Our places, our voices. From the award-winning author of We Come with This Place.

You won't find 'terraglossia' on Google, or in a dictionary. It's a word coined by acclaimed academic and award-winning author Dr Debra Dank in response to the first Europeans' description of Australia as 'terra nullius' - no one's land. These new arrivals, with their language born far away, silenced and made invisible the more-than-ancient civilisations that have lived in and with this place for many thousands of years. These First Peoples became 'other', spoken for and about in another language, by another culture, not permitted to articulate their essential being and their complex relationships with Country and its entities, unable to participate in the development of a truly Australian dialogue. It is time for this linguistic colonisation to be recognised, for the deep intellectual and spiritual traditions of First Nations Australians to be acknowledged and included, for their multiple living linguistic practices to be central in all kinds of communication and expression. Terraglossia is a powerful and moving plea for recognition, for understanding that only through the words of the earth, not just a language that arrived 250 years ago, will all the voices of Australia truly be heard.