Nirrma Puwal Pukang

I N S I D E

T H I S

I S S U E :

Nirrma Puwal

Pukang

1

Gimuy Walub-

urra Yidindji

Lessons

2

NAIDOC Week

2014

2

Gulnay Work-

shop

3

Website 3

Out and About 5

Membership

Form

6

N O R T H Q U E E N S L A N D

R E G I O N A L A B O R I G I N A L

C O R P O R A T I O N

L A N G U A G E C E N T R E Blackfella Talk J U L Y 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F I N -

T E R E S T :

NAIDOC WEEK

2014: 6-13 JULY

National Focus city in

2014 is the Gold

Coast. Serving Coun-

try: Centenary &

Beyond

Cairns Indigenous

Art Fair 24-27 July

2014

‘One World, Many

Languages’. AILA

World Congress

2014, 10-15 August,

in Brisbane

The Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Forum, “Ngirrma Puwal

Pukang” took place in Cairns over the 8th and 9th of May. It was the first one that had been

held for about 5 years from details that we have been able to get our hands on. People

attended the forum from all different parts of the state. Each of the 2 days seen about 80-100

people coming through for the various sessions that were taking place.

Presenters and Presentations varied in categories from Dance, Music, Children’s books in

Language, Cooking in Language, software programs, Sessions run by various language centres

from across the state and so much more. There were dancing from some of the local dance

troupes as well as some of our southern brothers and sisters. After the success of this years

forum there are plans about making it an annual event on the Queensland Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Languages scene.

Yarrabah

Dance

Troupe put-

ting on a

show for the

delegates

that were in

attendance.

Ned David and Sam Backo

Participants taking part in session run by the

Central QLD Language Centre Norm Tayley and Jody Ah Kee

P A G E 2

Language is our soul.

Aunty Rose

Fernando, Gamilaroi

Elder, 1998

Memberships

Getting to know…… Jenny Warrack

Gimuy Waluburra Yidinji Lessons

NQRACLC have started

workshops and lessons with

the Yidinji people. The first

workshop had over 20 people

turn out and kids on top of

that.

The Yidinji language Group

cover the region of Cairns

from the Barron River in the

North to Russell River in the

south and west to the ranges.

The lessons have proven to

be a success when you see

more than 4 generations of a

tribe coming out to learn

their Language. There is a

second lesson that is being

held on the 29th of June.

Hopefully on the back of the

success of the first language

workshop there will be more

people in attendance at the

next one.

NQRACLC are going through

planning stages of all our

lessons and Workshops for

the next financial year.

Office, Department of

Aboriginal & Torres Strait

Islander & Education Unit,

Aboriginal Co-ordinating

Council, Cairns and District

Housing as a Tenancy Man-

ager and Property Manager.

Jenny is a mother and grand-

mother, and brings a wealth

Jenny was born and bred in

Cairns. Before this position

she was the Language Support

Officer here at NQRACLC.

Jenny is from the Kunjen tribe

of Cape York Peninsula. In

the past Jenny has worked for

the Department of

Immigration and Ethnic Affairs

of experience from many

fields to the organisation.

Her aims for the future is to

retrieve and hopefully revive

all the Aboriginal languages

within our seven regions of

NQRACLC.

them. We are also moving

into a digital age. So we want

to make sure that you are

receiving all the

correspondence sent out

from our office in a way that

suits your needs.

The ways that you can get

your up to date details to our

office, either by phone on

0740534698, email

nqraclc@bigpond.com or by

filling out the membership

form that is attached to this

edition of “Blackfella Talk”

and getting it back to our

office.

Lastly, if you know of anyone

that is not a member of

NQRACLC, get them to sign

up. It might be a family

member, husband, wife,

boyfriend, girlfriend, or friend

etc. The more the merrier!!!

As members are most impor-

tant in NQRACLC, it is nec-

essary to make sure that all of

your details are up to date on

our data bases. NQRACLC

also want to make things as

easy as possible from our

office as well as our members.

In coming weeks and months,

we will be asking that our

members update all of the

details that we have on file for

B L A C K F E L L A T A L K

Gulnay Workshop & Lessons

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2

It took a number of attempts be-

fore the workshop was finally run

on the 4th & 5th April 2014. As

we know here in North QLD it

can be hard to do a lot of things

due to the wet season and

cyclones.

Aboriginal Corporation For

Malanbarra Midja Housing was the

location of where the workshop

took place.

Co-ordinator Clarence Kinjun

facilitated the sharing of stories

and went through word sounding

exercises and added to the word

list which Chris Kennedy

recorded. Doris and her sister

Marjorie Kinjun and Lema were

enthusiastic participants in the

process.

The second day the group

recapped what they had covered

on the previous day and went on

with group activities to develop

sentences.

People of all ages attended the

workshop from babies, through to

elders and everyone else

inbetween,. The feeling in the air

was one of

achievement and

being proud of

learning their

Language.

Since the first

workshop back in

April, NQRACLC have run 2

lessons with the Gulnay people.

These were a success as well with

all of the people able to start

putting sentences together, also

learning medicine and plants all to

go with it.

Getting the website up and run-

ning, has been a dream of the

organisation for quite a while, and

under the direction of our Media

Officer, Mark Graham, we are

closer to getting this to the point

we want it at, and where we are

going with it.

There will be blogs, galleries,

news, reviews, videos, interviews,

NQRACLC is now live on the

Internet. Our page is still in the

designing aspects at the moment.

You can view our page so far at

www.nqraclc.com.au.

There is so much that will be go-

ing on behind the scenes as the

site will be bought upto date.

There will be archives, Galleries,

events calendars, publications and

so much more.

which is all in the

pipeline of being

launched.

Make sure that you

keep up to date

with what we are

doing here at

NQRACLC and

what’s going on.

Keep checking

back to www.nqraclc.com.au.

was selected by the National

NAIDOC Committee to honour

all Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander men and women who

have fought in defence of our

country.

The National NAIDOC Awards

are a great chance to acknowledge

the contributions and talents of

outstanding Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander people. There are

ten categories to choose from

including the prestigious Person of

the Year and Lifetime

Achievement Awards. Winners

will be announced at the National

NAIDOC Awards Ceremony on

the Gold Coast during NAIDOC

Week.

Check local guides and events

listings for local event details in

your region.

NAIDOC Week is a time to cele-

brate Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander history, culture and

achievements.

It’s a time to acknowledge our

Indigenous artists, scholars,

sportspeople, elders, community

members and more.

This year the National NAIDOC

theme is Serving Country:

Centenary & Beyond.The theme

NAIDOC Week 2014

Website

“Australians are proud

to showcase

Indigenous culture at

important times during

the social and political

history in this country,

like the Olympic games

… but fail to deal with

the promotion and

protection and

investing and

underwriting in the

cultures, and more

particularly the

languages of

Indigenous peoples in

this country.” - Senator

Aiden Ridgeway 2002

By Des Crump

Indigenous Languages Researcher

State Library of Queensland

As part of State Library’s Indigenous Languages project, an Indigenous Languages Research Discovery Workshop was held in

the JOL Reading Room from 24-26 February. This event drew together 20 participants from across Queensland to research

the State Library collections as well as share ideas and network about language revival in Queensland communities. The

workshop participants were drawn from Cape York, North Queensland, Fraser Coast and South-East Queensland – individuals

had experience/interest in languages and worked in schools, museums, Indigenous Knowledge Centres and Indigenous

Language Centres.

Original materials from the State Library collections such as Notebooks, Journals and Pastoral Records were very popular

with the workshop participants – approximately 50 languages were researched over the course of the three days ranging from

the Torres Strait to Gold Coast and west to the NT border! A broad selection of print items in the collection included

linguistic materials, historical texts as well as language dictionaries. In addition to being research items, these materials also

provided participants with ideas for their local language communities.

A recent addition to the collections was the set of Lake Eyre Basin Picture Dictionaries – these were compiled by Desert

Channels Queensland a natural resource management organisation based in Longreach. Working with the Traditional Owners

of the Lake Eyre basin and a linguist, the end result was a series of eye-catching resources for Pitta Pitta, Koa, Yulluna,

Kalkadoon and Waluwarra languages. These five booklets are the first step in documenting the sixteen languages of the region.

Workshop participants were very impressed with these materials as learning/teaching resources for their communities.

While the majority of time was spent researching the collections, participants also heard from several guest speakers, including

University of Queensland Linguistics School who provided an overview of their work in communities, particularly Woorabinda

and iTalk Library an innovative software program for creating virtual stories.

Workshop participants were also encouraged to make the most of other cultural events and exhibitions happening across the

precinct, including the Our Dreaming Animating Country exhibition and the ‘Those days … living history project’.

A culminating event was held on the Wednesday afternoon to generate discussion about the state of Queensland’s Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander languages and what issues are impacting on their revival. Research Discovery Workshop participants

were joined by others to share information about the diverse range of language projects happening in their communities. Such

projects range from small individual or family activities to those coordinated via language centres through to larger-scale

projects supported by external organisations/collecting institutions.

SLQ Discovery Workshop and Forum

Participants attended the State Library of Queensland Discovery Workshop and

Forum from various locations across the state. Pictures courtesy of Dianne Ross-

Kelly

NQRACLC Out & About Since our last newsletter and in the lead up to the end of the Financial Year we have been out and about to many of places either having

meetings with elders about potential workshops and lessons, also Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Forum,

“Ngirrma Puwal Pukang”, State Library Language Discovery Workshops and so much more. Check out some of the pics below of where we

have been. 2013-2014 has been a huge year for NQRACLC, and we look forward to working with you again in the new Financial year.

going to turn around overnight

but there has been incredible

duplication and some waste," he

said.

Funding for Indigenous language

support announced in the last

budget will also be cut by $9.5

million over five years.

Opposition Indigenous affairs

spokesman Shayne Neumann

says Tony Abbott can no longer

be considered the Prime Minister

for Indigenous Australia as "the

close the gap strategy is in

tatters".

Mr Neumann has also criticised

the Government for failing to

make any commitment to the

National Partnership Agreement

for Indigenous Early Childhood

Development.

By Michael Coggan

www.abc.net.au

Over the next five years $534 million

will be cut from Indigenous programs

administered by the Prime Minister

and Cabinet and Health portfolios.

The budget papers show the savings will

be made by replacing more than 150

programs, grants and activities with five

broad-based programs under the

Government's new Indigenous

Advancement Strategy.

The programs will be: jobs, land and the

economy; children and schooling; safety

and wellbeing; culture and capability;

and remote Australia strategies.

The cuts include a $3.5 million cut to

the Torres Strait Regional Authority.

Treasurer Joe Hockey says the cuts are

being made to eliminate waste."It is not

A statement from Indigenous Affairs

Minister Nigel Scullion's office says

the 2014-15 budget invests $4.8

billion on the new program priority

areas under the Indigenous

Advancement Strategy.

There will be changes to the National

Partnership Agreements that have

controlled how the states and

territories share spending in specific

areas in Indigenous affairs.

The agreement on remote service

delivery will be replaced by a new

Remote Community Advancement

Network and bilateral agreements

with each state and territory.

Funding for Stronger Futures

programs in the Northern Territory

will be revised in collaboration with

the Territory Government.

NQRACLC was formally incorporated in

2006, after having operated under the aus-

pices of the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation

for many years. The work being carried out

by the language centre includes workshops to

record speakers of various languages, and

training community members in the use of

appropriate technology and equipment for

their projects.

“Language is the expression of our culture

and land.

You can not have one without the others.

We can not describe our culture and our land

if we do not have our language.”

73 Greenslopes Street

Edge Hill, CAIRNS

Po Box 266N

North Cairns, QLD 4870

Phone: (07) 40 534 698

Fax: (07) 40 323 017

E-mail:

languagesupport.nqraclc@bigpond.com

North Queensland Regional Aboriginal

Corporation Language Centre

Indigenous Budget 2014

Were on the web!

nqraclc.com.au

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

(Please Print) Name: ______________________________________

Address: ______________________________________

____________________Post Code: __________

Date of Birth: ____/____/____

Phone: Work: ( )_______________ Home: ( )________________

Please nominate which tribal group you associate yourself with: (must be within the NQRACLC geo-graphical area) _______________________________________________________________ Would you be happy to receive correspondence from NQRACLC electronically (email/download)

(please circle)

YES NO If yes, please provide email address: ___________________________________________________ I declare that I am an Aboriginal person with traditional affiliations within the N.Q.R.A.C.L.C. region and that I am over the age of 18 years and hereby apply for membership of the North Queensland Regional Aboriginal Corporation Languages Centre and pledge to abide by the Rules of the Association. ___________________________ ___________________________ Applicants’ Signature Print Name Here ______________________________ ___________________ Witness Signature Date

OFFICE USE ONLY

Date of Board Meeting: ____/____/____ Date of Data Entry: ____/____/____

Approved: Yes No Entered by: ________________

Chairperson Signature:

____________________________

NQRACLC would like to thank and acknowledge our funding body.

Plus the following partnerships.