Preschoolers visit Port Lincoln as part of Barngarla Language Revitalization

A group of preschoolers from suburban South Australia recently visited the regional town of Port Lincoln to continue their efforts to revive the Barngarla language.

The class of 32 preschoolers learned the Barngarla language at Kidz Club Daycare and Educational Center in Modbury through a video and alphabet and picture book developed by the residents of Barngarla of Port Lincoln, Port Augusta and Whyalla.

Educators worked with University of Adelaide linguistics professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann and were supported in their efforts by the state government’s Indigenous Languages ​​and Arts program.

For the visit to Port Lincoln, four children in the class visited Port Lincoln with their families and service educators, meeting the residents of Barngarla and learning about some of the areas they had learned, local news source Port Lincoln weather reported.

The purpose of the trip, said University of Adelaide language program coordinator Stuart Blair, was to communicate with the Barngarla people, improve the children’s language base and communicate with native speakers.

“The recovery of the Barngarla language is important to the Barngarla people, these children are learning a language that was forcibly stopped during colonization and now they are given the chance to come back and breathe new life,” he said. he adds.

The visit to Port Lincoln included workshops presented by the residents of Barngarla with a focus on child-level information, and a visit to Shelly Beach which the children learned from through a video at the center.

Mr Blair said they hope to bring the people of Barngarla to the center in the future.

Barngarla’s wife Jenna Richards said it was great to see a young group of people outside of Port Lincoln learning the language, and she provided a painting titled “Wararda Galinyala” (Welcome to Port Lincoln) .

She said she would love to go to Adelaide to see how students at the center are learning the language.

“It should open my eyes to see guys who are friends and allies of us and how they learn and teach about us,” she said.

To access the original cover of this story, please see here.