Wadawurrung language: Borombeet

Added by First Languages Australia

Description 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.