Gadji is the Kamilaroi word for regrow. Bernadette Duncan has been reviving, protecting and sharing Kamilaroi language and knowledge for 30 years. She created the Gadji Gadji Garden as a safe space to regrow and share her language and knowledge for plants and animals and build the confidence of local Kamilaroi women to speak and share theirs.

In 2021 Bernadette got funding to run a project, with the Atlas of Living Australia, to collect, protect and share Kamilaroi language and knowledge for plants/animals. She was engaging local women in language classes and building their confidence to speak and share. This program was severely impacted by COVID, then local floods, then COVID, then more floods that limited her access to the women she had been working with. After the floods Bernadette found many of the plants she used for medicinal teas has sprung up in the back paddock, so she ran around and planted the rest. She invited Kamilaroi women to come visit the garden. Together they would walk around the paddock picking leaves for medicinal and traditional teas. Bernadette would share her language/knowledge as they walked. Together they would make the tea, then sit in the garden to share it. This created a space where the women felt safe to open their memories and share some of their own stories for plants/animals. Bernadette sees this ground-roots, slow, and informal teaching and sharing as an important and effective way to regrow and revive Kamilaroi language and knowledge for plants and animals.

This workshop will mimic a visit to the Gadji Gadji Garden. We will serve teas to the audience as Bernadette invites a couple of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people to come yarn with her about their language/knowledge for plants and animals. We call this the Tea Party.