ENGLISH

YEAR 11 ENGLISH LITERATURE 

Within Tara June Winch’s novel, The Yield, the character of Albert Gondiwindi aims to preserve his language through the creation of a unique dictionary. Ellen van Neerven (2019) writes, ‘The Yield is about regaining more than language’ and acknowledges that Albert’s dictionary ‘shows [the reader] not only how to read Wiradjuri but also how to feel and speak and taste it; it decolonises the throat and the tongue’. 

Winch’s novel serves the dual purpose of bringing Wiradjuri terms into the vernacular in an effort to stop Aboriginal languages from becoming endangered whilst exploring, through the characters in the text, the importance of language for cultures, heritage, self-governance and identity.

As part of our study of ‘Voices of Country’, I asked our Year 11 Literature students to select a word/phrase (in any language) that was important to them. Then, in the manner of Albert Gondiwindi's dictionary, they were invited to write their definition as a kind of narrative, one that explained the meaning of the word in relation to their life, their experience, and their connection to that word. The results were a beautiful celebration of language, culture, and identity. Please enjoy. 

Dr Natalie Day

Literature Teacher

To eat rice, to have a family meal together - Ăn cơm 

When I was still living in Vietnam, my parents would call out for my brother and I to come downstairs every evening so that we could have a family meal together. 

When I first came to Australia as a thirteen-year-old who thought she could only have one home, I was too busy trying to use English to realise that this phrase doesn’t exist in it. You only say: "Hey, it's time for dinner!". And translated literally, the phrase would only mean: “To eat rice”. But in Vietnamese, that also connotes having a meal together with your family because rice is such a big part of family meals. Now, after finding my place in both cultures, I still tell my brother, who I mostly talk to in English, every evening, that it’s time to ăn cơm.

Katy Do

Year 11 Student

Family - rodzina

Family is a group of people living together. But rodzina is the feeling after reconnecting with those you love most. Living in Australia, my family in Poland felt like it was a world away. The journey began on a seemingly-never-ending plane journey. It ended on the train tracks, the frosty air brushing my face. On one side, my grandfather stood, his tired hand wrapped tightly around his walking cane, on the other, my grandmother squinted her eyes in an attempt to spot us. Then, together we would walk to their small apartment through the streets of Białystok. As we entered the apartment, we were greeted by smells of rosol, tickling our nostrils.

Victoria Furman

Year 10 Student

My love, the blood that keeps my heart beating - sthandwa sami  

Xhosa and Zulu have many words like this, words that have meanings deeper than can properly be expressed, words that trace history and convey things like "gathering around a fireplace with family" or "the silence that comes with grief" and many more. primarily, this phrase is used in relation to family; because in my culture without close bonds to your family you have nothing worth living for, and it's an easy term to trade around. 

I relate this term to my cousins, my brother, my mother will call me this whilst asking me how my day was, and my father will call me this as he grabs me from my room for dinner. I forget just how significant it is, how vulnerable it is to call a person in your life the reason you continue to breathe and live. I think of my family and all the connections I've built in my short time here, and every time I hear this phrase or say it to someone, I pause and take a moment to truly ponder on how important they are to me.

Lesedi Mzayiya

Year 11 Student

Click here to read more responses from the Year 11 Literature class.