Binung Ma Na Du: Cultural Stories and Living Histories on Wakka Wakka Country created bilingual resources as part of a language revitalisation project in Murgon and Cherbourg.
Wakka Wakka man and Cherbourg elder Fred Cobbo instigated the project, saying he wanted to highlight positive stories from his community.
“Every time you hear a story about an Aboriginal community, the first thing you hear is negative stuff,” he said.
“Look at the real stories in the community, I think this is why the language program came about, we want to look at all of the good stuff and the positive stuff.”
With a team of researchers from the University of Queensland, Central Queensland University and Queensland University of Technology, Cobbo worked with community members and elders to develop resources featuring local histories.
As a chief investigator on the project, he said he could see the difference the resources were making at Cherbourg State School and Murgon State High School.
“It’s making a big difference, not only to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, it’s actually making a big difference to non-Indigenous kids,” he said.
“We’ve actually got those non-Indigenous kids talking to us in our own language, which I think is a form of reconciliation in itself.”
Cobbo said he’d like to see the Binung Ma Na Du project used as a model to revitalise language and develop local resources for schools in communities across the country.
Associate Professor Marnee Shay, from the University of Queensland’s School of Education, led the project alongside Cobbo.
Each of the storytellers owns the copyright to their own stories, and the videos are stored on the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council webpage.
Dr Shay, a Ngen’giwumirri woman from the University of Queensland’s School of Education, said this meant the community could govern their use into the future.
She said the resources were “rich and needed” but it was uncommon to find localised material to teach Indigenous culture in schools.
“You can’t teach language without teaching culture, history and identity,” she said.
“Those stories that come from Wakka Wakka Country, from Wakka Wakka people and also historical elders are absolutely vital in supporting language revitalisation programs, and not just generic Indigenous studies materials, but localised materials.”
The project was awarded a University of Queensland Partners in Indigenous Research Excellence Award as part of the university’s Research and Innovation Week on Thursday evening.
Shay attributed the project’s success to Cobbo and the communities involved.
“There were so many people that contributed to this project, it was a whole community effort,” she said.
“There’s dozens of people involved, so I think it’s an excellent recognition of Cherbourg and Murgon.”
AAP
