Two Logan Groups Recognised For Helping Close the Gap in the Community After Developing Yugambeh Language App

TWO Logan groups have been recognised in the Premier’s Reconciliation Awards for their efforts in closing the gap in the community.

Waterford West State School won the education award category for its Dream Circle project while Yugambeh Museum was also highly commended for the Yugambeh language app and Haiku competition.

The Yugambeh Museum launched the first Aboriginal language app with about 1000 words from the language of the traditional owners of the Logan region and beyond.

“Inevitably, I always get a phone call from someone and they’d say ‘quick, I’m about to give a speech, what’s the word for koala’,” Yugambeh Museum director Rory O’Connor said.

“We just put our heads down and wanted a way to make it easy for communities to get access to their language.

“People always have a mobile phone in their hand and for a lot of us now, apps are used for everything.”

Mr O’Connor said the app is available for download for Apple and Android devices and was downloaded about 500 times within its first few weeks of being live.

Along with the first-ever Aboriginal language app, the museum also ran a Japanese haiku poem competition to encourage both school students and the wider public to make use of the Yugambeh language.

About 150 students entered into the haiku competition with Rivermount College also taking lessons from Yugambeh Museum staff in the language to help them write their poems.