News edition for 13 June 2026. Added to Nungya on 22 October 2026 as part of our retrospective news archive. Reporting reflects information available by the edition date.

Gija plant names, botanical descriptions and Birrmarriya Shirley Purdie’s paintings come together in a substantial new publication from Aboriginal Studies Press. The book offers several ways to encounter the plants and knowledge its authors have chosen to share.

AIATSIS announced Gija Goowoolem doo Minybernem – Gija Trees and Grasses on 17 March, ahead of its 1 April 2026 release through Aboriginal Studies Press. The authors are senior Gija artist and cultural leader Birrmarriya Shirley Purdie and linguist, artist and gardener Frances Kofod.

The volume features 72 paintings, alongside Gija and English text, stories and botanical descriptions. AIATSIS describes Purdie’s long work of recording plant knowledge as something developed to teach family and community. Related recordings in Gija provide another way to encounter her voice and language.

For readers, the interesting invitation is to slow down. A plant book does not have to be used only to identify a leaf and move on. It can prompt attention to whose knowledge is being shared, how the language appears on the page and why an author chose to make the work.

This is a reading recommendation grounded in the publisher’s announcement, rather than an invitation to collect plants or reproduce cultural knowledge. Follow the authors’ account and let their chosen forms of sharing set the pace.

Read the original report: “This is a joyful thing”: a masterwork of Gija cultural knowledge.