Bila Yarrudhang-galang-dhuray (River of Dreams) by Anita Heiss

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I’ve always believed a cover should speak to the story, and that is no truer than with my latest book Bila Yarrudhang-galang-dhuray (Wiradjuri for River of Dreams).

Using Wiradjuri language on the cover of my novel makes a strong statement – from me as an author and from Simon & Schuster as a publisher – regarding the reclamation and maintenance of the traditional language of my family. It is language of the Wiradjuri characters in the novel – the language of Yarri and Yiramiilan and their daughter Wagadhaany and her husband Yindyamarra, and their extended families.  

The beauty of the bila is captured in the photographic image that is overlayed with a gugaa – the totem of many Wiradjuri people from Wagga Wagga, Gundagai and Brungle, where the story is set. To have my cousin – artist Luke Penrith from Brungle – provide the image of the goanna makes the cover even more culturally and personally significant.

I did not just write a story, I wrote something that is part of the history of the First Peoples of central NSW. And that matters to me, and it matters to those the story and characters represent, like Luke.

The kuracca-galang that are in flight on the cover, represent the totem of Wagadhaany and her mother, and I chose that totem in honour of the late Kerry Reed-Gilbert, my dear friend and Wiradjuri poet, who passed away in 2019. The white cockatoo was her totem.

I believe it is the first time that the title of any commercial Australian novel has appeared solely in an Aboriginal language, without the English translation on the front. One friend calls it the Cathy Freeman moment of Australian publishing. I was thrilled to have one Elder and my language teacher remark that the cover was ‘Marambang bilang’ (awesome / good). She said, ‘I love it, it is peaceful. I love the colours and the afternoon sunlight on the banks’.

It is important to me that I get it right.