Zuckermann continues to rebuild Barngarla
Zuckermann, who has known her through his work for 12 years, said part of Wardlada Mardinidhi is “a story of reconnection and empowerment of a Barngarla person who’d lost it all when she was young, and now has become one of her people’s leaders”.
For the last decade, language revival specialist Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann, from the University of Adelaide, has been developing educational resources, and running workshops, in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, to help the region’s Indigenous Barngarla people reclaim their lost language.
As part of that, he developed a Barngarla dictionary app, and wrote a children’s Barngarla alphabet and picture book in 2019, a book about Barngarla wellbeing and nature in 2021, and now co-wrote, with Barngarla woman Evelyn Walker, Wardlada Mardinidhi (Bush Healing).
The latest book in the trilogy was launched in Port Lincoln’s Nautilus Theatre on July 21, by the city’s mayor, Diana Mislov.
The project was supported by the Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.
It was a milestone moment that Zuckermann described as, “for me, like a peak in the work I’ve been doing with the custodians of the Barngarla language”.
“And for the Barngarla people, there was a feeling of being acknowledged and recognised by the broader community.
“That’s a continuing process, and its starting to gain momentum through, for example, the Port Lincoln Council installing signage with place names in Barngarla, including Galinyala [Port Lincoln].
“I see the trilogy as keeping with the Indigenous concept of the trinity of connection to land, language and people.”
The book includes Walker’s documentation and research undertaken in the field as part of a bush medicine project, which became a journey of healing for her.
Now 40, she had been removed from her mother by authorities when aged five, and only reunited with her birth mother at the age of 19, after a chance encounter by another relative.
Zuckermann, who has known her through his work for 12 years, said part of Wardlada Mardinidhi is “a story of reconnection and empowerment of a Barngarla person who’d lost it all when she was young, and now has become one of her people’s leaders”.
His role in the third book involved assisting Walker with her research, providing accurate translations and pronunciations for featured bush foods and plants in Barngarla, English and Latin, and sourcing funds for the project.
Examples of featured plants include goordi (quandong native peach), traditionally used to boost the immune system, reduce inflammation, and treat minor skin irritations; garrgala (coastal pigface plant) to treat all kinds of sores and aches; and bailba (sticky hop bush), a medicinal rub and mosquito repellant.
Zuckermann described his work with the Barngarla people as “a wonderful example of symbiosis, because I feel that as much as I give to them, they give back to me”.
To find out more about the book, or purchase a copy, email gzuckermann@gmail.com
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