Passing on valuable linguistic knowledge

The Bininj Kunwok Regional Language Centre has been supporting the teaching of Kuninjku in Maningrida over the past 12 months. 
With the assistance of Kuninjku speaking women artists at Bábbarra Women's Centre, the language lessons in Kuninjku have been taking place in the tea room of Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation once a week in the afternoons. 
These lessons are a great opportunity for Balanda staff to learn one of the many languages spoken at Maningrida as well as giving Bininj language teachers the chance to develop their skills and pass on valuable cultural and linguistic knowledge.
On November 26 and 27, the Bininj Kunwok Regional Language Centre supported travel for Kalidjan Janet Marawarr from Bábbarra to attend the Australian National University's Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language and their annual Summer School in Canberra to take part in a community engagement session. 
She was accompanied by Bábbarra Women’s Centre manager Ingrid Johanson. 
The students come from all over Australia as well as overseas and spent a week doing a range of short courses in linguistics with specialist teachers from a variety of fields. 
Kalidjan Janet gave the class the whole cultural package deal with language lessons and some songs. 
After their language lessons the women in the course were all brought down from the audience to try out some traditional Kuninjku dancing. 
The session was a big hit and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.