Wiradjuri Language in Parkes

This week is National Reconciliation Week (NRW), Let’s Take the Next Steps (17 May – 3 June 2017). NRW runs annually and marks two milestones in Australia’s reconciliation journey: The 1967 referendum and the historic Mabo decision.

To recognise the reconciliation journey Parkes Library would like to share with you a recording from the Library’s “Recording and Retelling Local Wiradjuri Stories, An Oral Cultural and Historical” project.

Learning Parkes’ local indigenous language, Wiradjuri, is part of daily school life in the Shire. In this excerpt from one of the project’s oral history recordings, teachers Kerry Gilbert, Ron Wardrop, and Geoff Anderson describe how the Wiradjuri language came to Parkes.

The “Recording and Retelling Local Wiradjuri Stories” project produced twelve oral histories that have been transcribed and can be access at Parkes Libary.

ABC Open’s Suzi Taylor produced a film and story that also shares the Parkes Wiradjuri language story – ABC OPEN – Out Mother Tongue: Wiradjuri

Thanks to Matt Finch for help in the preparation of this material – mechanicaldolphin.com