Yaama Ngunna Baaka: Dancing the River
Brenda Saunders
Everyone is feeling the heat
the long dry
roots of red gums
hang adrift
on a channel
sinking
voices rise
rage at the sight
the smell
of river life
drying up
dying
anger spreads to dams
weirs
holding back
the flow
allocated water
bought and sold
Along the banks
three Nations gather
for corroboree
traditional men dance
Sing up the Paarka
in language
Wangkumara-
Ngemba men
mourn with creatures
struggling
underground
beat clapsticks
stamp
wake the earth
their storylines
flowing
slim to a trickle
now
Downstream
Barkadji men
dance makkarra
rain stories
pound the dust
call River Spirits
into life
Sing
for a tribe
bound
to the Baaka
in flood
*
When the rains come
Paakantyi read the signs
welcome this time of plenty
watch thiirri
the sacred mudlark
fly over territory
to wake her water world
fill lakes
at Cawndilla
Menindee
Tandou
Bijiijie
As if by message stick
river life stirs
Sleeping for years under mud
kathunya
watarta
spawn in the flow
Pelicans
cormorants
come to feast
bring movement
song
to the waiting country
Barkadji: Northern River People
Paakantyi: Southern River People
Baaka, Paaka: Darling River
kathunya: crayfish
watarta: mussels
Previously published in Westerly vol. 67 no. 1 2022 periodical issue pg. 165-167
The science inspiring the piece:
During the ‘Long Drought’ a friend joined a group of Aboriginal people walking the Darling River in an attempt to ‘dance the river’ back to life. To bring rain to restore the flow and bring wildlife back to the region.
I researched online, reading articles written by water ecologist Professor Jamie Pittock from the Australian National University, regarding the environmental science and the present inadequate conservation policies meant to protect the river.
Feature image by William Piguenit
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