I am excited that Baraya Barray - Whale Song will inspire young minds through Eldership, poetry, song, dance and Aboriginal languages to re-awaken our ancient whale song line and improve language acquisition, leaving a valuable strength in the community whilst restoring Eldership, a voice for Sea Country and a rite of passage through Cultural connections to Sea Country.

I love the idea of offering Elders from different communities the opportunity to participate in this fantastic project. It speaks to the reality of our Peoples - that is we are many, with different languages and cultures, but we all come from the same set of life values that are articulated in many ways.

Burri burri (whale) is a big part of Dharawal culture. Ngia (I) learned that me and my siblings aren’t Dharawal but we have learned their important connection to gurigurrah (sea) and ngura (Country), just as we have in our Tongan culture. Connection between our cultures is so much clearer now and I’ve seen how similar we are in terms of tradition and respect for family and Country. We value our bubang, our nguru (Country) our gurrigurrah (sea) and our yabun (music), relying on them to teach us, about us.

As a Worimi woman, I deeply understand the cultural significance of this project for First Nations people and for all Australians. Garuwa means ‘ocean’ in our language, Gatthang, and we selected this name because of our ancestral and contemporary connections to the sea. Our whale kin are central to these storylines and cultural understanding.