Years ago, Diane McNaboe would have been "locked up" for singing in Wiradjuri. Her uncle was removed from his family for using "bad language" at school. His sin wasn't swearing but talking in Wiradjuri, the Aboriginal language spoken in north-west NSW.
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Last week it took Ms McNaboe fewer than 10 minutes to teach first-class children at Dubbo West Public School how to sing Gugubarra wibiyanha madhandha (that's Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree) in Wiradjuri. Whereas local Aboriginal elders have taught occasional classes at the school, the weekly class was a first.
From now on every child in the school will learn Wiradjuri, the traditional language spoken from Mudgee to Dubbo, Narromine, Wellington and Gilgandra. At schools across the region, the hope is that these classes will become as much a part of the weekly curriculum from kindergarten to year 12 as learning French, Cantonese or Japanese is in many schools.
"Does anyone know what Wiradjuri is?" a teacher asked the group of five- and six-year-old children at Dubbo West. "It is black," replied six-year-old Bryson Read after some umming and aahing among his classmates. A bit later, Bryson and other children – including seven-year-old Thomas Burge, who reminded us that his name had a "silent h" – were singing lullabies, learning the word for pelican (gulambi), mastering pronouns and happily colouring in worksheets and writing the new words in English and Wiradjuri.
"This is the first generation (of children) who have actually been given permission to speak their language," said Ms McNaboe.
An estimated 108 Indigenous languages in Australia are at risk of extinction, but Wiradjuri is not one of them. "It is flourishing," said Mrs McNaboe, who is the co-ordinator of the program around Dubbo. For 20 years she had been pushing for languages to be taught, and finally she was starting to see a "big breakthrough". Last year 49 students graduated from a new course at TAFE Western with a certificate 11 in teaching Aboriginal language.
The Wiradjuri "nest" is part of the NSW Government's plan to revitalise Aboriginal languages. There are five nests, each with as many as 30 schools, including the Gumbaynggirr nest, based around Coffs Harbour, Bundjalung around Lismore, and Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay nest, based in Lightning Ridge, and Paakanti in schools around Wilcannia, Menindee, Broken Hill and Coomealla.
The Minister for Aboriginal affairs Mr Victor Dominello says the goal is to provide incentives for Aboriginal students to learn traditional languages from cradle to grave, and preserve them for the future.
On Saturday he announced $185,000 in new funding to develop a new mobile app to support the revitalisation of these languages. It will provide audio recordings of common words and phrases as well as translating them into English, as well as providing elders and teachers to record traditional language. He has also announced an additional $170,000 in grants to encourage the Aboriginal community to develop and deliver language projects in their local community.
For Dubbo's principal Mrs Eileen Day, the classes were about "embedding Aboriginal culture across Australia."
"Because kids are exposed to it, not just a superficial exposure, they develop a deeper understanding of Aboriginal culture , and with that comes tolerance and acceptance," she said.
