Wiradjuri Yalbalingada
'Ngangaana-gu karrai billa's, dya karrai billa's durai, ngangaana ngingu - Look after the land and the rivers and the land and the rivers will look after you.' Flo Grant
Wiradjuri Yalbalingada is a small rural property near Wagga Wagga which has been owned by the Wiradjuri Christian Development Ministries since 1983.
Yalbalingada means 'learning place'. Here at Yalbalingada, Flo Grant and other Aboriginal elders teach young Wiradjuri people living skills and Wiradjuri language and heritage.
'It's working with our people to build, empower, and to help skill.' Flo Grant
Members of the local Kooringal Rotary Club are helping the Wiradjuri Christian Development Ministries establish a native plant nursery on Yalbalingada. A garden shed is ready for use, and a nursery shade house is almost complete. Many of the local plants to be propagated at Yalbalingada will be deep-rooted perennials. As the grasses, shrubs and trees are planted in gardens and paddocks, they will help reverse ecological problems like salinity. Flo explains the aims of the Yalbalingada nursery:
'To save our vegetation, which is on the sides of the roads and often been cleared, to preserve some of it, to get the use of it back, and to show people that there are a lot of values in all things that are native.' Flo Grant
Related Pass the Salt stories: Flo Grant
