You are here

By Howard Amery

Imagine having your mouth washed out with soap and water for speaking your own language. Imagine the  
psychological damage from this indignity, suffered while at school in the nearby town of Derby, West
Kimberley. Imagine the damage to the language community - family members who have spoken these
languages for thousands of years.  Sadly, this is all recent history - during the post-mission period of the 1970's,
not sometime in our distant colonial past. 

Worrorra is now an endangered language. It was first documented at Kunmunya mission in the 1920's and 30's by pioneer missionary the Rev JRB Love. He produced a variety of linguistic and anthropological writings including  translations of the four Gospels.  Members of Mowanjum community are in the initial stages of a language revitalisation program to reclaim their linguistic heritage as speakers of Worrorra and the neighbouring languages of Ngarinyin and Wunambal.

CSIS West Kimberley is partnering with this local initiative. As CSIS Project Officer, I have been assisting with this project and have worked closely with Janet Oobagooma and others from the local Mowanjum congregation. Together we've spent considerable time and effort during 2009 to develop electronic copies of Love's Worrorra - English vocabulary and the Gospels of Mark and Luke.  Dictionaries and developing language learning resources will now be informed by the early work of JRB Love.

Other activities planned for 2010 include production of some sample English diglot pamphlets, posters based on favourite Scripture passages, and literacy workshops to assist people to read and use electronic wordlists and reference materials. Being based in NSW, I will be employed part-time by CSIS West Kimberley during 2010 to continue this work. I'll conduct 3 field trips, each of 2-3 weeks duration. Priorities involve audio recording over a wide range of topics, including mission and recent history, traditional stories, discussion of key cultural concepts and the meanings of specific words. 

“It is vital that as much spoken Worrorra as possible is recorded while the last few proficient speakers of the language are still alive.”

This project acknowledges a positive contribution made by the Presbyterian church in early contact years. In 2010, a collaborative project in language preservation, Scripture use and literacy is a very sensitive and practical expression of respect for members of the church and community in West Kimberley.