Learning Bundjalung on Tharawal

Evelyn Araluen, Overland, Winter 2016

Araluen navigates hope and grief as she reflects on the process of learning and reclaiming Language as an adult.

So in this place the shape of my place

I am trying to sing like hill and saltwater,

to use old words from an old country that I have never walked on:

      bundjalung jagum ngai, nganduwal nyuyaya,

and god, I don’t even know

              if I’m saying it right.