Sharing Bundjalung language through photographs
By ABC Open Producer, Jeff Licence for ABC Mother Tongue, 24 Jul 2014
I cannot imagine losing my language.
Language is how we share ideas, knowledge, law, humour, tenderness and emotions… almost everything.
Like air and breathing, it’s always been a given, a constant source of expression, learning and understanding in my life.
So when I learnt that indigenous people growing up on missions didn’t have the opportunity to speak and share their languages, it seemed unimaginable.
But it was true.
“It would have been nice to have had a language growing up as a child.” explains Rick Cook.
Rick is a Bundjalung language teacher who grew up on a mission on Cabbage Tree Island near Ballina on the NSW North Coast.
“It wasn’t allowed to be practiced at all. We’d pick up on certain bits of dialect but it wasn’t enough to speak fluent. Even today as a 50 year old man, I can teach language but I still haven’t got the confidence to speak fluently.”
“Language does go hand in hand with culture, so when they take your language away, they also take your culture.”
But Rick, and many others like him are trying to revive their indigenous languages. He teaches Bundjalung language to the kids of Goonellabah Public School in Lismore where he works as an Aboriginal Education Officer.
I met Rick recently as part of the NSW North Coast NAIDOC week celebrations in Ballina, where we were connecting with the indigenous community and spreading the word about our new ABC Open Mother Tongue project,
The Mother Tongue project aims to share Australia’s first language and invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share this knowledge with others.
So, on a beautiful windy Thursday in July, I packed up the ABC Open marquee, camera gear, a few handmade signs and blackboards and a list of Bundjalung words that Rick had given me and set them up by the Richmond River in Ballina.
The idea was that anyone attending the Ballina NAIDOC event was invited to choose a Bundjalung word, write it on a blackboard with the English translation and pose for a photograph.
What resulted was a joyful day, with about 40 people (many of them kids) coming into the stall to have their photos taken and to learn and share their Bundjalung word.
Some chose empowering words like: Gungar — Shout,
Mijunnwern — Happy,
Jingiwalah — How are you?
Ngyarda — Strong.
Some people chose animals: Junbung — Platypus,
Bidjoo — Bee,
Ngumahl — Goanna.
Others combined words to make phrases like: Ngulliboo muggi — All of us Strong,
Nguillboo woolar gunjull — All of us look beautiful
Gunngalair ngaygulla gulla! — Listen, I am here!
The word I chose was Woolar — Share.
It seemed appropriate for the happy feeling of the day, the generosity of the community and for the spirit of NAIDOC.
Woolar also cuts to the heart of what we’re trying to do with the Mother Tongue project — share and learn indigenous language.
The photographs and an interview with Rick Cook about language can be seen and heard here in this video.
Feel free to Woolar!
Many thanks to interviewee Rick Cook and volunteers Ghita Fiorelli and Jaya Morphett.
Music: Sunrise over Alice by Michael Fix
Photography and Editing by Jeff Licence
