Language and Culture
Kii, Deadly TPS community, biladu-njan wat/how are you all? And in the words of my Yawuru language...Ngaji gurrjin/Hello, how are you all!
A big focus for language learning this term has so far been about Woiwurrung place names in Naarm/Melbourne and what those names mean, with students in F-2 starting off with a list of six place names: Narrm, Narrm Narrm, Birrarung, Darebin, Merri, Merribek; students in 3-4 adding to those with these names: Bundoora, Bulleen, Mernda, Yan Yean, Wollert; and students in 5-6 complementing the list of place names with these: Mordialloc, Dandenong, Nunawading, Toorak and Kooyong.
We again read, listened to the beautiful and significant Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Creation Dreaming Story that tells of the creation of Birrarung (Yarra River) and Narrm Narrm (Port Phillip Bay). As we followed the journey across Woiwurrung Country, of the two main characters, students in 3-6 also learnt about these place names that are included in the story: Baw Baw, Donna Buang, Warrandyte, Morang, Warringal and Mooroolbark.
As I mentioned in a Term 1 Dhumbadjirri, in 2015 and 2016, Grade 5/6 students at TPS and I were involved in a project organised by Sharing Stories Foundation in conjunction with the Wurundjeri community to help in the creation of an interactive iBook of this story. If you haven’t already, you can access this iBook via the link below, to learn about this wonderful Creation Dreaming story and to check out the amazing artwork and digital animation the students put together for this story:
https://books.sharingstoriesfoundation.org/wurundjeri/index-standalone.html
Students were introduced to the Bunwurrung Creation Dreaming Story: The Time of Chaos, retold by Aunty Carolyn Briggs, which also tells of the creation of Port Phillip Bay or Naarm or Nairm as it is known by Bunwurrung people.
Aunty Carolyn Briggs’ book is available for purchase. You can also read and learn more about the flooding of the bay by following these links below:
https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Great_flood_causes_Narrm_Port_Phillip_Bay_to_form
https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Science/Environmental_Science
There is also an online video of this story that you can watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fSRJ03oDwc
Students in F-2 responded to this story with some illustrations such as these:
We are also continuing to practise and reinforce students’ knowledge, understanding and use of general Woiwurrung instructional and conversational language words and phrases being used in the classroom, as well as our basic vocabulary lists of people nouns, body part nouns and animal names.