Wadawurrung language: Kareet Bareet

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 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.