Baya Gawiy - Language is Culture - Miromaa Training.
We want our children to know:
“ their language, their skin line, where they came from, their culture, songs, seasonal foods” Bullen Rogers 2018.
Over the 18 months Baya Gawiy has become a hub for innovative, collaborative change. Educators, language speakers and facilitators have worked together, reflecting upon the philosophy, consulting with community and building a model of best practice for The Marninwarntikura Early Years Programs.
We have created Culture and Language Wellbeing hubs: inspiring spaces within Baya Gawiy where our language and culture team can gather, create, teach, learn, preserve and think in language.
We have begun to Implement a ‘living curriculum’ to guide all the early years services.
This began with the creation of a Seasonal Calendar, workshopped with our Educators and informed by our Culture and Language Wellbeing team. This curriculum embraces three heritage languages Bunuba, Walmajarri and Gooniyandi along with Kriol and English. This is supporting our children’s sense of identity and guiding the learning in all the Early Years Programs across the organization.
The Culture and Language Wellbeing team hosted the Miromaa workshop. Miromaa means ‘saved’ in the Awabakal language and was developed by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people.
‘To ensure our languages are alive vibrant and healthy for our future generations’
Darren and Ali from Miromaa provided us with a four day professional development to learn how to use the Data base, for the creating, managing, sharing and preserving language within one digital library.
- Rachel Kennedy
