The Daily Populous Monday April 20th, 2026 day edition
Authored by abc.net.au and submitted by is0ph

Rosie Sitorus remembers the moment she finally got Peter Salmon on the phone. She had been looking for him for three years.

"I was sitting in the car park of Karrinyup Shopping Centre in Perth, and [his grandkids] called and said, 'We've got Pop here to talk to you,'" she says.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!' and he was totally nonplussed."

Sitting next to her on our video call, Peter chuckles quietly to himself, shoulders bouncing.

The 92-year-old has been a stockman in Western Australia most of his life. He's also the last living speaker of the First Nations language Thiinma.

“I reckon my old grandfather would be really, really proud of me keeping the language going," Peter Salmon says. (Supplied: ABC TV)

Rosie, 38, is a linguist and was working at the time with the Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre in Geraldton, helping to find and preserve Indigenous languages.

After hearing rumblings of a Thiinma speaker in the area, Rosie set out to track him down.

"Peter's got this real knack for not being found if he doesn't want to be," she laughs.

But once in touch, it didn't take long for the two to become fast friends. Peter shared his language, Rosie shared her musical talent, and the pair started writing songs in Thiinma together, eventually forming a band called Warralgurniya, which means singing.

That led them all the way to taking part in ABC TV's The Piano, including performing one of their songs in the final concert at Sydney's Recital Hall, accompanied by Guy Sebastian, Andrea Lam, cellist Sally Maer and the legendary William Barton on yidaki.

Peter Salmon and Rosie Sitorus, known on stage as Warralgurniya, perform in Darwin. (Supplied)

Peter was born on Wurrgaja, or Maroondah Station, "about 210 miles north-east of Carnarvon".

"It was pretty good out at the station. I did love growing up out there," he says. There was a lot of family around, and his mother taught him Thiinma.

Stream The Piano now on ABC iview Unearthing everyday pianists from all over, regular Australians are invited to play the piano at busy locations around the country and given the opportunity of a lifetime.

Peter started working as a stockman alongside his uncle at about age 11.

"We used to take [the livestock] out every day, take them to the pool and water them, take them out in the grass, and then yard them up every night," he says.

"But we didn't have any boots or anything. Just barefoot with short trousers."

And he still works on the land.

"Being a stockman, that's all I know. I've never been to school. I can read a little bit, but not too much. But I can count sheep and cattle."

After his mother died, Peter had nobody to speak Thiinma with.

Peter says there is one benefit to that — "When you talk about somebody, you can talk in your own language [cackles]" — but it has been lonely, too.

"I had a sister that talks a little bit, but she was somewhere else," he says.

Rosie Sitorus and Peter Salmon played their song for crowds gathered around the piano in Sydney Airport. (Supplied: ABC TV)

So, when his grandson arranged for a phone call with a woman who was interested in his language, he was excited.

"I heard [it was] about the language and I reckoned that was real great," he says.

The pair got to know each other, and Rosie started to learn Thiinma

"We just spend a lot of time together, chatting," she says.

" I've always got this curiosity about how Peter sees the world, and what the world translates to into Thiinma. And Peter also has that in spades. "

She says they spend a lot of time in the car, driving to and from Perth, or out on country.

Rosie Sitorus and Peter Salmon attended the PULiiMA Indigenous Language and Technology Conference in Darwin together, sharing their music and work. (Supplied)

"When I first met Peter, we went to go round up some horses in a paddock. And I think we were doing 80 kilometres an hour in second gear in a woody creek bed, and I was like, 'I'm gonna die.' But Peter was like, 'Just hold on. It's so good.'"

The other way they connected was through music. While Peter grew up around music, it had been a long time.

"We always used to listen to old Buddy Williams records," Peter says of his family.

"And there was dancing and the Aboriginal songs, but I was pretty young then."

When he discovered Rosie was musical, he showed up with the lyrics and story of a song.

"He said, 'I've got a job for you,'" Rosie laughs.

"In the way that if you need to go to court, you get a lawyer, you know, he found a musician: Let's give her a song to write."

A language 'locked away' in an old man

Rosie wasn't sure what Peter would think about going on The Piano, but when she came to him with the idea, he agreed to give it a go.

The pair use both guitar and piano to write songs for their band, and decided going on the show could be a way to share Thiinma with a wider audience.

After blowing everyone away with their performance at the community piano placed in Sydney Airport, Peter and Rosie were invited to take part in the final concert at the City Recital Hall.

Even though yidaki is not traditional in Peter Salmon's country, Rosie Sitorus said there was "something really beautiful" about coming together with William Barton and blending their cultures. (Supplied: ABC TV)

"It was a bit surreal for both of us," Rosie says.

"The real gravity of it hit me … here is this language that has only come now to this huge national stage because an old man kept it locked away safe," she clutches her hands to her chest.

"He found people he trusted and built something with it.

" I could have been the best songwriter in the world, and the best linguist in the world, but if it weren't for Peter, none of this would exist. "

The pair performed their song Warri Yungu Warri Paba, which Rosie explains is about Peter's country.

"The song means, if there's no rain, there's no water. And if there's no water in the pools of the river, there's no grass, there's no kangaroos, there's no birds. There's no life, and the country dies."

And when Peter's grandson Mitch came out and vowed on stage to keep his knowledge alive for the next generation, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Peter is a man of few words, but Rosie says he is chuffed so many people are hearing his people's language.

"Peter was like, 'Do you reckon all those people like the song?'" Rosie says. When she told him she thought they did, he smiled.

"And he said, 'Oh gee, that's good.'"

Since performing on The Piano, Rosie and Peter have recorded another three songs.

"And just this morning Peter was like, 'I've got two more songs I want you to write,'" Rosie says.

"Yeah, we're in front," Peter says with a satisfied smile.

Peter Salmon gave Rosie Sitorus her Thiinma name after this Windara pool. (Supplied)

Peter's songs range in subject and style, from what it was really like as an Aboriginal man working on the stations, to a song about his favourite horse.

Rosie is delighted the country now knows more about Peter and his talents.

"People have been like, 'What do you mean your best friend's in his 90s?' And I'm like, 'You have no idea,'" she laughs.

But ultimately, it's all about keeping Thiinma language and culture alive.

"I'm here, Pop, and so are all the other young ones," Mitch said to Peter Salmon during the performance. "We'll take this language that you're giving us and the land that you're handing over, and we will take care of it." (Supplied: ABC TV)

"Until I met Rosie, I had no-one to talk to in the language. When I met her, she brought all the language back to me," Peter says.

Rosie says Peter is always attentive to protecting and sharing the knowledge of his old people, in particular, that of his father and two grandfathers.

"Everything he does comes from what they taught him and is for the next generation. The music's lovely, and it's fun and great, but everything we do and that Peter leads is for a reason," she says.

Peter's take is simple: "It made me feel good to teach the young fellow my language."

Stream the entire season of ABC TV's The Piano, including the final concert at Sydney Recital Hall, on ABC iview.

modern_drift on April 20th, 2026 at 00:42 UTC »

This is something I think AI should be used for.

That and nerdy fandoms. Use the language in a sci-fi show.

therealvonotny on April 19th, 2026 at 22:35 UTC »

As a linguist, this is the kind of story I love to read. Conservation of minority languages is so important. I hope they can manage to keep it alive and have it taught to younger generations as well.

Cynical_Classicist on April 19th, 2026 at 21:54 UTC »

That's kind of sweet. May what he knows remain with us...