We all set off,

we went hunting on the other side,

with all my mob,

my family,

all the Ngen'giwumirri mob.

My cousin's two children,

his two sons got on,

and we set off, oh and he brought his wife.

And to this place,

went to one of the stations, the name of that place

is called Pundurrung,

we went to hunt for turtles.

So we're going along,

>and we checked in and asked the manager, and he told us it was ok.

He advised us to go around the other side because the nearside track was still too wet.

My cousin's husband was the driver,

the husband of her here, Pendele.

So we circled around,

went a bit further,

and stopped at a creek.

I called out to her little boy.

I said to him,

ah, no I mean he got out

and he said to us 'Wait, I will try have a look if there's water there',

that little boy said to us.

And his father told him to go ahead.

He stood at the edge of the bank,

and then he returned and got back into the car. And I asked him,

I said,

'Did you see any 'Awugur' (Spangled Grunter fish), were there lots of them?'.

He looked up at me

and said 'What's that?',

he said to me.

'Hey', I said to him,

'that word you say as

'Agurrmirri',

that's actually a Ngan'gikurunggurr word. I was talking to you in your language Ngen’giwumirri,

and asking you about 'awugur' which is the Ngen'giwumirri word.

'Oh yeah is that right?' he asked me,

that little boy did.

We went on fishing,

and then later on we came back

to where we'd stopped before at the edge of that bank.

'Wait,

dad', he said to me,

'I'll try and see if there are any 'Awugur' here'.

That word

that I'd taught him, he'd kept it in his head all day long, the whole time we were still fishing

at Pundurrung, and while we came back,

that little boy had remembered it.

While we were travelling back home, catching lots of turtles along the way,

I was talking to him in Ngen'giwumirri all the time.

Once we got home

and cooked the turtles, we shared them out

between Angganmerr and other family members.

I haven't forgotten my language, I still speak Ngen'giwumirri,

to my grandchild,

my nieces,

my nephews, I still speak to all of them,

to my kid,

to Mulurru's grandchildren, I still speak Ngen'giwumirri to all of them. Sometimes they

understand, but other times

they don't.

The way I feel is

that I don't want them

to forget that language of theirs.

My concern is

that we wont be around forever,

and it's up to them now,

they need to take it on,

like that.

I speak to them,

and that's the message about our language

that I keep telling them.

One other boy,

when we got back, I was talking to him about ground ovens, and I said to him 'Go and get me some of that 'Wakala' growing over there'.

And he went over and stopped in front of that tree, 'What's that?' he asked me,

'waka... what?'

I think that was Troy.

'Right there now, that 'wakala' (paperbark),

that you use for covering the ground oven'.

All those little words like that,

I always used to teach them in Ngen'gi,

with Troy and Justin,

and Ngerembe's kid,

and Wantyirr's kids, I always talk to them in Ngen'gi.

On the one hand they have to keep listening, on the other hand,

it's really difficult,

I have to keep teaching them over and over again.

'This language that I'm talking to you all in, you shouldn't forget it,

coz we're all moving on, getting old now', I tell them.

I said that recently to one boy,

to one of my grandkids, one of Wanytyirr's kids,

'When I get real old,

and they send me to Juninga nursing home, I said to him, 'Will you come and visit me?' I asked him.

'No,

I'm scared …’, he told me, ‘… of the wheelchairs!'

OK, I've told you my story now!