Visit to the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative

Muurrbay is a leading regional language centre that provides strategic support to revitalise the languages of seven Aboriginal communities of central to the north coast of NSW. They work closely with Elders and the local language, culture and educational organisations to conduct research, publish accessible grammar dictionaries and develop engaging educational courses and resources.

Melissa Jackson and Clément Girault from the Indigenous Services team travelled to the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Cooperative in Gumbaynggirr country (Nambucca Heads) in mid- 2014, to share Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung language list from the Rediscovering Indigenous Languages project with a group of Elders, teachers, students and language speakers. Sophie Nicholls, Postdoctoral Fellow in Language Learning Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language and Lauren Booker, Project Assistant at The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures, travelled with the team to Muurrbay, and work closely to the Library on its Indigenous languages collection. 

During the visit, the team also recorded some “Community Stories” on the importance of Indigenous languages for communities. 

Picture: Melissa Jackson (pictured right) and Gary Williams (pictured left).