Wiradjuri love poem

My little poem is here translated into Wiradjuri, a Pama-Nyungan language, by Geoff Anderson and the Wiradjuri Aboriginal community, who live in the state of New South Wales in the south-east of Australia.

Alternative names that you may find to designate this language are: (Wiradhuri, Wiraidyuri, Wiratheri, Wirracharee, Wirrai'yarrai, Berrembeel, Warandgeri, Wiraduri, Wirashuri, Werogery, Wooragurie, Wiradhurri, Wordjerg, Wiiratheri, Wira-Athoree, Wirajeree).

Wiradjuri is an oral language that today is not far from extinction since the Wiradjuri community is reduced to some 500 people with not even 50 of them speaking the language.

However, it should be noted a desire to revitalize this language for about ten years, and today it is taught in schools and universities.

As you can see with the translation of my poem, some words in Wiradjuri do not exist, for example "mirror". In the same way except "several", "one", and "two" in Wiradjuri figures and numbers do not exist.

Conversely there are many words to describe the relationships between people and everything related to nature, plants animals etc.

Several thousand Wiradjuri (a good ten thousand) occupied the centre of New South Wales for over 40,000 years; roughly, between the 3 rivers (Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee).

Hunters, fishermen and gatherers, the surrounding nature offered them everything they needed. The different roots, plants, seeds, the resources of the rivers and the animals (ducks, turtles, birds, emus, kangaroos etc.), largely ensured their subsistence.

Canoes, nets to catch fish and birds, boomerangs, spears, clubs were part of their daily tools.

They lived in small groups, which moved according to the resources. Like all Aborigines, they only took what they needed, even alternating the places of their takings, because respect for nature was fundamental to them. These small groups met every year to exchange during councils and ceremonies.

For the Wiradjuris, dreams, symbols, art (painting, sculpture) were part of their abundant spiritual life.

The first contacts with the colonizers took place at the beginning of the 19th century, and for the Wiradjuri they were the beginning of many clashes, deaths, dispossessions, displacements, putting into reserves, etc.

It was not until 1968 that Australia finally granted citizenship to the Aborigines and in 2008 it apologized in particular for these generations of stolen children. It is only since these 60s that their population has increased again.