Yuwaalaraay threads through this page, if you can help improve my use of language, your guidance is welcome, also english punctuation has been limited as a show that Yuwaalaraay is my dominant voice .. this page is a work in progress
yaamanda yanay barriyaygu? will you come to the window?
yaama, gayrr ngaya djidjidan. brisbane-da queensland gaanga-nhi ngaya. ngaya gi-yaa-nha gaay guwaa-li yuwaalaraay-gu ngayagay english-gu gaay-a hello, myname is jedison. I was born in brisbane in queensland and I am going to talk in yuwaalaraay and english
nhama bubaa-dhi gary johnston this is my father gary johnston wynnum brisbane-da gaangi-nhi nguru he was born in wynnum in queensland
nhama gunii-dhi catherine wilson this is my mother catherine wilson bellshill-da scotland gaangi-nhi nguru she was born in bellshill in scotland
nhama dhilaagaah-dhi colin johnston this is my grandfather colin johnston cunnamulla-da brisbane gaangi-nhi nguru he was born in cunnamulla in queensland
garrimaay burrulbidi ngaya ada hooper ada hooper is my great grandmother ?? her life began on tinnenburra station and many of my great aunts and uncles were born and raised there
ada’s parents were samuel and lizzie hooper, and it is from them that the most reliable knowledgge comes about our lands. samuel being Yuwaalaraay and lizzie being Muruwari.
These are best guesses based on wisdom handed down through other families, records and our own mob yarns. If your ancestors are from Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander lands, you may already know of the colinisation methods used to move us, reduce us and assimilate us. And, as i’m finding out from this project, just because something was recorded by a whitefella, doesn’t make it true.
wuu-nhi-baa ngaya yinarr-baa aboriginality is my inheritance ngaya dhuwi dhurra-li WITH gaay-biyaay, girruu-biyaay ngayagay gaay guwaa-lda-ndaay i express my identity with words, truth and story telling waan ngaya dhayndalmuu narrative gaay wuu-na dhayn-gu gaay-a gamil guwaa-y my work as a narrative counsellor gives voice to peoples stories that have not been told
buwabil ngaarribu-dhi ngaya yuwaalaraay language is my legacy ngaya wuu-na biiba-gal balal ngiyaningu dhayn-gu gaay i give voice to the unwritten pages of our people bidjaay nhama yuwaalaraay ganungunda biiba-gal yuwaalaraay is the ink to those pages
ngarragaa bidjaay balal alas the ink is dry
nhama ngarray .. yilambiyal ngaya yuwaalaraay dhiirra-nhi biibabiiba-nhi old you see in the past, I learned language from historical books gaadhal ngaya-bala gi-la-nhi but I was only a parrot gaay gawaa-y guwaa-li yiyal nganha dhirra-li repetition only teaches me to say language
ngaya-laa bamba dhirra-nhi dhilaagaa ? yinarraa? TAFE-gu then I learnt properly from Elders at TAFE ngaya yilaambiyal-gu gaay giirruu yuwaalaraay winanga-y-la-nha I began to understand yuwaalaraay purpose and reason ngaya yilaambiyal-gu yuwaalaraay dhubaanma-y I began to tell language
then I went back to the history books
and their purpose and reason did not make sense
ngarranma-li-badhaay ngaya nginuhna let me show you
You can contact me by phone, text and marco polo on 043 555 0084, email at girrabirrii@proton.me or through messenger: jedda wells. Also, 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.
click here to return to the research project, yaamanda yanay barriyaygu