Nyarlu Malga (Strong Woman)

ABA    a women’s daily dance for good    BARNDIMANMANHA

JUGARNU    Spirits move within the memory ground    NHANGANHA 

JURDU    Country bush broom stirs dust and land    WINDI-WINDIN 

NYARLU    Universe sweeping with grandmothers hand    JUNDANMANHA

WALUGURRA    Sky bush broom    MIYARNUWIMANHA

GARLAMANMANHA     I am the gift of warmth and beauty    YAMAJINYARLU

YARRAGU    I am the grandmother in your dreams     ABA

NYAAN-NYAAN    I whisper amongst many about our old ways    GUJURDA

WINTHUWANGGA    Into the earth winds keeping ancestral stories alive    WINJAYAMAJI

GARLABARNA    warm sands of the nearest riverbed and rubbed with warm ashes    GUBA

YALYBA    Enough has been done already     WADJBELATHARRA

NYARLU    To her and her people and her country in life    BARNA NGURRDA 

WADJBELATHARRA    In the way them racists talk    IRRATHARRA

WADJI WARRITHARRA    Making it easy not to say sorry or giving land back    WAJIBARNA

NHARLBA    Thieves arrived in all disguises    YANAYIMANHA

ABA     You are the keeper of songs    MAMA

JUGARNU    To keep for a tribe, to keep for a culture    GANJARNMANHA

JURDU    Be proud of that fact, spirituality strong    THARLBARRA

WALUGURRA    Stories handed down for thousands of years    WINJAWANGGA

GADJA    embrace your culture with open arms    MURNAMAYIMANHA

NYARLU    We are women, we are sisters   NGANAJUNGU JIJA’S

ABA    Despite our differences     MIRDU 

YAMAJIWANGGA    your culture will hold you    GANJARNMANHA

WALUGURRA     to be something in this world    YAMAJIBARNA

NGANAJUNGU WINJA’S    like her ancestors before her on this land    NHANHA BARNA