Dylan Coleman is a Kokatha Aboriginal–Greek woman from the far west coast of South Australia. She has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide, where she lectures in Indigenous health at the Yaitya Purruna Indigenous Health Unit. Dylan has worked for over twenty years across a range of areas in Aboriginal education, health, land rights, and the arts, with a focus on community engagement and social justice. She lives outside Adelaide with her partner and son, and their four squirrel gliders. Mazin Grace is her first book.
I dedicate this book to truth, justice, love and freedom.
To my mum, Mercy, for your guidance.
To my nana Pearl, for your strength of spirit.
To my partner, Aaron, and my son, Wunna, for all things of substance in my life.
And to Fub, for your courage.
Contents
Glossary
1Minya wunyi wonganyi
2 If welfare get us, we finished
3 Where I belong?
4 Secret-pretty-things
5 Lookin’ for answers
6 Ngoonji bula: God, Jesus and Father Christmas
7 Goin’ away
8 Mumoo jumpin’ ’round
9 Walbiya gu minga: white man’s sickness
10 Healin’ jinna minga
11 Some things stay the same, some things change
12 Riddle solved
13 Lookin’ through new guru mooga
14 The sins of the father
15 Dolly gets a haircut
16 Goin’ back to country, in heaven
17 Goojarb: serves yourself right
18 Growing changes
19 Wash me away
Author’s note
Acknowledgments
About the David Unaipon Award
Glossary
These Kokatha language words are based on Mercy Glastonbury’s pronunciation at the time of recording and writing her story. Mercy Glastonbury is the author’s mother.
biggy ngunchu
pig
bilgi
dirty
blanketie
blanket
boi
expression for a word similar to ‘show off’
booba
dog
boogardi
shoes
boongada
bad smell/bad smelling
boonie
horse
boonri
boss
boonri boonri
very bossy person
boonu
edible paste made of flour and water
boorar
wild peach
bugadee
filthy dirty
bullocky cow/bull
a white man who gives things, often alcohol, to an Aboriginal woman
bultha
clothes
bulya
good
bunda
money or stone/rock
bunna
goanna
burru
meat
buyu
cigarette
diggled
burnt to a crisp
djita
bird
djuda
stomach
djudayulbi
someone who eats too much
djuding
men’s heavy hitting stick
djugu
pants
dudbin
duthu
underpants
garnga
crow
gibara
wild turkey
gidja
child
gidjida mooga
children (gidjida = child, mooga = plural, more than one)
goojarb
‘serves yourself right’
goola goola
sexual/interested in sex
gooloo
head lice
goomboo
urine
goomboo minyi
someone who urinates a lot
goomboo wally
toilet
goona
faeces
goona mumpun
bum
goonanyigidi
naked/naked bum
goona oona
dirty bum
gorn
expression: ‘go on’
gu
to belong to/belonging to
gubarlie
old woman
gubby
water or an alcoholic drink
gubbydja
drunk
gubbyngarl
to drink
gudadee
teeth
guddadu
heart
gudji
wooden spear
gudle
hole
gugga
head
gugga bunda
bald head
gugga uru
hair on head
gujgi
spear
gulda
sleepy lizard
gulda marra
crabs
guldi
ghost
gu
ling
baby
gumberdy
awry, ugly or unsightly
gunja
beard
guru
eye
guru mooga
eyes
guru wada
glasses (eye things)
imbarda
shame
imin
tabu
indie
isn’t it so?/yes it is
ingan
play
stick
jidla
daggy
jinardoo
Nyunga person who can perform magic
jinditji
a bush found on the far west coast of South Australia
jindu
sun
jindu duthbin
sun going down
jinga
death, die, died
jinjie
backside
jinjie wongera
arse about face (back to front or mixed up)
jinka
cart
jinna
feet
jinna nigardi
bare feet
joobardi
silly, stupid or idiot
jooju
song
jooju ingin
playing, song or singing
jookie jookie
chook/chicken
joongu joongu
yams
joonie thuda
pregnant
jubu
side of the hip
jumoo
grandfather
kuka
meat
mai
food
malu
kangaroo
manardu
big
mimmi
breast
minga
sick/sickness
minya
small
minyardu
cold
moodigee
car
mooga
plural, more than one
moogada
angry
moolya
nose
moolya bilgy
dirty nose
moona
hat
mudgie
boyfriend or girlfriend
mudgie mudgie
to act interested in someone as a girlfriend or boyfriend
muggah
no
mummatja
father
mumoo
bad spirit
munda
ground
munyadi
throat
murdi
back
muroo
black
murra
hand
murra bidi
fingernail
ngoonji
lie
ngoonji bula
that’s a lie
ngoonyin
sweet edible berry
ngudgie
covetous, envious
nguggil
armpit odour
ngulu
scared
ngulya
forehead
nigardi
naked
nunkerie
healer/medicine person
nyarni
sheep
nyindi
know
nyimi
lips
nyumu mai
mussels
Nyunga
Aboriginal person
Nyunga mooga
Aboriginal people
oorlah
boy
rabbity
rabbit
tharldu-bula
true as true
Tjidpa
name given to Superintendent
tjilbi
old man
tjilga
prickle
tjunu
snake
ungu
sleep
wada
thing
wada mooga
things
wadi
initiated man
wadu
wombat
wah
face
walaba
white (woman)
walaba goona muroo
white woman with a black arse
walbiya
white (man)
; walbiya gu gidjida mooga
white man’s children
walbiya gu minga
white man’s sickness
walbiya mooga
white people
walga
wild tomato
wanna
ocean
wanna mai
sea food
weena
woman
weena mooga
women