First Languages Australia

First Languages Australia short with Michael Jarrett speaking Gumbaynggirr.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Little Wave Rock is a gathering place that harbours the history and secrets of Gamilaraay ancestors. Gamilaraay woman Loren Ryan discusses her connection to Country and the importance of paying respects at this sacred place.

First Languages Australia short with Mandy Nicholson speaking Woiwurrung.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Leanne Pope speaking about the Wakka Wakka language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Steven Coghill speaking about the Yuggera language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Annalee Pope talking in Waka Waka language.

First Languages Australia short with Ken Smith speaking about the Kokatha language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Jeff Chesters speaking about the Jarowair language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Jack Johncock speaking about the Wirangu Kokatha language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Fay Stewart-Muir about learning Boonwurrung language.

Mother Tongue series: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Binbi Wadyabay: Queensland Indigenous Languages Forum – Rockhampton 2018

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Gomeroi man Gavi Duncan explains the significance of Bulgandry, a sacred Indigenous art site. Situated in the Brisbane Water National Park, Bulgandry is home to rock carvings depicting the story of Baiyami, the creator.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The mountain Balgan, otherwise known as Pigeon House Mountain, is a sacred place from which many stories come from. This dreamtime story is from the Budawang people, one of the thirteen kinship groups in the Yuin area that speak the Dhurga language.

First Languages Australia short with Michael Hill speaking about the Gurang language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Gadj Maymuru speaking Yolŋu.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Gail Harradine speaking Wergaia.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Con Miller speaking about the Wirangu language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Emma Richards speaking about the Barngarla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Karina Lester speaking Yankunytjatjara.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

For tens of thousands of years, the rich and beautiful sounds of thousands of languages washed across this earth.
Over all of Australia it is believed there were more than five hundred at one time. Around two hundred years ago, a new language began to replace them, sweeping across Australia with such force that some parts of it could no longer hear the voices that told its stories and held its secrets.
A deep silence seemed to be looming.
Then, finally, a change began. As the volume of the old words faded to a whisper in some places, the people who are their custodians began to take action, calling for respect, for the rights to speak and be heard in their traditional tongues, while stirring everyone to appreciate the treasury of knowledge held in their languages.
The Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee was formed in 2005 in recognition of the need for a state body to advocate for Indigenous languages. Many of the group have known each other for many years prior through informal language networks. Together they have achieved many things for Queensland languages.
Over the years the women have found a collective passion for music and song. Some just love to sing and others wants to see their songs passed on the younger women. It was decided that for one meeting the women would each bring a song in their language to share with the others.
This contemporary musical gathering seeded the realisation singing in this way gives new life to the ancient process of sharing music between communities, and empowers the participants to share their languages.╩
Join with them, by listening or singing along, to let their ancient lands once again - and in ever louder volume - hear the voices that hold and tell its stories.

First Languages Australia short with o speaking about the Jandai language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Jennifer Creek speaking Kaantju/Ayapathu.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Eve Fesl about the Gubbi Gubbi language.

First Languages Australia short with Corey Theatre speaking Gunditjmara.

This video is from a series of videos produced by First Languages Australia that originally appeared on the Gambay Languages map. The map can be viewed at https://gambay.com.au/

First Languages Australia short with Des Crump speaking about the Kamilaroi language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Shaun Davies speaking about the Yugambeh language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Nora Cooke speaking Ngarla.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Ruth James, Shaniah Thomason, Robert Mitchell, and Deborah Sandy speaking about the Yugara-Yugarapul language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Benny Mabo speaking Meriam Mir.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Cygnet Repu speaking about the Kala lagaw Ya language -Mabuyag dialect .

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Ethel Munn and her Maranoa Lullaby.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

Language workers from right across the top end and throughout WA got together this week for the bi-annual Wanala Language conference.

ABC Open held a video workshop at the conference to demonstrate how easy it is to share language through video. This is the outcome of the workshop.

Produced by Alex Smee

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This video is set in Wurdi Youang, which means big hill in the middle of a plain. It is located about 60km south-west of Melbourne and is now known as the You Yangs. Here we explain the story behind how this impressive series of granite ridges, was formed and why it is part of an ancient song line.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actors: Rhyder Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Kerry Charlton speaking about the Yuggera - Djendewal llanguage.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Kaitlyn Lodewikus speaking about the Ganggula and Yiman languages.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Helena Wright speaking about the Kabi Kabi language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Grant Thompson speaking about the Ngandi language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Callum Clayton-Dixon speaking about the Anaywan language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Len Collard speaking about the Noongar language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

This video showcases a few of the hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Languages of Australia in a project to provide one song for the many voices of the land.
Check out the website for more information and great teachers resources: MarrinGamu.org.au
Marrin Gamu - My language, Our song.

First Languages Australia short with Thelma Coleman speaking about the Bayali language.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Vanessa Ferrelly speaking about the Pertame language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short withKelli Owen speaking in Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna, Nurrunga.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Jacqueline Spurling speaking about the Wangkatja language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Reegan Finlay speaking about the Gunggari llanguage.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

Mother Tongue series: Body Parts in Yuwibara

First Languages Australia short with Tahnee Creek speaking Kaantju/Ayapthu and Kuuka-Ya’u/Lama Lama.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Richard Johnson speaking GoorengGooreng.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Shane Blackman speaking Gurang.

The video was recorded and filmed with Indigenous men from the Barkly community of Utopia, in conjunction with traditional owner Cowboy Loy.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Leah Robinson and her Martu families love to hunt sand goannas in the western desert region of WA. The community at Parrngurr has a special place nearby – a significant waterhole where past elders first settled and lived.

First Languages Australia short with Diane McNaboe speaking North/West Wiradjuri.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Jennifer Creek speaking about the Kaantju language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Amy Davies speaking about the Gathang language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Godfrey Simpson speaking Wajarri.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Verna Koolmatrie speaking Ngarrindjerri.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with o speaking about the Kalkutungu language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Phyllis WIlliams speaking in Ngarrindjerri.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Seraine Namundja speaking about the Kunwinjku language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Sonya Smith speaking Bunganditj.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Steven Goldsmith speaking about the Kaurna language.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Harold Furber speaking Arrernte.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Anne Gela speaking about the Kala Lagau Ya - Bigthap Krio llanguage.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Kaiden Hancock-Richards speaking about the Barngarla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Virginia Jarrett, speaking Gumbaynggirr.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Wally Saunders speaking about Manbarra.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Wangal people know Sydney as the place of eel Dreaming and before it was known as the Parramatta River, the waterway was called Burramattagal. From trees that protected Aboriginal children from snakes to the first contact with Europeans, join Uncle Jimmy Smith in a tour of Sydney's significant parks and waterways.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

First Languages Australia short with Gabreil Creek, speaking Kaantju.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Ricky Buchanan speaking about the Gumbaynggir llanguage.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with speaking Gloria Dann about the Noongar language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Alfred Grey Junior speaking about the Gunggay language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

One day, right before her 14th birthday, Joy Wandin Murphy woke up with a bad feeling. She refused to go to school. She had an unshakeable sense of dread that something was going to happen to her father. Joy was eventually permitted to stay home, and her father passed away that same day.

It was a turning point for Joy. In that moment, she knew with absolute clarity that they had lost a great man and that to honour him, she had to give back somehow to her community. ‘From there it was indelibly printed that I had to do something, but at that point, I wasn’t sure exactly, what’, she recalls.

Joy Wandin Murphy is a Wurundjeri elder and Woiwurrung language teacher, based in Healesville, 60km east of Melbourne. Joy's great-great uncle was William Barak, the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder/leader) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan. Joy’s father, Jarlo Wandoon, attempted to enlist for World War 1 but was rejected on account of being Aboriginal. He proceeded to re-enlist under a whitefella name, James Wandin, and went on to serve overseas.

It’s with this same tenacity that Aunty Joy has applied herself to her work. She is committed to promoting positive relationships between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community, and to strengthening the Woiwurrung language. Joy frequently gives the traditional ‘Welcome to country’ greeting at Melbourne events and was invited to be the creative artist and lyricist for the Opening and Closing ceremony songs in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Among other accolades, Joy was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 2006, for her service to the community, particularly the Aborigines, through ‘significant contributions in the fields of social justice, land rights, equal opportunity, art and reconciliation’.

Joy currently teaches the Woiwurrung language to Year 7 and 8 students at Healesville High school and mentors her sister, Doreen, who also teaches language and culture at the school. It’s a pilot program funded by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. It will be supported until the end of the year. Beyond that, Joy is determined to find the funds to keep the program going.

Joy was taught the Woiwurrung language by her aunt and uncle, the older siblings of her father. 'Uncle Frank spent a lot of time with us and although he was a very quiet man, he would say a word, and it would just penetrate. You just never forgot what he said and how he said it,' she recalls. Joy knew that most of her generation had totally missed out on language, and she felt a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation.

‘It’s a very proud moment when you’re able to teach not just Wurundjeri children, but also non-Aboriginal children, because we are about educating everyone. And if we share the knowledge that’s been handed down over all those years, then we hope that can bring a much more harmonious community.’

This film is part of the ‘Mother Tongue’ language series, documenting Indigenous languages around Victoria. Click here to view the first film of the series, on the Wiradjuri language.

ABC Open Producer: Suzi Taylor

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The Gold Coast hinterland is a great vantage point to take in the east and west, but it also is the setting for a Yugambeh story. The Wanungara story gives life to the landscape, speaking to us of the formation of this country’s magnificent waterfalls, lush rainforests, ancient trees and natural beauty through the spirits of the landscape. The story explores the deeper nuances of respecting Elders, valuing family and being truthful and honest. Under the guidance of Senior Yugambeh Elder Patricia O’Connor, Paula Nihôt project officer with the Yugambeh Museum, tells the story of the Queen and her daughters who created this place.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

First Languages Australia short with Lesigo Zaro speaking about the Meriam Mir language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Tyronne Bell speaking Ngunawal.

This video is from a series of videos produced by First Languages Australia that originally appeared on the Gambay Languages map. The map can be viewed at https://gambay.com.au/

First Languages Australia short with Nyoka Hatfield speaking Dharumbal.

This video is from a series of videos produced by First Languages Australia that originally appeared on the Gambay Languages map. The map can be viewed at https://gambay.com.au/

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Michael Jarrett shares a Gumbaynggirr dreamtime story with us, from the banks of the Nambucca River... right next to the site a giant once fell.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

First Languages Australia short with Terence Creek speaking Southern Kanntju.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

Wajarri country is inland from Geraldton, Western Australia, and extends as far south and west as Mullewa, north to Gascoyne Junction and east to Meekatharra.

Leeann Merrit is a Senior language worker at Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre in Geraldton.

Leeann loves to teach children the Wajarri language and has produced a book called 'Balayi Mundungu' which means 'Look out for the monster'.

In this short video Leeann teaches body parts in the Wajarri language using a monster puppet to enlighten her students!

Produced by Leeann Merrit and Chris Lewis for ABC Open's Mother Tongue Project.

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Harold Ludwick speaking about the language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with James Sandy about the Yugambeh language.

Nhanda is a Midwest language spoken in the region from Geraldton to the Murchison River, yet very few people speak it fluently today.

In an attempt to stimulate and invigorate the sleeping language, a number of resources have been recently produced, in the hope that more people will learn the language for generations to come.

Linguist Rosie Sitorus who works at Irra Wangga Language Centre said: "We've created some posters primarily as a teaching tool for schools and homes, so that kids can look at it every day and they can start to be aware of the words and be proud of them."

The Irra Wangga Language team has been working quite extensively with the Nhanda people, in particular with Nhanda elder Clayton Drage and his daughter Colleen.

"We were never taught the language and I always wanted to speak Nhanda," Colleen Drage said.

"Speaking language should be part of our everyday life. I wish I could sit with someone one day and have a conversation with them in Nhanda language, that would be lovely."

One of the foundations to keep any language alive is storytelling, listening and recording those stories in language. Stories are really important and help to ensure languages like Nhanda are kept up-to-date and easily available for people to learn.

"Everyone who cares about representing the Nhanda language and culture should have these kinds of resources available," Rosie said.

"It's about trying to ensure people are proud of the language and that it's important and worthwhile."

ABC Open Producer: Chris Lewis

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Shonae Hobson with Kaantju.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Sandra Sebasio speaking about the Injinoo Ikya language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Lelarnie Hatfield speaking about the Dharumbal language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Bridget Priman speaking - Warrgamay.

This video is a part of teh First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Abigail Carter speaking Burarra.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Darnell Richards speaking about the Barngarla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Suzy Holland speaking Bunganditj

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Judy Anne Edgar speaking Yawuru.

This video was created as part of the First Languages Australia project the Gambay language map which can be viewed here: https://gambay.com.au/

First Languages Australia short with Susan Kenedy speaking about the Anguthimiri language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

Good Mornings Animations: Ngarigo

Mother Tongue series:

First Languages Australia short with Lionel Lovett speaking about the Wiradjuri language.

This video is a part of the amazing on the Gambay Language map from First Language Australia. The map can be viewed here: www.gambay.com.au

Butchulla lullaby

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Kabi Kabi man Kerry Neill shares the Aboriginal Dreaming story behind popular tourist destinations on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. In this story, we discover how the black swan helped Maroochydore gain its name.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Abigail Carter teaches at the Maningrida Community School. Abigail produced this film about language work for her Young Champions presentation at Puliima National Indigenous Languages and Technology Conference 2015.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Melinda Holden speaking about preserving langauge. Warrgamay

First Languages Australia short with Cecelia Ropeyarn speaking about the Injinoo Ikya language. This is the first ever Injinoo Ikya language video on ICTV.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

Keeping Marra Language Alive

First Languages Australia short with Bertram Tipungwiti, speaking Tiwi.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

First Languages Australia short with Ainsley O'Connor speaking about the Walmajarri language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Steven Atkinson speaking about the Barngarla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Leonora Adidi talking about children speaking language.

Mother Tongue series: A conversation in Bundjalung.

Watch the video, test your language skills and learn a bit of the mother tongue of some of the NSW north coast Aboriginal peoples.

Check how you went. Here's the translation.

Bianca: Hello
Dean: Hello
Bianca: Are you well?
Dean: I am good. Are you well?
Bianca: No, cold
Dean: Yes cold. What's your name?
Bianca: My name Bianca.
Dean: My name Dean. Where you from?
Bianca: Where from? Grafton
Dean: Grafton! Good very, I am from Grafton
Bianca: I am Bundjalung woman
Dean: Bundjalung!? I am Bundjalung man
Bianca: Yes brother!
Dean: Sister! Good very!
Bianca: Good very! I am mother, two children, boy and baby girl
Dean: Yes, I am father, two children, boy and girl
Bianca: Yes, good very
Dean: Yes, I am going now
Bianca: See you later
Dean: See you later

Bianca and Dean are from the ‪Wahlabul‬ clan of the ‪Clarence River valley‬.

Their vision is to become fluent speakers in their mother tongue and teach the next generation to be proud to practice their culture and speak their language.

Produced by Catherine Marciniak

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Hiroko Shioji speaking Yawuru.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Victoria Kennedy speaking about the Anguthimiri language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

Mothers Tongue series: A passion for Yolngu Matha Language.

First Languages Australia short with Alberta Honrsby speaking Guugu Yimithirr.

This video is a part of the First Languages Australia Gambay language map project. Available to view here: https://gambay.com.au

Bianca Monaghan and Dean Loadsman were born into the first generation of Wahlabul people to grow up with the freedom to practice their traditional language and culture, without being discouraged or punished.

They have a vision to give the next generation the gift of fluency in their mother tongue.

However, to do that, they first have to overcome a few major challenges. Neither Ms Monaghan or Mr Loadsman are fluent speakers of their mother tongue.

Traditionally it is not a written language, which means there are no textbooks.

And history is against them.

The colonial invasion in the early 1800s had a huge impact on the loss of language and culture for the Aboriginal clans of Australia's east coast.

Many communities were rounded up into missions with non-Indigenous managers. The goal was assimilation with white Australia.

The practice of language and culture was often prohibited and could be punished with imprisonment, but surprisingly some Aboriginal languages are not as dead as we are often led to believe.

Despite the harsh treatment in the missions, there are communities where people defied authorities and kept their language alive.

Some of those communities are in the Baryulgil, Tabulam and Woodonbong areas, remote regions of the NSW North Coast. These are the homelands of the Wahlabul and Gidhabul clans.

Language was still in regular use in the 1960s and even today, there are a few elders who are fluent speakers.

From the late 1800s through to the late 1900s, a number of linguists produced dictionaries recording some of the vocabulary of local dialects which they grouped under a region name of Bundjalung.

Ms Monaghan and Mr Loadsman are now studying these dictionaries and seeking out their elders, to sit at their feet and learn as much as they can.

Their vision is to become fluent and teach the next generation to be proud to practice their culture and speak their language.

A big thanks to the children of Baryulgil Public School who let us document their weekly lesson with Balun Budjarahm Cultural Experience.

ABC Open Producer: Catherine Marciniak
Photographer: Greg Barton

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

John Waterton teaches the Bidyara and Gungabula languages in the central Queensland town of Woorabinda.

The languages were thought to be lost for many years, but through the hard work of people like John, they are being reintroduced back into the community.

Here, John takes us through the parts of the face.

Produced by John Waterton, Felicity Doolan, Annalee Pope, Jewel Pope, Nicky Pope and Lisa Clarke

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Roy McDonnell speaking about the Injinoo Ikya language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Stephanie Jamesy speaking about the Burarra language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Clayton Cruse about Adnyamathananha language.

First Languages Australia short with Gabi Briggs speaking about the Ambeyang language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Jacqui Blackman speaking Yidingi.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

During NAIDOC week this year, ABC Open Producer Jeff Licence spent a day in Ballina on the NSW North Coast connecting with indigenous language teacher Rick Cook, the Bundjalung language and the local community.

Jeff held an ABC Open Mother Tongue stall, inviting anyone who came along to choose a Bundjalung word, write it on a blackboard with the English translation and pose for a photograph.

Alongside the Photographs, Rick Cook describes his experience with rediscovering and teaching the Bundjalung language.

The result is a lovely collection of Bundjalung words, faces and ideas about indigenous language.

If you want to know more about the back-story to this, read Jeff's blog.

Many thanks to interviewee Rick Cook and volunteers Ghita Fiorelli and Jaya Morphett.
Music: Sunrise over Alice by Michael Fix
Photography and Editing by Jeff Licence

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The thrombolites in Lake Clifton in WA are thought to be one of the first life forms on earth. George and Frank share how for the Noongar people, the thrombolites hold a significant place in their Dreaming stories and explain how the local waterways were created.

Good Mornings Animations: Wakka Wakka

First Languages Australia short with Ingrid Nigarmara speaking about the Miriwoong language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Julie Walker speaking Yinhawwangka.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with Sally Baisden speaking Yugambeh.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

This is a story about a dynamic group of women who are reviving the GunaiKurnai language throughout East Gippsland in Victoria: Lynnette Solomon-Dent, Dr Doris Paton and Hollie Johnson.

Dr Paton explains that not everything in her language can be directly translated into English. There is no single word in Gunai for ‘tree’. The word they use to name a tree will depend on the food it yields, what species it is and what cultural and medicinal function it might serve. Born of some of the world’s greatest environmentalists, it makes sense that the Gunai language expresses the intimate knowledge its interlocutors share of their natural world.

‘Language isn’t just about speaking, it’s your whole way of life,’ explained Lynnette Solomon-Dent. ‘It tells you what’s in the country, what the stories are, what your obligations are to each other.’ Unpack a single word and you can start to understand a system of kin relations and cultural obligations that are still alive and well. The word for ‘mother’ doubles as the word used for Lynnette’s sisters. If anything happened to Lynnette, her sisters would automatically become mothers to her children. It’s all there in the language.

The scope of words we have and use reveals a lot about what we care about, where our attention lies and what kind of world we live in. In the Arrernte language of Central Australia, there is a single word for ‘the smell of rain’ and for ‘debris from trees floating, left over from a flood’. The Yindiny language spoken south of Cairns has highly specialised terms for noises. ‘Ganga’ means ‘the sound of someone’s feet approaching’ and ‘yuyurungul’ means ‘the shushing noise of a snake sliding through the grass’. Pitjantjatjara has no words for numbers beyond three, but like Gunai and countless other Indigenous languages, it contains extremely complex vocabulary surrounding kinship relations and natural phenomena – right down to describing types of lightening and the spectrum of colours in the sky.

A language can bring you into a community or it can keep you apart from one. Anybody who has travelled in a foreign country without a grasp of its language can attest to the bewildering sense of disconnection from the people, landscape and culture. Words can help you see beyond your peripheral vision. Dr Doris Paton hopes that Australians will turn their heads to embrace the many different languages and countries we have on board our great big island, and all the little islands surrounding it. ‘[Our languages] are quite distinct like in Europe, and that sharing of language also shares knowledge, as it does in European languages.’

The biggest difference is that unlike the majority of European languages, our Indigenous languages are vanishing at an alarming rate. Across the country, people like Doris, Lynnette and Hollie are racing against the clock to revive their ancestral languages, protect over 40,000 years of knowledge and offer all of us the opportunity to better understand this country and its Indigenous caretakers, from the inside out.

Feel free to share your response to the film or the ideas in this blog, using the ‘feedback’ form below. For more background on the GunaiKurnai language and culture of East Gippsland, check out a fantastic article with audio links by ABC Open Producer Rachael Lucas on some local GunaiKurnai place names and click here for a great yarn about a recent canoe-building building project in Gippsland, led by Gunai elder Uncle Albert Mullett. Check out other documentary films produced as part of the 'Our Mother Tongue' series here.

Please note, the Australian Aboriginal Languages map featured in the film is just one representation of many other map sources that are available for Aboriginal Australia. Using published resources available between 1988–1994, this map attempts to represent all the language or tribal or nation groups of the Indigenous people of Australia. It indicates only the general location of larger groupings of people which may include smaller groups such as clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. Boundaries are not intended to be exact. This map is NOT SUITABLE FOR USE IN NATIVE TITLE AND OTHER LAND CLAIMS. David R Horton, creator, © Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS and Auslig/Sinclair, Knight, Merz, 1996. No reproduction allowed without permission.

ABC Open Producer: Suzi Taylor

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Jason O’Neil speaking Wiradjuri.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

First Languages Australia short with John Waterton talking about the Gungabula language.

Mother Tongue series: Maritza Roberts Marra Camp

First Languages Australia short with Troy Wyles speaking about the Warrgamay language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Kirrit Barret, or Black Hill, is where the creation story begins for the Wathaurung people. On this sacred hill, Bunjil created the first two men from bark and clay.

Danielle shares some Arrernte words

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Clarence Wyles Jnr is a Ranger and a proud Warrgamay man. He shares his knowledge of the healing place (Broadwater) where his old people made camp and washed away negativity by swimming in the water. The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Sue Hanson is a linguist, and for the last four years she's been working with a small group of women from Leonora, two hours drive north of Kalgoorlie in the West Australian Goldfields. They are some of the last remaining speakers of Kuwarra, the language of the people from around the Lake Darlot region, north east of Leonora.

The ladies love nothing more than getting the family together and heading out into the bush.

"If we got no money or it's really raining - but if we have a chance of having money for the fuel, then we go hunting - that's the only two things that will stop us," says Geraldine.

It's in this bush setting that a lot of the language and stories can naturally emerge.

Preserving a language takes years of commitment and work, and Sue has been empowering the Kuwarra ladies with the skills and confidence to operate as bicultural people in the changed social landscape of modern Australia.

Mother and daughter, Luxie and Geraldine Hogarth say that maintaining their language is important because it's central to who they are as human beings.

Produced by Nathan Morris

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Maritza Roberts speaking Marra.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Goguljar is the traditional name for the Avon River. Traditional owner and Baladang Nyungar land holder, Oral McGuire is working to regenerate land and has discovered ceremonial sites of cultural significance to the Baladong Nyungar people.

First Languages Australia short with Edie Maher speaking Wajarri.

This beautiful series of shorts from First Languages Australia celebrate Indigenous languages, and the people who speak them, keep them alive and help others to learn more about Indigenous language.

The next step for Indigenous languages in the NT

First Languages Australia short with Melinda Holden speaking about the o llanguage.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

The Walkandi-Woni Art Group from the Riverland of South Australia is celebrating their Indigenous heritage and at the same time continuing a long tradition of oral storytelling.

It's sad to say that colonisation has resulted in the loss of hundreds of Indigenous languages in Australia, with the the Murray River Tongue being one of those.

Some River Tongue words are still spoken today but in mélange of different languages from surrounding areas.

Luckily in 1816 the South Australian Protector of Aborigines, a pastoralist by the name of Matthew Moorhouse, recorded a wide range of words and phrases, along with their phonetic pronunciations. So now we are seeing a sleeping language being given a new lease on life, and a new generation of speakers.

Walkandi-Woni is leading this charge to put the language back into the community from where it came. The dreaming story of the Moolyawongk, or bunyip, is a great starting point to put some of the tribal language into a form where it is accessible for all.

This version of the Moolyawongk story was recorded in 1964 and has been transformed into a picture book by the art group, using linocut printing. ABC Open's involvement has meant that the story has transformed again into a digital form that can be shared across the world.

All eleven pages of the full Moolyawongk story can be found here in this video.

ABC Open Producer: Daniel Schmidt

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

It’s story time at the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy school in Hopevale and Aunty Irene Hammett is armed with her Guugu Yimidhirr language books.

She wrote them based on her and her family’s childhoods. They tell tales of adventures on country - through the bush, and at the beach.

The class gathers on the mat in front of Aunty Irene and listen intently.

Irene is a long-time teacher and reader at this Hopevale school and is a passionate advocate for the speaking of her mother tongue.

“Language is something that no one else can take away from you,” she says. “It’s in your heart and in your mind.”

Produced by Gemma Deavin

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Nguthungulli is the creator of the land and water around Byron Bay. When he finished he went to rest in the ocean cave at Julian Rocks. Brother and sister Norm Graham and Delta Kay share the dreaming story and what it means to them.

Body parts in Arrernte.

Sadadeen Primary School, Alice Springs, NT.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Melinda Holden takes us into Bundaberg, out to the coast, through the scrubs and up the river to exemplify how the local place names represent deep connections to the Taribelang people and culture.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Patsy Cameron shares the importance of Indigenous place names and dual naming.

"Sharing Indigenous place names honours the ancestors and acknowledges the beautiful language, and the significant part of language that tells the story of country. However we need to do it together so we can all feel confident and we all feel a part of it".

Paul Carmody is a teacher at Amaroo Outdoor Education Centre in Kleinton, southern Queensland.

Located on Jarowair and Giabal land, the centre welcomes more than 5000 students through the gates each year.

Paul is neither a Jarowair nor Giabal man.

His father - the singer-songwriter Kev Carmody - is from the Bunjalung nation, originally located around the northern coastal areas of NSW.

His grandfather is Lama Lama from Cape York in north Queensland.

Growing up, Paul spoke very little Aboriginal language other than English.

“Even though the first 12 to 18 months of my life was on an ant bed floor the rest of the time we had running water and electricity like most of you folks,” explains Paul.

“So language being a part of our everyday lives was not there.

"However the cultural aspects - the bush stuff, the connection to country, the symbiotic relationship of flora and fauna - was very, very strong growing up as kids.”

The education centre has a strong relationship with the Jarowair custodians who maintain, care for and facilitate walks at Gummingurru, a local male initation site.

Now with the guidance and permission of local elders, Paul is helping to share traditional words and local Indigenous culture with the many students who visit each year.

ABC Open Producer: Ben Tupas

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Since the beginning of 2017, Aboriginal students at Eden Public School, on the far south coast of New South Wales, have been learning the language of their elders.

It is the culmination of a painstaking language revitalisation project that began more than 10 years ago.

In 2006, Ossie and Beryl Cruse, Shirley Aldridge and Liddy Stewart, together with project coordinator Sue Norman, began meeting with elders along the south coast to record interviews and find out how much language was still spoken.

For the next four years, they travelled the coast from Bomaderry to Eden, interviewing 37 elders and capturing over 1,000 words, supplemented by recordings made with various elders in the 1960s.

They built a database of words using the Miromaa database, developed in Australia for communities working to revitalise their traditional languages.

Another two years were spent building an audio dictionary, selecting words and verifying their pronunciation and spelling in consultation with the community in Eden.

Flash cards, games, songs help teach language
The group then developed resources to teach the language – from flash cards and games, to a workbook and a song.

They have been teaching students at Eden Public School since the beginning of this year. One of the first class exercises was for students and teachers to give themselves a name in language.

The traditional languages of the far south coast are Dhurga from Wandandean to Wallaga Lake, Djiringanj from Wallaga Lake to Merimbula, and Thawa southwards from Merimbula.

Uncle Ossie Cruse said the group wanted to revitalise a common language that was used from Eden to La Perouse.

The Eden Aboriginal community is a resettlement community – south coast tribes were heavily impacted by colonisation, and people travelled up and down the coast for agricultural work, so for many speakers, the traditional languages have become mixed.

But even before colonisation, a trade language would have been shared by the different tribes of the south coast, and this is what the language group has tried to capture.

Emotional experience for elders involved
In May 2017, elders from the language group visited the original interviewees and their families in Cobargo, Wallaga Lake, Ulladulla, Nowra, Bomaderry, Sanctuary Point, and Wreck Bay to give them a copy of their recordings, and the audio dictionary and workbook they contributed to.

Uncle Ossie Cruse said it was an emotional experience, especially as some of the elders who shared their knowledge had now passed away.

This story was filmed over 12 months at the Monaroo-Bobberer-Gudu Keeping Place at Jigamy, Eden High School and Eden Public School. The project was made possible by the Our Languages Our Way program of NSW Aboriginal Affairs. Many thanks to the community for allowing this project to be captured by the ABC.

ABC Open Producer: Vanessa Milton

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Agnes Mark speaking about the Anguthimiri language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

First Languages Australia short with Kynan Richards speaking about the Barngarla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This video tells the story of how our Wadawurrung people were created by Bunjil, our spirit creator, at Kareet Bareet, now known as Black Hill near Gordon, not far from Ballaarat. This area was once covered in forest but is now largely a farming community, mainly of potatoes, due to the rich volcanic soils. That is why the Wadawurrung are known as the red soil people.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actors: Indigo Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Marion and Margaret talk about working in Burarra language

First Languages Australia short with Diane Evans speaking about the Wadja language.

This video was created as part of the First Languages Australia project the Gambay language map which can be viewed here: https://gambay.com.au/

Mother Tongue series: Greetings in Dhurga

Mother Tongue series: Story of the Longbums in the Mangroves

Nyiburr borrmunga We are family

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This video is set at Bongerimennin, now known as Flagstaff Hill lookout in Linton. It tells an important story about how the land was created by two strong warriors from our dreaming who can still be found in the landscape today.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actor: Indigo Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Lameko Paiwan speaking about the Butchulla language.

First Languages Australia is a national organisation working with community language programs around the country to support the continued use and recognition of Australia’s first languages.

More info: www.firstlangauges.org.au

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Underneath the world’s oldest picture garden in Broome, Western Australia, sits something far more ancient – a jila or waterhole. Yawuru man Jimmy Edgar remembers the dream time stories of this area and how it has remained an important meeting place for people from many cultures over thousands of years.

Angelina Joshua Marra Young Champion

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This video tells the story of Lal Lal, a very spiritual place for Wadawurrung people. This valley of waterfalls and creeks was our creators resting place before his journey into the heavens to live amongst the stars.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actor: Rhyder Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

In our local language of Kunwinjku, we say "karribolknahnan kunred". It means caring for country.

Looking after our country near Gunbalanya, in Western Arnhem Land, is a big part of our job as rangers.

Here is a little story about some of what we do. In particular, it's about the spot called Red Lily, right on the northwestern edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment. We'll teach you some more Kunwinjku words along the way.

This video was made as part of an ABC Open Top End workshop for the ABC Open project Mother Tongue.

A combined group of artists from the Injalak Arts Centre and Njanjma Rangers got together to tell stories and practice with media.

Produced by Manbiyarra Grant Nayinggul.

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Jamie Woods of Nari Nari Tribal council reveals the long social and personal journey leading to the repatriation of hundreds of burial sites across the plains west of Hay in NSW.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

In this video we explain the meaning behind the place Ballaarat, now spelt Ballarat, and why it is such a good place to live. It was a gathering place for both Wadawurrung people and animals that moved off the grassy plains to shelter during winter.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actor: Indigo Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Mugincoble is a sacred meeting place for the Wiradjuri nation but is now private property. Wiradjuri Language Teacher Lionel Lovett explains how various landmarks in town act as signposts towards the ancient gathering spot.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Mother Tongue series: Welcome to Shelly Beach

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

Here we visit Modewarre, now known as Lake Modewarre, near Geelong. It was once a place of great activity and an abundant source of food for the Wadawurrung people. Sadly now, there is no water because of changes made to the waterways for farming and irrigation.

Story: Bryon Powell
Producers: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actor: Indigo Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Arly takes us down to the Dungang or Bila (River) to share with us one of her favourite places on Birpai Country. The dungang/ bila was a major food source supplying oysters, crab, the fish, and apart of the water cycle that starts in the balgar (mountains) and flows into the garuwa (ocean).

Keeping Aboriginal knowledge and culture alive.

Yitha Yitha Elder: Yitha Yitha Elder Will Hannah-Rodgers
Camera: Sue Hudson

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

The Wajarri language, once spoken throughout the Murchison region of Western Australia, now has fewer than 50 fluent speakers. The Wajarri Dictionary App, developed by the Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre, contains almost 2000 entries from the Wajarri language dictionary. Godfrey Simpson is a Wajarri man and at 37 is one of the few young speakers of the language. He has worked on his wangga (language) for most of his life and is passionate about seeing it passed on to the younger generation.

This video was created with the kind permission and assistance of Godfrey Simpson, Edie Maher, Nadine Taylor, Leeann Merritt, Coralie Dann, Amanda Simpson and Kira O'Dene; with special thanks and gratitude to Wajarri Elders Dora Dann and Ross Boddington, and all Wajarri people who have given their language and made projects like these possible.

Produced by Rosie Sitorus

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Parts of the body in Butchulla

Across Australia there are hundreds of different Aboriginal languages, some that are still spoken fluently across generations, and others that are endangered, and are in the process of being revived or preserved.

But what’s involved in keeping these ancient languages alive, and who are the people doing the work?

In 2016 there was a WA language conference held in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was an event that brought together Aboriginal language speakers and experts from across WA and Australia, but it was also a place for people to come together and celebrate culture and share their vision for the future.

This video captures the language and the stories of some of those people who attended the annual gathering, and it was produced with help from First Languages Australia.

ABC Open Producer: Nathan Morris

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Speaking in Gamilaraay lingo is a top priority for the students and teachers at Toomelah Public School, just south of the QLD/NSW border.

Guided by Carl McGrady and Sue Swann, students learn the Gamilaraay language alongside subjects like Maths and English.

How do they learn it?

Enter the space designated as their language room and you will see posters with both Gamilaraay and English words, games like 'Lingo Bingo' and Gamilaraay language textbooks.

There is a definite hands-on approach to the teaching and learning.

Sometimes the wide open space of the playground becomes the classroom.

With a stew bubbling away on the campfire and Johnny cakes slowly baking on the coals, students connect Gamilaraay lingo to the ingredients and everyday objects that are being used.

After all the hard work is done it's time to ""Maa wurri nganha!""


Produced by Ben Tupas

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

First Languages Australia short with Ashleigh Clarke & Karina Barney talking about their language Butchulla.

Australian animals in Bidyara and Gungabula - BIDYARA GUNGABULA - Woorabinda QLD

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The Dhanggati name for Anderson Sugarloaf Mountain is Barralbarayi. It was a place where the men would take the boys for initiation. The goanna spirit still lives on Anderson Sugarloaf Mountain. Dhanggati elder Bob Smith shares the story with his granddaughter Shaylan.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Richelle shares some Arrernte words.

Across Australia there are hundreds of different Aboriginal languages, some that are still spoken fluently across generations, and others that are endangered, and are in the process of being revived or preserved.

But what’s involved in keeping these ancient languages alive, and who are the people doing the work?

In 2016 there was a WA language conference held in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was an event that brought together Aboriginal language speakers and experts from across WA and Australia, but it was also a place for people to come together and celebrate culture and share their vision for the future.

This video captures the language and the stories of some of those people who attended the annual gathering, and it was produced with help from First Languages Australia.

Produced by Nathan Morris

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Researching the culture and language of place names of the Whadjuk Nyungar people has been a lifelong pursuit for Professor Len Collard. His knowledge of the ancient dialects provide a deeper meaning to the way of life and the relationship between land, place and the meanings behind places of Nyngar Boojar.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Among the many significant places in Albany, on Western Australia’s rugged south coast, lies Binalup. Noongar man Mark Colbung takes us back to a time when historic events took place as the white sand glowed in the morning light.

According to Suellyn Tighe, a Gamilaraay woman from Coonabarabran, the modern Aboriginal story is a difficult one.

To keep her language current, to keep Aboriginal youth engaged, she believes we need to present her language in a modern day setting whilst maintaining the connection to the past.

Suellyn originally wrote the poem, Near or Far, for her grandchildren. It’s about reconnecting a young Aboriginal girl to the language of the land and the richness of the Gamilaraay culture. It begins with a young Aboriginal girl (Briarna) in a town setting drawn to an older Aboriginal woman in a bush setting (Suellyn) who is reciting a poem (Near or Far) in Gamilaraay. The voice connects them through this sacred meeting place to the modern day.

The Kamilaroi or "Gamilaroi" are an Indigenous Australian Murri people. Gamilaraay country stretches from Coonabarabran (NSW) in the south, north to Boggabilla, to Tamworth in the east and Walgett in the west.

Suellyn has taught Gamilaraay within communities and educational arenas across the Gamilaraay nation. Rather than tell people how to speak the language she likes to show people the language.

Producer/Camera/Editor: Alison Plasto
Animation: Chris Lewis
Executive Producer: Ian Walker

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

John Waterton, who teaches the Bidyara and Gungabula languages in the community of Woorabinda, tells us the names of some native Australian animals.

Produced by John Waterton and Lisa Clarke

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.
Snake: Munda

Emu: Gubbari

Grey Kangaroo: Ngarrgu

Goanna: Dhagayn

Dingo: Gumbina

Koala: Dhidhayn

My language Gathang

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Warrgamay place names provide a wealth of history and knowledge of Country. The words used to name places are in recognition of place or a person that came from that place, and provide connection to Country.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Mungabareena means a ‘special meeting place’ in Wiradjuri language. People would meet there on their way to Mt Bogong to collect Bogong moths and return to Mungabareena to feast on them.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

My name is Anne Gela and I am a fluent big thap kriol / yumpla tok language speaker born on Thursday Island. I am a Mualgal woman from St Paul community of Moa Island which is situated in the inner-west Torres Strait group of islands.

I believe that there are two types of Torres Strait Islander Yumpla Tok speakers:

a. The broken English speaker, who speaks purely broken English

b. The Bigthap speaker, who uses traditional Torres Strait language words in their Yumpla tok speech.

I am a facilitator who conducts the Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Language programs for Saima Torres Strait Islander Corporation and I also provide assistance to language speakers in the interpretation of the language dialect words into English.

My vision is to see that all the dialects of the Torres Strait Islander languages of Kala Lagau Ya, Meriam Mir, Kala Kawaw Ya, Kawalgal and Kulkagaw, and also the west and east Torres Strait Kroil dialects, are revived and preserved as they are living language dialects that have been passed down from one generation to another by word of mouth.

That's all the more reason they should be documented, as they are part of our history.

Illustrated and spoken by Anne Gela, video by ABC Open Capricornia

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This story is about Borombeet, now known as Lake Burrumbeet, just out of Ballaarat. Now it is a large recreational area for boating, fishing and camping but in our old people’s time it was a place of significance for us because it was a constant source of water, rich in resources such as food and medicine.

Story; Bryon Powell
Producer: Tammy Gilson & Larissa Romensky
Animation: Stephanie Skinner
Actor: Rhyder Harrison

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Barkindji man Michael “Smacka” Whyman takes us to this sacred place where ceremonies and initiations were held. Many different tribes came to this Country for these reasons. Mutawintji means ‘place of green grass and water holes.’

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The Wathaurung people of Victoria share a fascinating creation story with their neighbouring tribal groups. Here, Wathauring man Barry James Gilson tell us how Looern, in his efforts to eat the Koonawarra swan sisters, helped create the vast granite formations seen across much of Victoria.

Peter Salmon, now in his 80s is the last speaker of the Indigenous Thiin (or Thiinma) language. With only a few of his younger relatives able to understand Thiin (or Thiinma), Peter is keen for his language to be recaptured and revived before it is too late.

The Lyons River in the Upper Gascoyne region of Western Australia is his home country.

Raised by his mother in the days when many children were taken away from their Indigenous families, he is proud to carry the heritage of his language.

Peter has three favourite words that inspire his memory of younger days captured here for the ABC Indigenous Word Up project.:

bibi - Mother

nguurru - Horse

baba - water

Other Thiin (or Thiinma) words Peter shared with us:

Ngatha yinha ngurrala buna - I'm here now, I'm going on to my country

mithari - vicks bush

walhara - lemongrass

bugardi - snakewood

mardalha - beefwood

gunayija - creeping mulga

marndabilharu - goanna with green arm

jabardi - jam tree

jilhu - tea tree

yilirri - flat

gujuwi - red

birran - white

As the day passed with Peter travelling across country, his memories came alive as if they were today. Each tree, rock and animal we encountered were translated into Thiin before our eyes by this extraordinary living Thiin elder. Each word is translated by language centre worker Rosie Sitorius for ABC Awaye!.

ABC Open Producer: Susan Standen

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Mother Tongue series: Buyunguarra Who Didn't Listen.

A few people speak the Indigenous Djabuguy language fluently. Michael Quinn, an Englishman, is one of them.

It was 1986 when he arrived in the Far North Queensland town of Kuranda with his young family. Before this he had been living in Sydney where he studied a four year Anthropology degree at the University of Sydney, while teaching English.

He had never met an Aboriginal bama (person) but wanted to study the mythology of the land he was going to build a house on. When he approached Lalfie Thompson, the last initiated man of the Djabuguy tribe, to ask permission to do this he told him, ""not until you learn our language.""

So began Michael's 28 year journey of learning and teaching the Djabuguy language. In this time he has had the help of linguists who had studied the language in the past - Ken Hale, Bob Dixon, Helena Cassells and Elizabeth Patz - and elders like Nyuwarri Queen of the Djabuganydji, Wurrmbul Gilpin Banning and Warren Brim.

Elder, Rhonda Brim, Rhonda Duffin and Chairman of the Djabuguy Tribal Aboriginal Corporation, Gerald Hobbler, have also been some of his main supporters.

When Michael arrived there were still a handful of elders who spoke Djabuguy. It was Wanyarra, Roy Banning, who is the last person Michael knows to have grown up speaking Djabuguy as his first language, who was his main language teacher. Michael says he couldn't have got very far without Roy. For many years they worked together in local schools and at the Tjapukai Theatre in Kuranda and Tjapukai Aboriginal Theme Park outside Cairns.

One of the reasons the Djabuguy language has come so close to extinction is the movement of many Djabuguy children to the Mona Mona Adventist Church Mission between 1913 and 1963 – under Aboriginal protection policies of the day.

“The government were telling us what we can and can’t do,” says Gerald Hobbler, who spent some of his childhood on the mission. “We always thought we were under the act.”

The rules were strict and English was the only language tolerated. Mother tongue was no longer spoken.

Today, one Indigenous language disappears every two weeks. Estimates suggest 100 years from now there will possibly be no indigenous languages left on the planet.

Nearly thirty years after first approaching Lalfie Thompson, Michael is seen as a custodian of the language – a language that once covered an area from the coast in Cairns to the highlands, back to Mareeba and up to Port Douglas.

He is now a teacher of the language he has dedicated much of his life to learning and spends two afternoons a week at Kuranda District State College teaching Djabuguy to local children.

What does Michael hopes comes from all this? That people will be able to “Buwal bugan ngirrma bulmba-barra – speak the language of the country”.

"I am grateful to the Bama, the people of this place, who have shown me friendship and encouraged my work," says Michael.

Produced by Gemma Deavin

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The land surrounding Berrigan is flat as far as the eye can see — except for one rocky out crop hidden down a dirt road and surrounded by farmland. On this rocky outcrop is a waterhole and a manmade filtering system that is an estimated 5000 years old. Uncle Freddie Dowling tells the story behind this beautiful Country.

Across Australia there are hundreds of different Aboriginal languages, some that are still spoken fluently across generations, and others that are endangered, and are in the process of being revived or preserved.

But what’s involved in keeping these ancient languages alive, and who are the people doing the work?

In 2016 there was a WA language conference held in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was an event that brought together Aboriginal language speakers and experts from across WA and Australia, but it was also a place for people to come together and celebrate culture and share their vision for the future.

This video captures the language and the stories of some of those people who attended the annual gathering, and it was produced with help from First Languages Australia.

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) has a rich history as being a fishing, feasting and camping place for Gunai clans in East Victoria. However in recent years residential development and pollution has been effecting the health of the Lake's water and ecosystem.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

When you think about the names of towns and landmarks in the area where you live, how many of them have Aboriginal names? And what do you know about the meaning of those names?

According to author and historian Bruce Pascoe, 60-70% of Australian place names are Aboriginal, and embedded in those names is an intimate knowledge of the land and its history.

Pascoe is a Bunurong, Punniler panner and Yuin man who lives on the southern end of Yuin country, near Mallacoota.

He is one of the people behind ABC’s This Place project, capturing the meaning behind Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander place names around Australia. He talks about the inspiration for the project, the cultural significance of the land he lives on, and the meaning behind the name Mallacoota, and the rich system of rivers where he lives.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Mount Augustus is the largest monolith in the world, 2.5 times larger than Uluru. The Wajarri people call it Burringurrah, named after a boy who ran away from tribal initiation. Elder Charlie Snowball tells the dreaming story.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

After years of fighting, two mountains in Central Queensland have been given back their traditional names. Aunty Sally and Nhaya Nicky share why the Darumbal Community fought so hard for this change.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

Mother Tongue series: Learn Some Ngarla

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Bobbinawarra is Bangerang for pelican, and you are almost guaranteed to see one in the lakes, ponds and rivers that surround this tiny locale. Bangerang elder uncle Freddie Dowling tells how inland pelicans came to be.

Sian Lee is the Indigenous Student Services Officer at LaTrobe University, Mildura campus.

Sian Lee has memories of learning to speak Barkindji as a child. This is what first sparked her passion for language and lead her to a career in teaching and linguistics.

This is Sianlee’s Mother Tongue Story

Produced by ABC Open Sunraysia

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English.

We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.

In this series of short films we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.

Language needs a place to live, and this is a chance for us to tell our stories and our language.

Our language is sleeping, but will soon reawaken.

This video is set in Kuaka-dorla, now known as Anglesea on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. This popular tourist destination is a significant site to our Wadawurrung people as there is still evidence of where our old people harvested shellfish to feast on. Here, young Indigo is shown how to look for food.

Mother Tongue series: Body Parts in Dhurga

Beryl Carmichael is the last of her family to sing the Ngiyampaa birth song. The birth song has been handed down from her Grandmother to her Mother and now Beryl is the last of her family to sing the Ngiyampaa song.

Produced by Mungo Youth Project 2014

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Traditional custodian Shannon Bauwens takes us to Gummingurru, a place name chosen by the Elders when their land was returned to them. The clusters of rocks on the land represents the distribution of people on their journey back to the coast.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

When Aunty Lee Healy decided to make the first dictionary for the Taungurung language, she didn’t know what she was in for.

The dictionary took four years to make and Aunty Lee says, “I don’t think my mind stopped.”

“It became my passion. I would get up at 3.30 in the morning and do it. I was doing it seven days a week.”

Taungurung country is much of Central Victoria: from Kyneton to the west, Euroa to the north, Lake Nilahcootie to the east and Great Dividing Range to the south. When Taungurung country was settled and people were forced into missions, “We lost everything,” Aunty Lee says. “We lost the kinship system, our ceremonies, and our language.”

In 2001, the Taungurung Elders Committee formed a committee to revive the language. Language workers built a database of over three hundred words and ran community language camps.

Aunty Lee and her family were heavily involved in reviving language. The dictionary is dedicated to the work of Aunty Lee's mum, Aunty and Uncle, and acknowledges all the work and passion of language workers and Elders in reviving Taungurung language.

"I wanted to get the language back."
Over time, learning language and attending language camps with her kids, Aunty Lee felt something wasn’t right.

“We were pronouncing language with English sounds and it just wasn’t our language. I wanted to get it back to how our ancestors spoke."

In 2006 Aunty Judy Monk-Slattery-Patterson retired as Language Worker and Aunty Lee took over the job. She believed a dictionary was the way to research and recover the Taungurung language to its original form before colonisation.

"I had my Aunty Judy’s permission to make the dictionary and that’s where I started.”

A jigsaw puzzle of historical sources
With the help of the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation of Languages, Aunty Lee pored through 19th century historical sources - diaries, letters, and reports written by colonial settlers - in search of records of the Taungurung language.

She wanted to work out each letter and sound to match the fluency of her ancestors and to put cultural knowledge to the words.

Using the historical records was not easy.

Settlers came from different parts of Britain and recorded Taungurung words through the lens of their accent. For some Taungurung words like ngarrak (mountain), Lee encountered four to six different spellings.

They used an English alphabet to record sounds they had never heard.

Aunty Lee also had to decipher the grammar of Taungurung from these colonial sources.

“We’ve got suffixes in our language, so there was more than just words. I had to figure out what the suffix was, and I could get frustrated cos I’m not a linguist at all.“

“I will say that I’m grateful for them because they wrote something down. Or else it would have been lost forever.”

Community process
Throughout the making of the dictionary, the community was consulted. The dictionary has its own orthography, a pronunciation and spelling system that the community agreed on, with one sound and one spelling.

“To see it and say it,” is the intention.

“You’re looking at adults trying to learn a second language,” Aunty Lee points out.

“From going to Taungurung language camps, I knew how I wanted the dictionary designed and how other people would want it.”

Dictionary contents
The cover of the dictionary is the Taungurung possum skin cloak. It tells Taungurung creation stories
and these are explained at the front of the book.

“We put the possum skin cloak on the cover because it represents every person in the Taungurung community,” Aunty Lee says.

The dictionary begins with a pronunciation guide, and then Taungurung-English and English - Taungurung word list.

Using the dictionary is easy, says Lee. “You can go straight to an English word at the back, find that word at the front of the book and you will also get cultural knowledge.”

My pride and joy stick
One of Aunty Lee's favourite hobbies is pyrography, making art on wood through burning. So it was natural that she burnt a stick to mark the dictionary’s completion.

"This is my ‘pride and joy’ stick. It symbolises the work of my journey."

When the Victorian Corporation for Aboriginal Languages published the dictionary in 2011, and Aunty Lee had the 400 page book in her hands for the first time, she had to sit down and take it all in. “I was crying,” she says.

“I thought, the community is going to be so proud. Everyone kept saying to me, “You’ve done it. And you had no idea what linguistics was!”

“It was a lot of work but it didn’t matter because it come from the heart.”

Aunty Lee Healy is now doing a degree in Linguistics at Monash University and has plans for a grammar book for the Taungurung language.

Produced by Jane Curtis

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

When Wiradjuri woman Jody Chester looks up at the Milky Way, she sees the stars of her ancestors. She uses her elders’ stories to explain why the stars are clustered so closely, and why others appear all alone.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Bryon Powell takes us on another tour across Wadawurrung country. A young Indigo learns how to look for food like her ancestors at Kuaka-dorla, now known as Anglesea on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.

A top Bongerimennin, now known as Flagstaff Hill lookout, Bryon shares an important story about how the land was created by two strong warriors from the dreaming.

Borombeet is now known as Lake Burrumbeet, just out of Ballaarat. In the old people’s time itwas a place of significance because it was a constant source of water,rich in resources such as food and medicine. Now it is a large recreational area for boating, fishing and camping.

Wadawurrung country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains,creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

luyni mungalina is a waterfall in Launceston, Tasmania. Indigenous language teacher Rosetta Thomas shares the story behind the falls and explains the special role they play in traditional dance and ceremonies.

Across Australia there are hundreds of different Aboriginal languages, some that are still spoken fluently across generations, and others that are endangered, and are in the process of being revived or preserved.

But what’s involved in keeping these ancient languages alive, and who are the people doing the work?

In 2016 there was a WA language conference held in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was an event that brought together Aboriginal language speakers and experts from across WA and Australia, but it was also a place for people to come together and celebrate culture and share their vision for the future.

This video captures the language and the stories of some of those people who attended the annual gathering, and it was produced with help from First Languages Australia.

ABC Open Producer: Nathan Morris

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Vianca shares some Arrernte words.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Ngalia man, Kado Muir takes us down the yiwarra to the Patapuka. He reveals the hidden secrets of the land, the same ones his mother passed down to him.

Rhonda Radley is a descendant of the Gathang and Dunghutti speaking people. She sees a need in her community to bring women from all the different Aboriginal groups together. She has found strength within herself to drive a movement that does just that, and to revive culture through language and practices.

Rhonda is working with three different age groups, representing the different phases of the feminine – young girls, teenage women and older women.

The movement is called Strong Sister, or in Gathang language, Djiyagan Dhanbaan.

The name underpins the concept behind this movement: a woman needs to be a strong sister to herself first, to become a strong sister for other women and a leader in the community.

Some of the ideas behind Strong Sister are to develop nurturing relationships between women in the community and provide a safe space to explore cultural identity.

Rhonda wants to empower women and give them a voice in their community. To work on this, she runs activities, like a day at the beach gathering pipis, that bring together women of all ages and backgrounds, including those who care for Aboriginal children.

Through working together, these women and girls are learning to tell their stories and express themselves through song, music and movement, connecting them to their culture. They are working towards performing their songs in Gathang language for the NAIDOC week mid year.

This film was made in collaboration with Rhonda Radley, beach footage shot by Ashley Davies and surf shots by Brett Dolsen. Producer Wiriya Sati.

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

The Wimmera River is known as Barengi Djul in Wergaia language spoken by the Wotjobaluk people. Along the water, not far from the township of Dimboola is a special place known as Ackle Bend or Wutiyeti which means camping place, and is also known for its stories of Bunyip.

This video explores Gomeroi language and culture focussing on recent changes to the Mehi River in Moree. These changes caused by overuse of water, clearing of land and waste pollution have had a devastating effect on the land and the lives of the people who rely on the river.

By Moree Aboriginal Art Students
Producer: Elizabeth Munro
Producer: Harold J French
Producer: Lyiata Ballangarry
Producer: Wayne Weatherall
Producer: Kevin Cutmore
Gomeroi Language Advisor: Alfie Priestly

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Troy Cassar-Daly sings 'Shadows on the Hill' and talks about his boyhood by the river. His nan never allowed him to swim to the other side and it wasn't until he was an adult that he learned the story of a massacre.

A Yorta Yorta elder films an ABC Open Video Postcard on a smartphone and blogs about her ancestral language.

My grandmother was one of the last Yorta Yorta speakers. She taught Yorta Yorta language at Worowa College in Healesville, Victoria. At some stage I undertook the research for the Yorta Yorta Language Heritage Book (dictionary).

My mother and my children speak some of the language. Some years after the dictionary was published there was a demand to start language classes for community members to revive the language. We did a pilot study and applied for funding to do a 12 month project, funded by the Office of the Arts. This process not only invited me to learn my language but it also developed an interest in the intensity of cultural development attached to language renewal. Unless you have someone to talk to in your language, the language will stagnate, so teaching other people to speak Yorta Yorta has had numerous benefits.

Over the years many models of teaching have been tried and failed or just stopped, but this language development has been built to be sustainable, through the process of involving community according to their availability. We constructed a model that is based on small groups of five people per one hour session.

Throughout this time we have had a number of people do the language sessions.

One participant has published a Yorta Yorta children’s book. The local library currently has an Indigenous writing awards with an Indigenous language section in it for participants to enter language articles.

We are currently working on expressing language through audio visual media and are planning to have an exhibition in September of this year. The revival of language has been very instrumental in developing the confidence and self-esteem of the Aboriginal community in this area. There is also a very keen interest from the mainstream sector in Indigenous language development.

Produced by Sharon Atkinson and ABC Open Albury-Wodonga

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Mother Tongue series: Wangkatja tracking and bush stories

Gloria Panka is the granddaughter of the famous watercolour artist Albert Namatjira (deceased), who was awarded a coronation medal from Queen Elizabeth in 1953 for his extraordinary talent. Gloria and her grandfather Albert come from the mission Ntaria also known as Hermannsburg,130 kilometres west of Alice Springs.

Just as her grandfather did, Gloria and most of her family now paint the West MacDonnell Ranges, known in Western Arrarnta as Perta-Tyurretye. She says it's healing for her and her land.

Gloria is a recognised artist nationally and paints with the local Alice Springs art group Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands Arts Centre).

Here is a list of the Western Arrarnta words used in this video:

Perta-Tyurretye: West MacDonnell Ranges
Pere: trees
Alkere: sky
Arne: ground
Therrke: grass
Matere: clouds
Irlenge thorre: horizon (far away)

ABC Open Producer: Charmaine Ingram
Music Composer: J Kent

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Making this video was a journey about finding myself, reconnecting with my mob and reaching out to other Indigenous mob to inspire them to find their connection to family, country and culture.

It's also about educating the broader community of non-Indigenous people, and the world, about what it really is to be an Aboriginal person, and what it means to us.

Physically and mentally I am in place where I feel I can speak about my life and portray the path I have traveled, and what I want to achieve out of making Indigenous films.

This video is very important to me because it shows the challenges I’ve been through in life, and how even though I was a part of such a huge family I was so disconnected. But now that I’ve made the film I feel like I’ve repaired a wound that’s been aching for so long.

The opportunity to make this film came up through my work at the Cairns Institute at James Cook University. A colleague asked me to attend an ABC Open workshop knowing I was interested in making a film and here my journey began, with the fantastic support of Gemma.

It felt really good going back to country to make the video as it was a discovery process, and a deeper affirmation that I belonged to somewhere very special. The place had such beautiful presence, not only with the environment, but with my family that also lived there.

I hope my video gives other people inspiration to find themselves, their family, their country and their culture, even if they feel there is no hope.

Making this film has been an absolute godsend and it has given me so much more confidence in myself, as well as educating others. It has also shown me the importance of recording cultural history. I would also like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, Gemma for all her support, guidance and mentoring as I think this project has opened the door to many possibilities for me, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Written and produced by Seraeah Wyles

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Bryon Powell takes us on a journey across Wadawurrung country, sharing some of the stories behind its place names. His country stretches from the mountains to the sea. It includes hills, rivers and grassy plains, creeks and coasts and includes modern towns such as Werribee, Geelong and Ballarat in Victoria.
Some Aboriginal language was incorporated into new colonial names of places. Ballarat is spelt Ballaarat in Wadawurrung language, Wurdi Youang, is now known as the You Yangs and Warrenyeep is written on maps as Mt Warrenheep.

The 'This Place' project invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

50km south-west of Cue, Walga Rock is one of Australia’s largest monoliths, as well as one of the largest galleries of Aboriginal Rock paintings in Western Australia.

But what does Walga mean?

Let's rejoice in Dharawal

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

High above the ground stands Leanganook or Mount Alexander which means ‘his teeth’. We learn of the cultural significance of this place from Dja Dja Wurrung man Trent Nelson who shows us where the young men’s ceremonies were held with the nearby Taungurung people and of ‘Bunjil’, the Wedge-tailed Eagle and creator spirit.

Across Australia there are hundreds of different Aboriginal languages, some that are still spoken fluently across generations, and others that are endangered, and are in the process of being revived or preserved.

But what’s involved in keeping these ancient languages alive, and who are the people doing the work?
In 2016 there was a WA language conference held in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It was an event that brought together Aboriginal language speakers and experts from across WA and Australia, but it was also a place for people to come together and celebrate culture and share their vision for the future.

This video captures the language and the stories of some of those people who attended the annual gathering, and it was produced with help from First Languages Australia.

ABC Open Producer: Nathan Morris

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Good Mornings Animations: Yugambeh

Harold, Kevin and Wayne role play a scenario using typical Moree Aboriginal English.

List of Moree Aboriginal English:

ngarriga… silly

birray… boy

shook (or to shake)… steal/ stole

dimba… sheep

gungis… police

bugeri… telling lies

womba…mad, crazy

deadly… very good

buruma… dog

durri… cigarette

inside looking out… locked up/ in jail (including hand gesture of five fingers in front of face)

gubba… white person

wollung… money

Narabung… being shame

Gammin guli… tellin lies

Produced by Moree Aboriginal Art students

Producers: Elizabeth Munro, Harold J French, Kevin Cutmore, Lyiata Ballangarry, Wayne Weatherall

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

Liz and Lyiata roleplay a scenario using typical Moree Aboriginal English language.

List of Moree Aboriginal English:

mirraybirrays… girls and boys / children

corroboree… dance

yilay… hey

gookintji… black

gutchinas… kids

myall… act stupid/ shame

yanay… go

jiliwa… toilet

durris… cigarettes

deadly… very good

By Moree Aboriginal Art Students
Producer: Elizabeth Munro
Producer: Harold French
Producer: Kevin Cutmore
Producer: Lyiata Ballangarry
Producer: Wayne Weatherall

This video was originally contributed to the ABC Open Mother Tongue project, which invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.

'This Place' is a partnership between the ABC and First Languages Australia inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create a short video about a place name, and the story behind it. Share with ICTV with support from the Community Benefit Fund.

Mark Saddler of Wiradjuri Country speaks of traditional walkways and how the Murrumbidgee River is central to Wagga Wagga. Water is an important resource and its health influences our farmers, animals and the nation.

Dena Curtis shares how the language she speaks shapes her life.

Language: Warrumungu, Warlpiri, Arrernte

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Good Mornings Animations: Palawa Kani

Good Mornings Animations: Yankunytjatjara

Good Mornings Animations: Mirriwong

Daryn McKenny shares how Indigenous languages connects him to country.

Language: Awabakal, Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay, Wiradjuri

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Neta-Rie Mabo from Far North Queensland shares the important role language plays in her art.

Language: Meriam / Torres Straits Creole

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Musician Chris Tamwoy shares a song written and sung in the language of his ancestors in the Torres Strait.

Language: Kalaw Kawaw Ya

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Leonora Adidi shares how she has connected with her language through identity.

Whether it’s speaking in language with her own mob or sharing their language to educate a wider audience it gives her a sense of pride.

Language:

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

Joyce Bonner explains the important role her language – Butchulla – plays in maintaining culture for the future generations.

Language: Butchulla

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Theresa Sainty, Pakana woman and Aboriginal Linguistic Consultant for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

Theresa spoke about language, connection, her mission to honour the legacy of the old people, and the importance of reviving place names like kunanyi which “has always been in country and it always will be in country, it will always be kunanyi”

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.

#language #indigenousaustralians #languageandme

Musician Emily Wurramurra writes her music in Anindilyakwa and English. She shares what her first nation language means to her, and the role it has played in her healing and creativity.

Language: Anindilyakwa

This year… 2022… marks the start of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages… which aims to build a global community for the preservation, revitalization and support of Indigenous languages. To start the conversation here First Languages Australia has asked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers what language means to them.