Yumbalay - 'Travel' in Bundjalung/Yaegl - By Pearl Andrews
March 09, 2021
2 Comments
Jingi Walla you mob!
It is exactly four weeks, 1 month, today since Kowunduh and I left our comfortable familiar life at home in Ocean Shores to explore and yumbalay/yumbalilla (travel) this Beautiful Country; to learn more about the knowledge this sacred land holds and in turn the knowledge held within ourselves. In the past four weeks we have travelled down the east and south coasts to Melbourne and from there, over on the Spirit of Tasmania to a beautiful part of Australia separated from the mainland by a sea known as the Bass Strait. Here for the next six weeks, we are excited to do lots of hiking, fishing and apple picking!!
This trip has already exceeded all of our expectations, the peace and serenity that comes from a waking up every morning to the sunrise welcoming you to each new day is something you can never tire of, however with this serenity comes the struggles too. The difficulties of living on the road and life centring on food and where we will sleep is definitely prevalent, yet it connects us to our logic, intuition and instincts, something which I believe it so important to live a life of fulfilment. The combination of struggle, joy, happiness, exhaustion, sadness, excitement and disappointment is allowing us to live with a balanced reality which in turn provides each day with a new story and purpose. Our trip is only a month in out of many many more to come, and our experiences only minuscule in comparison to those in the future, yet I hope we will welcome them all with a ready attitude for struggle and most importantly growth.
A beautiful element of our trip so far has been learning about each First Nations Country we have explored and rested on, and some of the local knowledge about those mobs bush tucker, totems and Creation Stories. So far we have passed through Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti, Biripi, Worimi, Awabakal, Tharawal/Dharawal, Yuin, Bidwell, Braiakaulung, Kurnai, Woiworung and now Tommeginne. As much as we can we get information of which land we are on from local shops and people, but when this isn’t possible I look on the AIATSIS Indigenous map which is available on their erosive for anyone to view or to purchase at Planet Corroboree. Wherever we can we stop at Indigenous Art Galleries and Cultural Centres so we can understand and respect that Countries sacred knowledge and meaning. A book that has helped us achieved this is Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou’s ‘Loving Country’, a tourism book that outlines different parts of Sacred Australia and some important sites to visit with the cultural guidelines of those sites included. We have felt so lucky and privileged to be able to travel on different mobs land and we always remember to pay our respects to which spot we visit and are overwhelmingly excited to continue doing this for the rest of our journey.
For anyone wanting to follow our journey you can follow us on Instagram at @yumbalay_ and continue to connect with this platform on Planet Corroboree as I hope to start doing blogs on places we visit and the adventures we have on Country. We also hope to meet and support many Indigenous artists along our journey and share that with you all on here.
Love and respect from Pearl and Kowunduh ❤️🙏🏽 Yoway!
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Iris Ray Nunn
April 23, 2021
You write sooooo beautifully Pearl.
I am very excited to hear/read more about your travels. Oh and you know, I spent many days on the road wearing the exact same sorong from Planet C! May the beauty and power of the painting help carry you