Logan Hudson with Early Childhood Education Assistant Natasha Walker and students at GEGAC’s Dala Yooro Kindergarten recently. Photo: Troy Brown/GEGAC
By Troy Brown
Logan Hudson, a year 12 student at Bairnsdale Secondary College, has been teaching GunaiKurnai language to the Boorai at GEGAC’s Dala Yooro Kindergarten.
Before colonisation, over 250 First Nations languages were spoken in Australia.
Now, just over 100 are still in use and 90 per cent are considered “endangered.”
So these lessons are crucial to our people’s culture for the future.
“The goal here is to revive the language,” Logan says.
Logan has learnt language over the course of her life, through her family and Elders.
And so most of the resources Logan uses in the classroom are drawn from her own knowledge of what has been passed on through to her.
The way she likes to teach is to be more engaged and active with the kids.
For example, she might call out a colour in language, and tell the kids to go find that colour.
Or she will ask a question in an activity they are doing, and have the children say the answer in language.
Right now, the class is learning single words such as animals, objects and everyday kind of things.
Logan says she loves every bit of working with these young children.
“Seeing the kids’ confidence in speaking their language means so much,” she says.
“The goal for the future is for the kids to be able to say full sentences, and eventually bring them up so that when they get older they are in the position that I’m in now, passing on the language and teaching the future generations.”
Getting to see these kids firsthand, and seeing them being taught by Logan, it is obvious that there is a real change going on in here.
These young Boorai are starting to replace English words with language in the sentences they use, such as animals and things they’ve been taught.
This is so inspiring to see a young Indigenous woman leading these kids and teaching through the passion and love she has for our culture.
Logan isn’t certain yet what she wants to do after graduating from high school, although she knows she loves teaching kids culture like she is doing now.
I encourage all of you reading this that if you know of some words in language, start using them around home or around your children.
Small things like this can be pivotal in making sure culture and language is revived.
“Aboriginal Culture is at the heart of everything we do at GEGAC,” said GEGAC’s Executive Director of Culture and Deputy CEO, Josh Tuiono.
“We have done a lot of work over the past year or so to make sure GEGAC is a place that always reflects and represents Aboriginal culture, right across the organisation.”
“The Boorai and younger generations are an important part of that. Our investment in the Cultural Room at Dala Yooro, the cultural workshops we’ve been doing, and bringing these language lessons into the kindy, are just some of the things we’ve done to protect and promote Aboriginal culture at GEGAC.”