the barriyay framework?

i have broken it down a little below

are alternative understandings possible .. we are looking for the voices of Ancestors that were not heard or ignored

when Euhalari descendants deconstruct historical texts .. we as Yuwaalaraay [no matter how you spell it) will be doing the work 

 written about their ancestors by non-indigenous researchers .. the specific texts are those where a non Indigenous person collected language directly from a Yuwaalaraay Ancestor, or through a Yuwaalaraay translator, and probably something from the late 1800s and the mid to late 1900s

using the barriyay framework .. barriyay will guide us in where to look rather than in how to look, i.e. AS IT WAS KNOWN, AS IT TOLD, AS IT IS KNOWN, AS IT IS TOLD

what happens now

if you leave at this point, I appreciate your visit and please come back to this page at any time to be updated on how the project is going. if you want to have a yarn about being a possible participant and/or have feedback on this page, the project, what texts to use, protocols, or any ideas regarding how we can go forward, please email barriyay@pm.me or ring me directly on 043 555 0084. Sharing your thoughts or expressing interest does not bind you to anything. If you do become involved, it will be on terms that you understand and control, and at any stage of the research you have the option to say no thanks without explanation and leave it at that.

if you are passing through the lands of the Gundungurra (Robertson) we can catch up face to face and every few months I make the trek through Tubbagah (Dubbo), Yuwaalaraay (Lightning Ridge), Bigambul (Goondiwindi), Turrbal and Jagera (Brisbane), Kunja (Cunnamulla) and Muruwarri throughout that trek

footnotes

1 sometimes it is necessary to use a general term to refer to a person who is not an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, I use the term whitefella

2 my ancestry is Yuwaalaraay, Muruwuri and Scottish. I have no link to Torres Strait Islander knowledge. when talking in a general form I do use the term Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander but as a personal form I use the term Aboriginal

3 unclarified historical research is the data where findings have not yet been checked and confirmed by the people knowledgeable of the culture in the original research

Recipients of RTP stipends must insert a statement in a prominent location to the effect of “This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship” in all publications including the thesis.