By Aaron Cordy
LANGUAGE is sacred. In its basic form, language is how we communicate. For Indigenous Australians, language holds the connection to culture, to country, their oral history and traditions.
To keep the connection to land and language strong for future generations of Bangerang people, cousins Roland and Kobe Atkinson have comprised a Bangerang dictionary with more than 700 words of The People of the Tall Trees.
“Aboriginal language for an Aboriginal person is the core number one thing for identity, communication and how to identify yourself, and re-strengthen your identity as well,” said Bangerang custodian and cultural educator, Roland Atkinson.
It is called Bangerang Ngawitpa Lotjpatj. Bangarang; People of the Tall Trees. Ngawitpa; round or circle. Lotjpatj comes from the word Lotjpa, which means to speak, and Lotjpatj means been speaking and have spoken.
It was important for the cousins that the language came under the traditional owner group, the Bangerang Aboriginal Corporation. With the aid of the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation of Languages and the community, they developed a spelling system.
“Were we going to go with the B or the P or the G or the K? There was a couple of long meetings around that. But we had to educate ourselves about the new space, especially around the Aboriginal language that traditionally wasn’t documented. It was just orally spoken,” said Roland.
“Once that was established, we started going through all the early settlers’ literature and documentation in the area, for the language that they put down. Going through word-for-word, different settlers’ diaries, and then putting it to the new spelling system and coming up with the new spelling to make pronunciation a lot easier. The reason we did that was we wanted our language to be united nationally, so if anyone from up north or WA saw our language, they could speak it straight off the bat.”
White settlers virtually stole the language and muddied it with English interpretations across the vast Bangerang Nation, with some groups in Wangaratta wanting to be called Pangerang instead of Bangerang. This is why it was so important to establish the language circle with an agreed-upon structure and spelling for the 700 Bangerang words.
“So that’s why we established the language circle to take that ownership back but also give guidance to our own community. It’s a new space; we’re still picking up trends. You know, what’s the pros and cons of it?” said Roland.
“The good thing is that the word list is completed. That means any use of language if the community needs it, for naming a new project or program or creating education tools, they can go ahead with it, and the language circle is there to guide them. Once you get the endorsement from the language circle, you automatically get the endorsement from the traditional owner group.”
Kobe and Roland are expecting to have the dictionary hard copy finalised by the end of the year so they can donate it to the libraries within the Bangerang Nation. They are also putting every word with audio attached into an online dictionary, to make it easier for the wider community who haven’t spoken the language before to hear it and start encouraging them to speak Bangerang.
“The language comes from the ground where the people come from. I’m 44 years old and growing up we just had a handful of words we called koori slang. But we always wanted to put some sort of foundation down, so the next generation and so on, become fluent speakers, but also share it as well to make it the perfect tool for reconciliation.”
