Di McNaboe: Mind your language

I’m a direct decedent of the Wiradjuri people of Dubbo, the Thubbagah mob, on my father’s side and on my mother’s side I’m Kamilaroi. So I’m able to support both language groups.

Language was always important when I was growing up. We used words in isolation, not full sentences, but that stood me good stead when I found the Wiradjuri language material that was recorded. I was able to find the words I knew and could pronounce and that helped me pronouncing other words.

Racism is a very hurtful thing. As an Aboriginal person I’ve faced it, especially with shops and going into cafes and even just walking around in the community but I’ve been slowly working on breaking down barriers and breaking down racism within the community.

Since I’ve been running the language classes I’ve had both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people coming to learn Wiradjuri language. So that’s broken down a lot of barriers and promoted a lot more understanding and respect of Aboriginal people and their culture and their language. I’ve been working with the community now for more than 20 years with language and culture so a lot of positive things have come out of that. It’s building up slowly. I’m finding with the communities out this way we’re slowly breaking down the barriers and people are working together to get the language and cultural material up and going in their communities.

I worked on the translations for the beautiful signs we’ve just had put up at all the entrances to Dubbo. I’ve seen people pulling up and getting their photos taken with the signs and that’s a great thing. I’ve also put language and cultural material to the bio-diversity garden so those signs should be going up soon. I’ve worked with the science café up there in the (Shoyoen Japanese) gardens. I’m also working on the Wattle Grove and getting Wiradjuri language and cultural material put up there. And I’ve been working on getting a scope and sequence with Aboriginal languages with the Board of Studies as part of a team.

Aboriginal language is part of the curriculum but it is going to be a bigger. We’re trying to make it so the language is actually one from that specific community. We’re doing comparisons with other Aboriginal languages as well so that healing can happen for the children and the community. I was one of the mums who helped get Allira Childcare Centre up and going so we are hoping to have our language from preschool all the way up to year 12 and adults as well. We actually have a pathway going already and we’re hoping to make that path way go all the way from preschool up.

There’s still a lot of residual fear among elders from the days gone by when children were taken away for speaking language. So that’s how I first started doing the Welcome to Country – the elders encouraged me to do it on their behalf. It’s not that long ago that children were still being taken away – it happened in my lifetime – so those wounds are still open and a bit raw.

One way of helping with that healing is to let people hear as much of our language as we can and to let our elders know that it’s ok to speak our languages and use our cultural practices.

It is an honour to do the Welcome to Country on behalf of the elders and be that voice that they didn’t have. It’s a very emotional thing to do. It is a big honour to be selected to do these welcomes as a voice for our elders. As far as I know, I’m the only one who actually sings the Welcome to Country. Some people who sing the welcome for when we do the dances but part of the Welcome to Country is part of the song that the women sing for doing healing of country.

When we do Welcome to Country and we acknowledge and pay our respects to elders both past and present, that’s paying respect to all elders (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) because we all learn from our elders – it doesn’t matter on the nationality. We are acknowledging all elders who teach us throughout our lives – I don’t think people realise that when we say we pay resect to elders.

When I was born, we used to live in what was known as Tent City, on the other side of the railway line near the hospital. I lived in the tents when I was really little and then we moved in with my grandmother Alma Riley in Gipps Street and then we moved to a house in Pozieres Street. That’s where I grew up most of my life.

I met my husband during a trip to Lightning Ridge and we lived there for a small time but I was terribly homesick for Dubbo, so we came back. It was through the kids that I started teaching dance. My youngest daughter would have been about five when I was teaching dance here with the Jangarra Dance Group – she’s now 30.

I am passionate about Aboriginal language and I’ll keep fighting to get our language and culture back into our communities because it is an Australian language. Our Aboriginal languages are the Australian languages and I think that people have a right to learn the Australian languages and not have them disappear.

It would be such a shame to see any of our languages disappear. Even Aboriginal languages from other countries around the world are fighting to be retained, so I know that what we’re fighting for here, all those other Aboriginal people across the world are fighting for the same thing – to not lose their language and culture.

That’s what makes our world really diverse and rich – that we have all this language and cultural knowledge out there that could be shared and give us a lot of joy and enrichment in our lives. And I’ve been actually been teaching a lot of non-Aboriginal people how to do Acknowledgement to Country in language, so when they have their meetings they can stand up and do an Acknowledgement to Country in language.

The Yarradamarra Centre can organise language classes in the community. So far we’ve been targeting Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and out west we’re supporting the Barkindji people to get their certificates to go in and teach in the schools. So there’s five language “nests” at the moment; the North-West Wiradjuri, the Barkindji, a Kamilaroi nest, a Bundjalung and a Gumbayngirr. So they’re the five language and cultural nests that are up and running at the moment but they’re hoping to get more within NSW as time goes by.

– AS TOLD TO Jen Cowley

>>  Anyone interested in exploring Aboriginal languages further can contact Connie Ah-Wee or Rod Towney at the Yarradamarra Centre at the Myall Street campus of the Western Institute of TAFE.