Gamaloon (Bush Pear) Bardi Language Story by Annette Sampi

My mum was a linguist, she helped finish off the Bardi language dictionary that was started by her older brother and sister, which was published in the 90’s. It’s part of my family history. My brother did all the pictures, and my mum came up with all the sentences to show how the words are used. 

I grew up learning the Bardi language from my old people. I find it hard now, because you don't have people speaking it. I carry the book with me, and constantly learn from it. I had it with me at the Magpie Goose workshop. I said “I'm not an artist, but I can write the Bardi language that I speak”, so i decided to do a language story as my design! I chose this section of writing from the dictionary to do as a textile design because I like the Gamaloon (bush pear). I know my bush fruits! You have the gamaloon at Christmas time. They are about marble size, and have small yellow flowers. Some can be bitter, some can be sweet. I like the ones that are just a little bit bitter. They have a seed in the centre. When you squeeze it, the seed comes out. 

My design looks really nice - better than I thought it would come out!