People get together to learn Bundjalung language!

Lismore local, Binnie O’Dwyer invited Margaret Sharpe  to come to a language workshop in Lismore in April, held at Thelma James’ Bundjalung café ‘Gunnawannabe’.  Roy Gordon and other Lismore Elders had a valuable input to the day, welcoming everyone and advising on language matters.  Margaret has worked on the many dialects of Bundjalung  language and was keen to help people learn more language, she has recently published an updated dictionary – grammar i

12th Australian Languages Workshop held at Stradbroke Island

Gary Williams and Anna Ash travelled to Stradbroke Island to attend the 12thAustralian Languages Workshop, hosted by the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland and held at their Moreton Bay Research Station.  Thanks Felicity Meakins and Myf Turpin for a fabulous weekend of interesting linguistics and yarning up. Gary and Anna travelled with Terry Lowe, a Bundjalung woman from Grafton who is studying the Masters of

Gathang language is now live online!

On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, Gathang community members gathered to celebrate the launch of a new web portal dedicated to the revitalization of their Indigenous language. Media were invited to attend the event, which took place at 2 p.m. in Room AG 03 in the General Education building at Taree TAFE, Montgomery Crescent. The first of its kind in Australia, the Gathang portal includes a dictionary archive, images and audio, allowing learners to go ...

Dhanggati – A Living Language

Where do the names for animals and things come from? Someone at some stage made a decision: we’re going to call this animal a platypus. Actually is was during the late 18th century: from Greek platupous ‘flatfooted,’ from platus ‘flat’ + pous ‘foot.’ So being that it’s an Australian animal, what was it called in Aboriginal Languages? Many of the languages along the coast of NSW were lost when Aboriginal people were punished and even gaoled ...

Gumbayanggirr Art Show in Sydney: Nyamibiin Gaagalnyarr Juluumnyarr

Gumbayanggirr Art Show in Sydney: Nyamibiin Gaagalnyarr Juluumnyarr
  Nyamibiin Gaagalnyarr Juluumnyarr - Women from the Sea & the Mountains. A collection of artworks in felt created by Gumbaynggiir artists, with Swiss Artist Margrit Rickenbach, are exhibiting at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts' 21st Century Stories, the works reflect the artists' stories and thoughts about changes in the first decade of the 21st Century. A catalogue is availab...

Worth Place Park – Honeysuckle Newcastle 2009

Worth Place Park – Honeysuckle Newcastle 2009
In 2007 Lillian Eastwood from the Guraki Aboriginal Advisory Committee of City of Newcastle Council consulted Muurrbay linguist Amanda Lissarrague outlining the possibility of incorporating local languages from Warrimay (Gathang) and the language from the Hunter River - Lake Macquarie for a public artwork commissioned by the Honeysuckle Development Corporation, Newcastle. This sculpture designed by Zenscapes Landscape Architects Milne and Stonehouse, re

Mayalambala teaching resource available online

Mayalambala teaching resource available online
The language teaching resource Mayalambala is now available electronically, thanks to a collaboration between Muurrbay and Sydney Aboriginal Languages and Computing’s Cat Kutay. Mayalambala is an innovative teaching resource that supports the teaching of Aboriginal languages. It consists of three background posters ‘In the Bush’, ‘At the Beach’ and ‘At Home’, and over two hundred pictures of people and things that can be manipulated. A User’s Guide for Gu

Gathang student in RNLD Award for Creativity in Indigenous Youth Language Projects

Gathang student in RNLD Award for Creativity in Indigenous Youth Language Projects
Congratulations to Arlene McInherney who has won second prize in the RNLD Award for Creativity in Indigenous Youth Language Projects for: Nyiirunba Gulaman: book about plants which uses the Gathang language, from central-mid north coast of New South Wales. Arlene studied the Gathang language at Port Macquarie TAFE this year. The prize winners come from four states and territories, and their entries highlight the diverse strategies that young people are cre...

Launch of Yaygirr dictionary and grammar

Launch of Yaygirr dictionary and grammar
Muurrbay and the Yaegl Elders are pleased to announce the launch of the Yaygirr Dictionary and Grammar at Maclean TAFE, this Friday August 3rd at 11am. Please contact Muurrbay. Congratulations to all involved and thanks to the Australian Government's Indigenous Language Support program. Copies available from Muurrbay, email your order to MRALCAdmin@westnet.com.au For many years the Yaegl Elders have dreamt of showing respect to the country of the Low

Proposed Dhanggati name for new bridge

The Dhanggati Language Group with support from Muurrbay is currently engaged in researching Dhanggati placenames in the Macleay: those currently in use e.g. Yarrahappinni Mountain (a corruption of yarra yabani koala rolling); those not in use e.g. Baralbalayi (Anderson’s Sugarloaf Mountain); and developing new names for new infrastructure. This includes a submission to the NSW Minister for Roads and Maritime Services to name the new bypass currently und