The Dhurga Dictionary and Learner's Grammar

A South-East Coast NSW Aboriginal Language

Patricia Ellis, Waine Donovan, Kerry Boyenga

• Publisher: Aboriginal Studies Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781925302622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The Dhurga Dictionary and Learners Grammar: A South-East Coast NSW Aboriginal Language is an overdue and extremely valuable resource for the Dhurga speaking people of Yuin Country and of any person wanting to learn the traditional language. The Dhurga language is spoken from south of Nowra to Narooma and west to Braidwood and Araluen. This publication is the most concise compilation of the Dhurga language to date with over 730 words including informant and recorder details as validation of authenticity. The dictionary is user-friendly for all literacy levels and readers; it is the very first of its kind and in high demand.

1 / INTRODUCTION

KERRY BOYENGA AND JANE SIMPSON

A people’s language is their treasure, and the words of the language represent shared cultural knowledge that has been developed over centuries. A dictionary is a record of the ideas that are important to people, that are important enough to use in everyday talk and to pass on to children.

This dictionary is a Dhurga treasure. In it, you’ll find words showing the natural history knowledge of the Dhurga: from rivers (yaranbul ‘platypus’) to the sea (warrabugan ‘whiting’); from the air (wayalad ‘black cockatoo’) to the night sky (garraywaa ‘Milky Way’).

You’ll also find words for family members, which reveal complex ways of relating to people. For example, the word mama(ng) can be used for both ‘mother’ and ‘mother’s sister’, which shows the close relation between children and their mother’s sisters. This explains also why dhadha ‘elder brother’ can also be used for ‘mother’s sister’s son’: if you call someone ‘mother’, then you can call her son ‘brother’.

This dictionary is not a complete record of the Dhurga language, because the tragedy of the British invasion meant that no Dhurga person with a deep knowledge of the language ever had the opportunity to spend many years writing down Dhurga words and defining them — unlike the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary.

WRITING THE DHURGA LANGUAGE: THE PAST

At the time of the British invasion in 1788, people living along the south coast of NSW spoke a number of closely related languages, which have names like Dhurga, Dharrawal, Dharumba and Djirringanj. In many of these languages the word for ‘people’ and for ‘man’ is a word that sounds like ‘Yuin’ (it’s spelled yuwinj in Dhurga). Dhurga people are part of the Yuin people of New South Wales South Coast. The Dhurga language is used by many Aboriginal communities of the South Coast, including the Walbunja people of Broulee and Brindja Yuin people of Moruya.

After the invasion, like so many Aboriginal people, the Dhurga people suffered colonisation, enormous pressure to speak English, and the painful loss of their language.

Sometime after 1832 a Yuin person taught some words to a surveyor, James Larmer, at Ulladulla. These are some of the earliest surviving written words of a Yuin language. He wrote ‘burroo’ for ‘kangaroo’. Later recorders wrote this as ‘booroo’ or ‘puru’. In the modern spelling it is buru. Differences in spelling don’t always mean the words were pronounced differently: they reflect the fact that there was no standard spelling system for the languages, and that outsiders might hear words differently.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Yuin people taught various non-Aboriginal people something of their languages. In the mid-twentieth century, the linguist Luise Hercus recorded some Aboriginal people from the South Coast. These recordings are held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. An initial summary of previous work on Yuin languages was made by the linguist Diana Kelloway Eades and published in 1976. Eades was taught some of these languages by Mr and Mrs Jock Timbery of Wreck Bay, Mr Frank Mumbler and Mr Percy Mumbler of Nowra, and Mr Bert Penrith of Wallaga Lake. She also listened to earlier recordings, and published a collection of material including a word finder. This word finder was spelled using the International Phonetic Alphabet, which represents the pronunciation of the words accurately but is difficult for non-linguists to use, and is not useful as a practical spelling system.

In 2013 the linguist Jutta Besold built on Eades’ summary in her thesis, and extended it to include understanding the grammar of the languages from stories told by Yuin people in the nineteenth century. She worked with and for Yuin people, and her thesis was intended to be:

a tool for local Aboriginal communities and community members to assist in current and future language reclamation and revitalisation projects, and to allow for projects to aim for higher language proficiency than has previously been possible. (Besold 2013, p. iii)

LEARNING AND WRITING THE DHURGA LANGUAGE: TODAY

For many years these Yuin languages were sleeping. People were speaking a few words, but there was no support in the schools for learning Yuin languages. Other languages were taught; for example, up until 2000 at Broulee Public School German was taught in all classes as a Language Other Than English (LOTE). When the casual teacher who taught German moved away, the great journey of reawakening the language began.

Kerry Boyenga, an Aboriginal teacher employed at Broulee Public School, proposed to the then principal, Mr Jeff Ward, that the school could teach Dhurga, as a Community Language Other Than English. Over the next two years discussions took place about the Dhurga language and whether there was enough material to teach it. At the same time Vincentia High School wanted to do a similar project and a teacher there, Gary Worthy, had several discussions with Kerry. Both schools sought funding, joined together as partner schools, and the process began.

In 2003 staff from the two schools began researching and developing a Community Language Program to teach the Dhurga Aboriginal language. Aboriginal linguist Jakelin Troy coordinated a two-day workshop at AIATSIS in Canberra for the language groups from Broulee Public School and Vincentia High School. The two schools arranged to employ Jutta Besold (with grants received from the NSW Department of Education and Training and the NSW Board of Studies). Jutta was instrumental in the research and reclamation of the language. This included travelling to the South Australia Museum (with community consent) to search files for evidence of the Dhurga language.

A Dhurga language committee was formed with representation from both schools and the respective Aboriginal communities. Community people realised they needed a standard way of writing the words if the language was to be read by many people. So, with the help of Jutta Besold, they agreed on a practical spelling system, which has been used in later language projects.

In 2004 Pip Dundas from the NSW Board of Studies supported the program, and in 2005 the linguist Jennifer Munro joined the team. Jennifer’s role was to assist the schools with programming the language into the curriculum and putting it onto the NSW Board of Studies website as examples for other schools to follow.

A number of formal and informal meetings were held with Broulee Public School’s Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Program (ASSPA), Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council, Djuwin Women’s Lore Council and local Elders. From these meetings two golden rules were made. The first decision was that the Dhurga language would only be initially taught to Aboriginal people at a TAFE level to ensure our people got their language back and were the ones employed to teach it. The second decision was not to spend time making up words for new things such as computers, televisions, cars etc. as is sometimes done by other language groups. This is to ensure that language reclamation begins with the actual words recorded from people who spoke the language in their daily lives, and that people feel confident the language is pure and validated.

In 2005 at Broulee Public School the Dhurga Djamanj (‘Dhurga talk’) Aboriginal Language Program commenced, delivered by Aboriginal teachers Kerry Boyenga and Waine Donovan, and strongly supported by Jutta Besold and Jeff Ward. The program was designed to teach basic Aboriginal language to all students from Kindergarten to Year 6, as well as the classroom teachers. The program was delivered within the context of the team-teaching model, with the classroom teachers learning the language also so that they could reinforce it during the week. Lessons were 30 minutes each week per class.

Kerry Boyenga and Waine Donovan’s sister, Patricia Ellis, who was a part of the Dhurga language committee, supported the program by providing regular updates to the broader community by way of the NSW National Parks and Wildilfe Service’s publication Coastal Custodians. Patricia was employed at the time as the Joint Management Coordinator for the handback of Biamanga and Gulaga National Parks.

Broulee Public School formed a partnership with Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council. Karen Lee, the Land Council’s heritage manager, secured funds to develop resources and to provide transport for Elders and other community members to sit in on weekly lessons. Elders were sometimes emotional, proud and excited to see the Dhurga language being taught in the school. Their participation, advice and guidance validated the program.

The school model attracted wide interest. The Broulee Public School Language Group travelled to Dubbo, Canberra and Sydney to participate in workshops and present at linkup conferences that included other language groups from all over NSW. Kerry and Waine were regularly invited to schools and community groups up and down the coast to present the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program, and to run workshops. Since then numerous schools and groups have begun running their own language programs based on this model.

The success of the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program was recognised by several prestigious awards. It received a School Program Award in Excellence from the Eurobodalla Learning Community. In 2006 the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) state meeting endorsed the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program as an excellent program, after a presentation by Kerry and Waine. The program was also presented to and endorsed by the Djuwin Women’s Lore Council, and in 2008 Kerry and Waine presented it at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference in Melbourne.

An important development was the extension to adult education. In 2007 Iris White, the Aboriginal Development Manager of TAFE Illawarra, formed the three-way partnership and the first Certificate I in Aboriginal Languages was delivered at the Moruya Campus. It was called Dhurga Buradja which translates to ‘Language Tomorrow’. This course was delivered by Kerry and Waine and was strongly supported by Jutta Besold. Eighteen students enrolled and there was 100% retention rate.

Patricia Ellis delivered the same program in Moruya in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, in Nowra in 2012, Jervis Bay 2014, Narooma and Ulladulla in 2015 and again in Moruya in 2017. To date more than 100 adult Aboriginal people have successfully completed the accredited Dhurga language program. The significance of this Dhurga language reawakening work was recognised in 2017 when Kerry Boyenga, Waine Donovan and Patricia Ellis jointly received the 2017 Eurobodalla NAIDOC award for outstanding service to the community in language revitalisation.

Since 2018, Patricia has delivered community-driven language programs in Moruya and Ulladulla. She currently teaches Dhurga at St Bernard’s Primary School in Batehaven, Carroll College in Broulee and at Ulladulla Public School.

THIS DICTIONARY

Teaching a language in school needs language materials and books which are easy to use. A dictionary is a key resource in teaching because it reduces the memory load (‘How do I spell this word?’), acts as an authority (‘Is this word definitely a Dhurga word?’) and allows independent learning (‘I can look up the word on my own’). So, having a dictionary has been a key goal for the Dhurga language revitalisation movement.

Dictionary work was initiated by Jutta Besold, building on Diana Eades’ work. Jutta collected the words previously recorded from all the Yuin languages, including Dhurga. She entered them into a dictionary database, making careful note of the original spelling, the source and which language it came from. She then wrote the words using the practical spelling system that Dhurga people had agreed on. This was provided as an appendix to her thesis.

Senior Dhurga language professional Patricia Ellis dedicated herself to creating a practical dictionary of Dhurga that could be used in Dhurga language projects, and would be easy for Dhurga-speaking people to use. She systematically and painstakingly went through Jutta’s wordlist to create a dictionary of Dhurga words and meanings.

In the final stages, to get the dictionary ready for publishing, Patricia Ellis contacted the Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). It was agreed that AIATSIS would cover the publishing costs, and that Jane Simpson (ANU) would work with Patricia Ellis to arrange the dictionary in a useful form. In 2019–2020 two summer scholars from the University of Melbourne, Eleanor Jorgensen and Romi Hill, worked with Nay San and Jane Simpson to organise the dictionary in different ways: by Dhurga, by English, and by meaning. They searched for illustrations, and found some appropriate illustrations from the Institute for Aboriginal Development Picture Dictionary series. Permission to use these was granted by the illustrators, Jennifer Green and Jennifer Taylor. Further illustrations were community drawn.

Eleanor and Romi also began work on an accompanying online dictionary with sound files to show the pronunciations of words. After finishing the summer program, Eleanor Jorgensen continued to work with Patricia Ellis to get the dictionary ready for publication through AIATSIS.

THE FUTURE

In 2020 (the year of publication of this dictionary) and beyond, we envisage that the Dhurga Aboriginal language will be more widely spoken in our Aboriginal communities, and that the dictionary will be a major help in this.

REFERENCES

Besold, Jutta. 2013. ‘Language recovery of the New South Wales South Coast Aboriginal languages’. Canberra: Australian National University PhD.

Eades, Diana. 1976. The Dharawal and Dhurga languages of the New South Wales south coast. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

Larmer, James September 1832 ‘Notebook of Australian Aboriginal vocabularies, 1832–1853’ Larmer Collection MLMSS 7213 Mitchell Library, Sydney. Also: http://archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D22972/a1798.pdf.

2 / YUIN PEOPLE AND THE SOUTH-EAST COAST LANGUAGES

PATRICIA ELLIS

The Yuin people of the south-east coast of New South Wales were traditionally made up of 13 major tribal groups, encompassing the area from Botany Bay west to Campbelltown, then following and including the eastern mountains of the Great Dividing Range to south of what we now know as the New South Wales and Victoria border.

The 13 major traditional tribal groups were, from north to south...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 / Introduction
• 2 / Yuin People and the South-East Coast Languages
• 3 / Using this Dictionary
• 4 / Dhurga Pronunciation and Spelling
• 5 / Guide to Parts of Speech
• 6 / How to Make a Sentence
• 7 / How to Find the Sources of Words in the Dictionary
• 8 / Dhurga to English Dictionary
• 9 / English to Dhurga Word Finder
• 10 / English to Dhurga Word Finder by Categories
• 11 / Author Biographies