Family History

See:

Green Family
Boorooberongal

Green Family
Green Genealogy

First and foremost I want to make clear that i have never stated that i am the only speaker, or that i have been raised speaking our grandmothers tongue, in fact our family were displaced and separated from our community in Katoomba.

Nevertheless my younger brother, elder cousins and many other relatives heard the Dalang being spoken around Katoomba, Penrith, St Marys and Parramatta when we were younger children, playing along the banks of the river and running through the streets of the historic town. We heard many words, yet not one of us might understand a sentence beyond the first phrase. Notwithstanding many of us Wungarra and Gilygan had listened when referred to as Boy's and Girl's.

At Parramatta Primary attending first and second class, we were commonly referred to as WEBB whenever we had been noticed by the numerous Darug people living about the area.

Our mother soon relocated to Tweed Heads, Queensland where my brother and i attended Tweed Heads Primary for a short while, i recall my mother and her extended family convincing me how it would be in our best interest, not to mention that my father was Blackfella.

Garranarbillie gabara-wa: (Laughing my head off)

I can remember being enrolled and looking around at all the goori faces about the school and within moments of hitting the play ground we were running furiously about the school grounds chasing and tagging each other, as yet we hadn't even exchanged names, though we knew in our heart of minds that we were people of skin, the happiest term of my life.

My brother and i would spend our formal years at three different schools, Surface Paradise Primary - Southport Primary - Labrador Primary.

As dispossesed, displaced and disenfranchised Goori kids, we were father-less and trouble followed wherever we went, my brother and I were considered unruly and our mother decided to take us to New Zealand to give us a new start in life.

After attending school in New Zealand as a teenager my love for language became apparent, after learning the Haka whilst at intermediate school in Mt Eden. My family returned to Sydney when i turned 13. Once we relocated to Bankstown i went in search of our biological father at Parramatta and Katoomba only to discover he had moved interstate. It would take eight long years before i met my father William Green and thank Biiami for the timing, if i had never met my father i may never have known my true name and identity.

Living in central Queensland Walter William GREEN had been adopted into many different Murray clans, he managed Euroka Arts in Woodridge, receiving Queensland Honors towards the end of his life. Losing my father affected myself amongst our family more than the other children as i had very vivid memories of my Biyanga from the age of four years old, i grieved to be reunited. Finally after tracking my father down i discovered the written format of our language

'As a teenager during the 1970s i was sitting at the Bus stop at Bankstown with numerous children from the neighbourhood, when we were visited by an elder man of the Dharawal nation. After hearing our last names were WEBB/GREEN the elder man became emotional and cried, causing many of the young to feel a great empathy towards the old man and the distress he was experiencing. He explained our entire family history, people, places and names i had only ever heard of, to this day i have adhered to the words of Uncle Guwan Jack and the story he told us never to forget. ........ Let me tell you boys your grandfathers were men of high degree and spoke all Dalang, when they were seated in Wyaun-toongabbie the old people spoke Dharug, if they were living here they spoke Dharawal, when the people were visiting the south coast they would speak Yeun. .... I tell you boys all the mob were related through the Bulada Ghan and the scales of the Carpet Snake. We are in constant communication through the songs of the Garraway and Garmat the white and black cockatoos. ..... At the end of his story one of the local boys asked why he had been so emotional? Old Guwan Jack answered his inquisitor:'

'For today i stand in the presence of my elders and our grandmothers sons and i know one day our story will rise again'