Welcome to our new, revitalised edition of FATSIL’s quarterly magazine, ‘Voice of the Land’!  Please continue to write and speak to us. Combining your experiences with more personal stories, in and about language, we hope to share the passion and excitement that we feel about Indigenous languages in this country.  Language is culture, and culture is language. It sounds obvious, but language really is the glue that connects us together. It is how we relate to the world and to each other. It encompasses gesture, facial expression, body movement, artistic expression, and sound, as well as the spoken word.  Of the 250 languages used across pre-colonial Australia only 145 survive, of which only 18 are actively spoken by multiple generations of a community (the measure which defines a ‘healthy’ language group).

Clifton Bieundurry, Walmajarri man

Clifton Bieundurry, an Indigenous interpreter from the Kimberley region explains some of the complexities involved in speaking ‘language’ with Indigenous communities grappling with complex legal and health issues. Principally dealt with in English, these issues arise frequently and pose great problems for Indigenous people who speak exclusively in their native tongue. ‘I could be the difference between one and ten years in jail’, Clifton is passionate about his language and believes he is making a difference, especially in the legal field where he tends to spend much of his time these days. Standing as one of the most significant and tangible links with country, language and its ongoing maintenance has become paramount to people like Clifton, who feel it is a spiritual link between man, the land and his culture.

Some children playing the computer games at the Ngukurr Language Centre

So, melabat la Ropa bin gajim det lilwan geim en pudum la melabat langgus. Mela bin pudum la faibala langgus - Cherry Daniels bin tok det Ngandi, ol Jumbun bin tok burrum Marra, Arnold en Mathulu dubala bin tok Rembarrnga, Toby bin tok det Ritharrngu en Jangu burrum Numbulwar bin pudum la Nunggubuyu.

Jida Murray-Gulpilil, Wemba Wemba

The Wodonga based language program is just about to publish their dictionary and also recently held the Ngudjuwa Ngurang Workshop (Important Meeting) with a view to developing a Language Centre. Held on 14th November in Albury/Wodonga, the workshop gathered local Indigenous people together with representatives of language areas across Victoria and interstate.

Colleen Hattersley (L) and Jeannie Wabi (R)

Jeannie grew up on Mount Anderson Station in Nyikina country working on stock camps and doing domestic work from a young age. Nyikina country covers both sides of the lower reaches of the Fitzroy River in northwestern Australia. Jeannie has spoken Nyikina throughout her life and, although her nine grandchildren understand instructions she gives them in Nyikina, they don’t speak it themselves. In wanting to counter this trend, Jeannie has been involved in a number of language projects including the production of resources and the development of literacy programs.