Mibala Deis Back in Our Day Dis story blanga (story by) Tracey Camfoo Dijlot bin dum ola pitja (illustrations by) Barunga School children Published by Batchelor Institute Press Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education PO Batchelor NT 0845 Ph: (08) 8939 7352 Email: batchelorpress@batchelor.edu.au Web: www.batchelorpress.com Book design © Batchelor Institute Press 2017 Story © Tracey Camfoo 2017 Illustrations © Barunga School children 2017 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-1-74131-336-9 Acknowledgements Compilation Tracey Camfoo, Anita Painter, Delvean Ahfat, Tiarnah Ahfat, Jaidine Fejo, Lee Rosas, Caroline Jones, Eugenie Collyer Project Manager Maree Klesch Illustrations Barunga School children: Daphne (Daphno) Mundul, Lynell Ahfat, Tenarlia Scrubby, Matthias (Matty) Scrubby, Sondra (Dolly) Bulumbara, Shaynelee Camfoo, Zane Henry, Lakeisha Ahfat, Trina Jentian, Meisha Koimala, Tirenee Tiati, Lurise (Lulu) Ulamari, Tristan Martin, Latalia Runyu. Illustrations edited by Sarah Martin Desktop publisher Sarah Martin Funding Australian Research Council (FT120100777, CE140100041) Many thanks to Nicole Coates and Barunga School Mibala Deis Back in Our Day Dis story blanga (story by) Tracey Camfoo Dijlot bin dum ola pitja (illustrations by) Barunga School children Iya, wen mela bin lilwan, mela bin abum pigeri fam... Here, when we were young, we had a piggery farm... ...tjukfam... ...a chook farm... ...en dei yusdu growimapbat du wodamelen en pinat. ...and they also used to grow watermelons and peanuts. Ol gujbri wi kolum dei yusdu grou disaid la dij spring na iya la dij hilsaid. Dem djorlomorndowk, imin teisti labliwan leigi peshenfrut. Gooseberries, we called them, used to grow at this side of the spring, over here on the hillside. The djorlomorndowk (bush passionfruit) tasted delicious, like passionfruit. Bigij plenteishan ob wodamelen bin deya. Mela bin go deya du wantaim. Ou dem wodamelen! Nomo lililwan, bigijbigijwan du. There was an enormous watermelon plantation. We went there once. Oh, those watermelons! They weren't small, they were huge. En dei bin olej gedi dem wodamelen seim leik ola eg from det tjikinfam. And they would collect the watermelons, just like they would collect the eggs from the chicken farm. Dei bin olei go selem la shop. They would sell them at the shop. En dolhdolh du wi olei idim. And we would eat dolhdolh (bush cucumber) too. Ola dolhdolh du mela bin olei gedim o labliwan du tharran deya And we would pick all the dolhdolh, oh! it was delicious. Mela bin olei gedimbat djorlomorndowk, det dolhdolh na, ola djodmo. We would get/collect djorlomorndowk (bush passionfruit), the dolhdolh, all the djodmo (emu berry). Semetri eriya mela bin olei go na, kelektim ola lil fish... We'd go to the cemetery area, collecting all the little fish... ...en ola ngawkngawk wodalili. ...and all the ngawkngawk (waterlily stem). Mela bin olei bogibogi deya. We swam there all the time. Bigij beibabak tri deya. There was a great big paperbark tree there. Mela bin olej breigim ol det beibabak en meigi lil bout. We'd break off the paperbark and make little boats. En instedob go bogibogi la bilabong gedimbat ngawkngawk, ai olei gedimbat det beibabak tri na leisiwei ai olei gedimbat beibabak tri go kelektim ngawkngawk. And instead of going swimming at the billabong to get ngawkngawk I'd always use the paperbark to make it easier to collect the ngawkngawk. O wi bin graijim shugabeg garra ron fren no bois. Mela bin olei go lugaran ol dem budbud du. Or we'd dig up sugarbag, just with our friends, no boys. We would go looking around for budbud (kurrajong root) too. Wi go lugaran ola budbud o wen imin badjdju sisen wail bush pudeida mela bin olei go lugaran. Dei bin grou ebriweya iya. Imin olei grou deya wail la dem ola lil badjdju. We'd search for budbud, or when it was badjdju (bush potato) season we'd go searching for wild bush potato. They'd grow everywhere here. The little badjdju would grow there, wild. Budbud en ol mela bin olei graijim. Det djirnirrin du mela bin olei idim. Det djirnirrin tri mela bin olei idim du thetkain. We would dig up budbud and everything. And we would eat djirnirrin (mistletoe) too. We would always eat that kind of thing, like food from the djirnirrin tree. Gedi lil fish. We would get little fish. Mela bin olei jij tjakimbat deya igin la wi faiya We'd just throw it there on our fire. Bushdaga wed blanga Dalabon en Ingglish Dalabon and English bush tucker words Dalabon English djorlomorndowk bush passionfruit dolhdolh bush cucumber djodmo emu berry/dogs balls ngawkngawk waterlily stem budbud kurrajong root badjdju bush potato djirnirrin mistletoe