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Noongar Language Classes

Alana Caldwell – Creative Project Facilitator and Year 7 students

Wednesday of Week 6 was an enriching day for our Year 7 cohort as they engaged in Noongar Language Lessons led by Dylan Collard, a proud Wadjak-Ballardong man facilitating Kalyakoorl Education.

These workshops were designed to introduce the context of the Noongar Language, encompassing Noongar greetings, pronouns, and key words related to a diverse array of interests, learning areas, and the environment.

Dylan skillfully conducted interactive sessions to ensure the students remained engaged. Kalyakoorl is set to return next year, offering more interactive workshops, allowing both staff and students to delve deeper into learning Noongar words and Culture. For further information about Kalyakoorl, please visit HERE.

And here is what Year 7 students Ruby and Michael had to say about this experience:

Today in our class, Mr. Collard introduced us to the Noongar language, teaching us numerous words, particularly those related to animals, pronouns, and actions. He taught us pronouns such as ‘ngany,’ signifying myself, and ‘moonook,’ representing them.

Our lesson extended to emotions, discovering words like ‘bidibada,’ conveying tiredness, and ‘karang,’ expressing anger. Traditional animal names like ‘yongka’ for kangaroo and ‘karra’ for red-tail cockatoo were also part of our learning.

We were also taught action words such as ‘ngaarniny’ for eating and ‘djiba-djobaliny’ for swimming. We learned to construct sentences with these words, each comprising a noun and a verb. For instance, we learnt to say ‘maali baal djiba-djobaliny,’ meaning the swans swim. Another interesting thing was that the word ‘the’ is not used in Noongar language.

Mr. Collard guided us through conversations using two sentences: ‘moonook moorditj,’ asking how someone is feeling, to which the response might be ‘ngany’ followed by an emotion, for instance, ‘ngany moorditj,’ signifying ‘I am feeling good.’

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