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Wangkatja woman and teacher publishes book to revive language

Headshot of Elena Morabito
Elena MorabitoKalgoorlie Miner
East Kalgoorlie Primary School principal Sally Fowler, Wangkatja language teacher and author Tanya Tucker, and Connected Beginnings program co-ordinator Joanne Gibson.
Camera IconEast Kalgoorlie Primary School principal Sally Fowler, Wangkatja language teacher and author Tanya Tucker, and Connected Beginnings program co-ordinator Joanne Gibson. Credit: Elena Morabito/Kalgoorlie Miner

Wangkatja woman and Kalgoorlie-Boulder language teacher Tanya Tucker has released her first book to share her grandmother’s language.

Ms Tucker did not grow up speaking Wangkatja language but she learnt it as an adult and has been teaching language to East Kalgoorlie Primary School students and the community.

The book series is named after her grandmother Ninga, who spoke Wangkatja while growing up on a mission among other children, but they made sure they were not heard speaking it as it was taboo.

The racist practice was culturally fatal for many Aboriginal languages, and Ms Tucker fears the Wangkatja language will be lost, but hopes her book will “revitalise” it and bring it back to life for the younger generation to learn and practice.

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Nyaapa ngurltju nyurra nyawa?/What family members do you see? includes illustrations of family members by Ashley Altes, with Ms Tucker providing the Wangkatja name of each family member, which were then broken into syllables and phonetics to make it easily pronounceable.

“So I’ve done it phonetically throughout it as well,” Ms Tucker said.

“So it’s easy to pronounce the words that are written in language, to make it more user friendly for the students as well.

“Language becomes part of (the students’) identity I suppose so I always think about with culture or with language, we haven’t got a lot. So it’s getting lost. So this is why revitalising the language itself (is important).”

East Kalgoorlie Primary School principal Sally Fowler said having Ms Tucker on site as a language teacher was an absolute asset.

“But now actually creating a book that actually celebrates the language and the culture of community will promote the Aboriginal cultures and histories that we’re in, it’s just brilliant that we not only have a book with Wangkatja language, but we also have that expertise on site as well.”

Ms Fowler said Ms Tucker had been recognised Statewide for teaching the two-way science program, which imported Aboriginal cultures and histories into the curriculum.

She said learning Wangkatja language was important to students because it allowed them to celebrate Aboriginal language and pass it on to future generations.

“We don’t want that to die out,” she said.

Ms Fowler thanked Connected Beginnings for donating several of Ms Tucker’s books to the school, as well as several other Kalgoorlie-Boulder schools.

Connected Beginnings program co-ordinator Joanne Gibson said the aim of the program was to ensure Aboriginal children aged zero to five had their needs met in health, education and wellbeing.

She said part of that was recognising the importance of language and the connection language gives to culture.

Ms Gibson said the book was a wonderful resource and the organisation felt it was important Kalgoorlie-Boulder students could access the book.

“We just know that the effect of the book will resonate throughout the community for years to come,” she said.

“So hopefully it will build that for every student, not just the Aboriginal students, but every student who gets the pleasure of reading the book will be able to connect with that culture

Ms Gibson said several copies of the book had been donated to primary schools in East Kalgoorlie, Boulder, South Kalgoorlie and O’Connor and St Joseph’s, St Mary’s, Hannans Primary School and North Kalgoorlie.

The organisation had also sent books to other primary schools in the Goldfields, including Coolgardie, Kambalda East and West, Laverton, Leinster and Leonora.

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