Kimberley Language Resource Centre undertakes comprehensive survey to aid Indigenous language revival

It’s morning tea at the Kimberley Language Resource Centre in Halls Creek and five-year-old Matthew Henry is more interested in the Tim Tams on the table than his aunties’ conversation in the local language of Jaru. In his community of Kundat Djaru, Ringer Soak, 170km southeast of Halls Creek, Jaru is spoken at home and taught at school so the children are proficient in the local language. However, KLRC project and office co-ordinator, Jacqueline Cox, can see some of the dozens of languages spoken across the Kimberley getting, “watered down due to the two different worlds,” that young Aboriginal people live in. “Our old people would speak fluent language but over the years it is breaking down,” Ms Cox said. “When we go back to community we have to speak our native, natural tongue and then we have to switch when we come back into the Western world. So because of that, our old people speak fluent language, whereas we only pick up bits and pieces of it.” The KLRC is working to keep native tongues strong through their State of Language Continuation in the Kimberley project. Part of the project involves surveying 250 people to find out which Kimberley languages are thriving, which ones are, “sleeping,” and what needs to be done to keep people speaking them. There are 47 known languages from the Kimberley. Some languages, such as Walmajarri, south of Fitzroy Crossing, and Kukatja, around Lake Gregory, are strong and have more than 1000 speakers. Other languages such as Miwa, Wila Wila and Guwij, once used in the north of the Kimberley, have had no speakers in living memory. Survey leader Rowan James-Albert said his field research so far around Halls Creek showed the local language of Jaru to be strong. “The number of people I have spoken to here, there are a good amount of Jaru speakers, they do speak fluently, and they have not lost their language.” Mr James-Albert is a Bardi speaker from Lombadina on the Dampier Peninsula. He said in the West Kimberley the local languages were not as strong as in the East Kimberley. “We are a bit more half and half, but there are language revival programs, just enough to keep the language alive.” At the centre this morning Mr James-Albert is interviewing Halls Creek men, Stewart Moreton, 81, who speaks Nyinnin Jaru, Eric Leeria, 52, who speaks Guniyandi and Tony Chungulla of Billiluna who speaks Walmajarri. Mr Moreton, an old stockman, said the traditional Nyinnin Jaru he spoke as a young person was now changing as people from different tribes marry and “mix up” the languages. “They are losing it a little but we want to try to get that thing back before the older people go. People here are real law people we want to keep their law real strong,” he said. Ms Cox said despite the encroachment of English she was confident Kimberley languages would be spoken by future generations. “Teaching the young people to continue language is the main importance of the language centre because language is a part of their culture. If they lose their language they will lose their culture,” she said.