Artist Talk: Jeanine Leane with Ruth Davys

In this talk, Wiradjuri author, academic and educator Jeanine Leane discusses the central ideas of her poem Nginha with Wiradjuri educator, advocate and community leader, Ruth Davys.

Nginha, which translates from Wiradjuri to English as here, is the title of Leane’s poem that extends throughout the Museum walls and gives the current MAMA artistic program its name. The poem asserts connection to Country and place for Wiradjuri people, First Peoples across this continent, and for all people who move across this land, under its skies, and through its waterways. Nginha is significant as a poem written in Wiradjuri Language, and part of an ongoing movement to place First Languages first and reclaim Language that was taken from First Peoples.

About the artist

Jeanine Leane belongs to the Wiradjuri people from the Murrumbidgee river. She is a poet, teacher, author and essayist who is well published in the areas of Aboriginal writing, writing difference and literary criticism.