Sharing Bundjalung Mother Tongue

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.