June 2002

Language bridges cultural barriers

Koorie Early Childhood Field Officer (KECFO) Lynne Dent has introduced the traditional Ganai language to 20 preschools in Gippsland.

The Ganai language program, aimed at overcoming cultural barriers, has resulted in an increase in enrolments of Koorie children in preschool programs from 38 in 1998 to 64 in 2001.

‘There has been a greater acceptance of different cultures in preschools and a willingness by preschool staff to ensure that their programs are culturally appropriate,’ Mrs Dent said.

‘Staff, children and their parents—Koorie and non-Koorie—are delighted with the program.’

Mrs Dent, Koorie Preschool Assistants and local community members conduct the language program in the preschools, supported and advised by a group of Elders.

Mrs Dent is employed to promote the importance of preschool programs for Koorie children and to encourage families and communities and support their children’s participation in State Government-funded preschools.

With her cousin Doris Paton, Mrs Dent produced a CD ROM to help teach the language program in preschools and schools and to encourage Aboriginal community members to share their dance, stories and art with the children.

The interactive Nambur Ganai CD ROM was launched a year ago and is based on Ms Dent’s five years teaching the Ganai language program to Prep to Year 10 pupils at the Woolum Bellum KODE (Koorie Open Door Education) school at Morwell.

The CD took three years to complete with the CALC Multimedia Unit at the Victorian University of Technology at Melbourne.

Nambur Ganai (Talking Ganai) has games, three traditional Ganai stories and a component that allows students to record themselves speaking Ganai.

By playing it back students can learn to correctly pronounce the words.

Nambur Ganai is the first interactive language teaching CD ROM in Australia.

Mrs Dent works as a Koorie Early Childhood Field Officer three days a week.

She is also a community language worker for the Yirruk-Tinnor Ganai Language Program, based with the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-op at Bairnsdale.

In 1997, Mrs Dent received the inaugural Victorian Indigenous Women’s Award for Culture and the Peter Clarke Teaching for Reconciliation (Koorie Teacher of the Year) Award in 2000.

She is the State Representative on the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) at Northcote.

She is also part of a Language Reference Group consisting of Elders—Ganai has a set of protocols, one of which is that the language is only taught by Koorie people.

Mrs Dent is the only accredited traditional LOTE (Language Other Than English) teacher in Victoria and has shared her knowledge with audiences at many conferences around Australia.

• For more information on the Ganai language program contact Mrs Dent on 5177 2615. For more information on the Nambur Ganai CD ROM contact Mrs Dent or Doris Paton on 5120 4547.