Miinimbi

By Bebe Oliver

Published 7 September 2026

Before the luggers farmed the pearls,

before the missionaries carved into our mouths,

miinimbi moved the edge of gaarra,

singing beside Bardi and Jawi

From ardyaloon to marnany to iinalang,

we watched them breach through winter water,

miinimbi gaarra-mirr

messages between ancestors and spirits,

and those to come

We are saltwater people, tide people;

stories fall from ngarrung, the way

miinimbi gives song to dark water

Of all who stood on this coastline before us,

tracing curve against ngalngga with pointed fingers

miinimbi remember the way home

and so do we

We belong to reef, mangrove, cyclone and tide

and when we speak, our words move as miinimbi

we understand what it means to hold gaarra inside

Miinimbi was born from my connection to Bardi Jawi Country. The sand, stone, water, sky and islands, and the understanding that place holds memory much older than any human life.

Miinimbi, the humpback whale, is our ancestor, a messenger and a keeper of story. Bardi language sits alongside English as Country can’t be understood through English alone. Our language is inseparable from place and carries histories and ways of knowing that can’t be translated.

Colonisation altered so much, but it didn’t sever our relationship with saltwater or story. As a being, miinimbi is a thread between generations, reminding us that belonging isn’t something to be found, but something remembered. As a poem, Miinimbi is a reflection on memory andcontinuity, and the eternal relationship between Bardi and Country.

Reflection on the poem

Baraya Barray - Whale Song

'Miinimbi' by Bebe Oliver