Yanangunla, barayangunla mari bula
Let’s move together and sing out loud
Naawala, mimugurubuni, yanagn un, ngyinarigai gana manuwi
Look, do not close your eyes, we walk together, with feet on fire
~ Joel Davison from ‘The Wounded Brave' 

Celebrating the poetry created by First Nations students from Sydney and the Northern Territory

Cookaroo Flow poems were created during Poetry in First Languages workshops in December 2018. The Gardens were located on Gadigal Country, and Cookaroo is the Gadigal name for the area.

Created by Allan Giddy, Cookaroo Flow featured Gadigal poems in language, embedding them in two key water sites in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney from 1 December 2018 to 28 February 2019. The poems were written and recorded during November workshops with Gadigal Language Custodian Joel Davison and Gunai poet Kirli Saunders. Cookaroo Flow is a participatory, site- and culture-responsive audio installation, which uses the natural flow of water to convey the voices of First Nations children, speaking words that they have written in their local languages.

How does it work?

This work is invisible to passers by, but hold one end of a stick against your ear and the other in the water to listen to the new poetry created in workshops from Poetry in First Languages.