Primary-school students at Shalvey Public School in Western Sydney have taken a creative approach to reviving Dharug language by dreaming up a pet budgie for themselves, and then writing all about it in Dharug.
In a term-long program delivered by Story Factory, Year 4 students created budgie characters and wrote about them using Dharug words.
The school has a significant number of Indigenous students and a strong focus on First Nations culture. Students were fascinated to learn that many English words originate from First Nations languages. The program, named Gidjirrigaa!, means budgerigar in Wiradjuri and Kamiliraay, and it’s where the English word comes from.
“It’s about celebrating First Nations culture and celebrating a language that’s survived,” says Tony Britten, Storyteller Manager at Story Factory. “It was important to get the students writing in Dharug language on Dharug country (where the school is located) because the language is being revived and we wanted the kids to be a part of the revival.”
The students also felt a local connection to the program, learning that some of the first budgerigars collected in Australia in the 1800s were from Parramatta.
Students spent time devising their budgie’s character, coming up with a name, personality traits, a trick it could perform, and even designing a portable budgie travel device. When asked what they enjoyed most about the program, one student responded: “Going more into my imagination and using different ideas.”
Throughout the term, the students fully embraced learning about budgies and Dharug language, finding out fun facts about budgies, and playing charades with Dharug names for animals.
“By the time they wrote about their budgie at the end of the term, they already had a portrait in their head of who their budgie was, which took the cognitive load off when writing about it in Dharug,” says Tony.
At the final workshop, there was much excitement when one of the volunteers, Jeannie, brought real-life budgies into the classroom, and students received a beautifully bound publication of their work. Students were in awe of the birds, with one reflecting, “My favourite thing that I will always remember is when we saw the budgies, a memory I will always keep.”
“Dabura (Portrait) of Luna Yanada (Moon)” by Astrid, Year 4
My budgie’s name is Yanada (moon or Luna), / Yanada (Luna or moon) is a waruwi (girl) dibung (small bird). / Yanada (Luna) is a very colourful yidbing (bird). / The colours are yarragul (yellow) to bulga (green) / and her dun (tail) is dyarri yarragul (pink) to bura (blue) dawari (fade). / Yanada (Luna or moon) can make things duwali (hide) as a trick.
