Nginha (Photo: Murray Art Museum/Jeremy Weihrauch)

Nginha is a poem in Wiradjuri language by author, academic and educator Aunty Jeanine Leane.

Nginha translates from Wiradjuri to English as here. Nginha is the central idea of a poem that 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. It is a connection that exists throughout all time and across all times.

This eternal connection is declared with a series of statements that refer to nginha / here as present, past, future, for all time, and always. The poem concludes with the word durrurdurrurdbuwulin / forever.

Nginha is significant as a poem written in Wiradjuri Language. It is part of an important and ongoing movement to place First Languages first and reclaim Language that was taken from First Peoples with the colonisation of these lands.

This new poem by Aunty Jeanine Leane gives the surrounding artistic program its title – Nginha. Across three evolving seasons, the nginha program celebrates artists of our region, offers new perspectives on our collection, and promotes new art and ideas. This first season of Nginha, with a focus on the artists of this place, is you are here.

More:

• Artist Talk: Jeanine Leane with Ruth Davys.
  This artist talk accompanies my commissioned Wordscape installation, Nginha, which means ‘Here’ in Wiradjuri and is the title piece for an exhibition by the same name at Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) March 2025 – July 2026. Nginha is an example of the power and presence of the first language in and of place; and speaks to the Wiradjuri philosophy of cyclic time and the pre-eminence of locale as a site of action, resilience and change.