Moving Water

A Story in Seven Currents


We begin where water rests,
Nyangga — basins, rock pools.
Still places where reflections linger,
our spirits meeting the stories of our ancestors,
mirrors carved by stone and time.

Then the current stirs,
Ngaarlu Yiiliwiyay — dancing water.
Rippling with intent,
alive with movement,
ancestors teaching us to follow the flow.

At the ocean’s wide embrace,
Gaagalu Darrunday — the sea makes medicine. Winds that carry salt,
healing songs held by tides,
ancestors holding our spirits with every breath.

The journey continues,
Ngaarlu Yuwaarriyay — moving water.
Travelling across Country,
shaping valleys, carving paths,
ancestors carrying memory downstream.

Across the sandy tracks,
Muurlay Giduurr — pathways by the shore.
Each footprint pressed beside the tide,
marking story, marking journey,
ancestors walking with us still.

Through wetlands breathing,
Giilayjun Biliiyaming Nyanuumba — high tide weaving through reeds.
Life swelling with water’s rise,
birds calling, frogs singing,
ancestors’ voices woven into the chorus.

And when we return home,
we taste the sweetness of Jijimam — lilly-pilly. Rain-fed fruit, gifts of renewal,
ancestors offering kinship through the land.
Ngaarlu is all of these, water as ancestor, water as guide, water as song.

Seven waters, seven blankets, seven stories.
The flow of our ancestors,
holding us, healing us, carrying us forward.