Aunty Kerry transcript
Start of transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in this recording do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Logan City Council. Logan City Council does not make any representation of the accuracy of any such views and opinions.
Narrator:
The views and opinions expressed in this recording do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Logan City Council. Logan City Council does not make any representation of the accuracy of any such views and opinions.
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Deadly Digital Communities logo with handprint.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers and listeners should be aware that this narrated story may contain names, images and voices of deceased people.
Robert Ah Wing:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers and listeners should be aware that this narrated story may contain names, images and voices of deceased people.
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Our words our stories
A Yuggera language story by Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton.
Recorded on the 19th of June 2019.
Robert Ah Wing:
Our words our stories
A Yuggera language story by Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton.
Recorded on the 19th of June 2019.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton.
Text on screen:
Yuggera: Yo-wah, marimba barrain
Pronounced: Yoo-wah mor-room-ba bay-on
Means: Hello and good day
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
‘Yo-wah, marimba barrain’: ‘Hello and good day’.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton.
Text on screen:
Yuggera
The language of the Yagarubul people
Aunty Kerry Charlton
My name is Kerry Charlton and I am an elder with the Go’enpul people of Yuggera Country. My family are Moreton and Thompson and Newfong.
Description:
There is an enlarged map of the Yagarabul area.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
My area goes from the southwest bottom of the Toowoomba range through to the bay, to Moreton Bay. Right through to the back beach of Stradbroke Island.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton.
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Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton first lived in the City of Logan in 1974. In 2008 she returned and now lives in Logan Central.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
I do a lot of Welcome to Countries these days and use lots of language and particularly in this United Nations Year of the Indigenous Peoples’ Languages.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of a Carpet Snake.
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Gaja Kerry’s totem (Yuree) is the Carpet Snake
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
My ‘Yuree’ (totem) is carpet snake.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of a Tawny Frogmouth.
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Gaja Kerry’s messenger bird is the Tawny Frogmouth.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
And my messenger bird is ‘goomgoom’ or ‘mopoke’, the frog mouth owl.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton.
Text on screen:
Yuggera
The language of the Yagarubul people
Aunty Kerry Charlton
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
One of the exciting things that we've been doing for the last 12 years is working on a project which we've called the Wulara-Nguru project, and ‘Wulara’ means ‘talk’ and ‘nguru’ means ‘shadow’ or ‘spirit’.
And so it's a historical language mapping of Southeast Queensland languages project and it's been a voluntary, self-funded, lengthy work of the past 12 years. And we have been collecting anything and everything that we can about the seven languages and three dialects of the Southeast Queensland.
We've been doing this because we realised at a certain point with our retrieval work with the Jandai language and Yuggera language that we were actually speaking the words from up to a dozen language groups! And so we saw the need to compile them and also put them in their right order. And then also our granny, Janie Sunflower, who was the last fluent Yuggera speaker and who also spoke neighbouring languages, also talked about people getting the language wrong, and using it wrong ways.
So that's where we've come from. And we're nearly ready now to print up some of the findings in a lexicon of the languages of Southeast Queensland.
We're sharing that then with anybody who's interested really, the language centres and our mobs. It's going to be a resource that will help people who are interested in being language workers and learning language. A couple of the things I say with my Welcome to Countries, that we do need to pronounce our words correctly, because just one slight change can bring a different meaning.
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(Deadly Digital Communities logo)
Welcome to country
greeting = yo-wah
goorie = another way Aboriginal people identify is by their boundary or state name, e.g goorie may be used in parts of
Queensland and New South Wales
friend = yuuingan
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
So in my Welcome to Countries, I often say, ‘yo-wah yuuingan’. ‘Yo-wah’ is greeting and sometimes our peoples just say ‘yo’ or ‘wah’. Goories, you know, ‘goorie’ is our name for ourselves from this way. And ‘yuuingan’ means ‘friend’. And I emphasize that it's ‘yuuingan’ and not to be mistaken with ‘youngun’, which is ‘dugong’. Otherwise you’re saying, ‘Hello, fat little dugong’!
And so I always have a little laugh and say to people when I'm teaching, that when you're saying ‘yuuingan’ for ‘friend’, you know, just think about when you see your friends and you might have just seen him an hour before and you go, ‘Oh you again! Yuuingan’. So, you know, that's a little sort of memory tip there.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton.
Text on screen:
Yuggera
The language of the Yagarubul people
Aunty Kerry Charlton
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
Also, you know, some of the contrasting pairs. We've done a lot of work looking at contrasting pairs where the main word means the same, between language groups, but the ending is a different suffix sound.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of a Humpback Whale in the ocean.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
So with different words and a couple that I brought in to talk about is looking at the whale and the words for whale words. And so, you know, ‘tharloo-bilare’ is how we say it, or ‘djalu-bila’ but it’s all the same thing, meaning ‘whale’. And then so the ‘djalu’ is the ‘whale’ and then the sound on the end, the ‘bila’, is what we say in the Yuggera language.
And then for the Fraser Island, they have ‘chadlanggor / thalangoor’. And that ‘gor’ on the end or ‘goor’ on the end, lets us know it's a Gubbi Gubbi or Fraser Island speaker speaking, and that's very similar sounding words. And another little thing can be ‘Kallang-gor’. Kallangur the suburb and the words there is ‘Kalang’ or ‘Gallang’ for ‘good’, and ‘gur/gor’ on the end means ‘this’: ‘this is good’.
So we've also seen for Stradbroke and Moreton Islands, they say, we say, it's been recorded as ‘yoolwenpillam’ (Moreton Island) and ‘yulwan-bila’ (Stradbroke Island). And some people are saying, ‘yulung-bila’ but the correct is ‘djalu-bila’ or ‘yulwan-bila’. So just little things like that, that ‘bila’, ‘bila’, on the end is what we're looking for and the not ‘yulung-bila’, but ‘yulwan-bila’. So it's just interesting, all those little things.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of a koala in a tree.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
Our name for Koala is ‘dumbripi’ and ‘bripi’ is ‘little’. So ‘dum’, you know, ‘little bear’. So for us, it's yeah, that's for us in Yuggera country, and I think that everyone knows the Yugam one, which is ‘borobi’. And then we've also seen another version. But yeah, there's all these different little nuances in the language. So we have that main root word, and then it's the suffixes with which move it around.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is the front cover of the book titled An Introduction to the languages of Moreton Bay: Yagarubal and its Djandewal Dialect and Moreton Islands Gowar, written by Kerry Charlton and Barry A. Brown.
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
So, you know, we're slowly working on more structure. It's been a great thing to do, and we now have a database of eighteen thousand words.
Description:
On the left is the Deadly Digital Communities logo (comprising of the words and a large white handprint on the top). In the centre of the screen is an image of Aunty Kerry Charlton holding the book, titled An Introduction to the languages of Moreton Bay.
Text on screen:
Yuggera
The language of the Yagarubul people
Aunty Kerry Charlton
Aunty Kerry Charlton:
And so we're excited because this lexicon of the languages of Southeast Queensland, will be ready later in the year! So, it's gonna be a great end to the year!
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The Our words our stories project is a Deadly Digital Communities program supported through funding from the State Library of Queensland and Telstra.
(Telstra logo, State Library of Queensland logo, Queensland Government logo)
Dream big with State Library of Queensland and Telstra in partnership with Indigenous Knowledge Centres and local councils.
Robert Ah Wing:
The Our words our stories project is a Deadly Digital Communities program supported through funding from the State Library of Queensland and Telstra. Dream big with State Library of Queensland and Telstra in partnership with Indigenous Knowledge Centres and local councils.
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The Our words our stories project is in recognition of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous languages.
(International Year of Indigenous Languages logo)
Logan City Council Libraries acknowledges that language heritage and knowledge always remains with the traditional owners, elders, language custodians and other community members of their respective language nation.
Robert Ah Wing:
The Our words our stories project is in recognition of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous languages. Logan City Council Libraries acknowledges that language heritage and knowledge always remains with the traditional owners, elders, language custodians and other community members of their respective language nation.
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Logan City Council gratefully acknowledges the time, resources, stories and support of the following:
Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton – Co-editor of An Introduction to the languages of Moreton Bay: Yagarubal and its Djandewal dialect and Moreton Islands Gowar / researched and compiled by Wulara-Nguru, edited by Kerry Charlton and Barry A. Brown. 2019
Robert Ah Wing - Logan City Council Libraries Deadly Digital Communities Project Officer
Queensland Narrating Service - for providing digital recording equipment, sound production and quality assurance
Nyeumba-Meta Advisory Group.
This recording features didgeridoo music performed by Gregg Dreise.
Robert Ah Wing:
Logan City Council gratefully acknowledges the time, resources, stories and support of the following:
Aunty Kerry Charlton; Robert Ah Wing (Logan City Council Libraries Deadly Digital Communities Project Officer); the Queensland Narrating Service for providing digital recording equipment, sound production and quality assurance; and the Nyeumba-Meta Advisory Group.
This recording features didgeridoo music performed by Gregg Dreise.
Text on screen:
For Mobo Jarjum - tomorrow's children.
(Logan City Council logo)
Copyright 2019. Logan City Council.
Robert Ah Wing:
For Mobo Jarjum - tomorrow's children.
Copyright 2019. Logan City Council.