Over the next six months I have the honour of mentoring Professor Jillian Marsh from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies. Most of our meetings will be online as she is based in Albury; however, next month she will be visiting Bathurst.
Jillian identifies as an Adnyamathanha Yuraartu [Aboriginal woman from the northern Flinders Ranges region of South Australia] and her language is Yura Ngawarla. She has expertise in language and linguistics, archeology and the environment.
This week I have attended a 2-day beginner-level workshop held in Kelso, Bathurst this week to learn the fundamentals of the Wiradyuri language. The workshop was funded by the NSW Aboriginal Languages Trust and taught us to pronounce Wiradyuri sounds, words, and phrases, including: family terms, numbers, animal names, and a basic Acknowledgement of Country.
"Dhuluny: Wiradyuri language workshops commemorating the 1824 declaration of martial law"
The workshops were held at the Wundirra Kelso Community Centre (with Wahluu Health Aboriginal Corporation Bathurst). Workshops were facilitated by Aunty Joylene Simpson and Aunty Leanna Carr assisted by Jonathon Jones. Wiradyuri people, other Aboriginal people, and parents/carers of Aboriginal children were given preference; however, non-Aboriginal people were also welcome to attend.
The RHRI Symposium was held 17-18 June in Orange to celebrate the research funded by a grant to the Charles Sturt University Rural Health Research Institute from the Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Department of Health (Grant Activity 4-DGEJZ1O/4-CW7UT14).
We presented (virtually) two papers based on the successful outcomes of Project 8: – Improving access to speech pathology services for rural children with speech, language and communication needs
This morning I met with Dr Nick Ruddell to discuss the many areas of collaboration between CVC and the School of Indigenous Australian Studies (SIAS). One of the areas of collaboration are that we are co-hosting the visit of Camilla Porsanger from Nord University later this year.
14th May - Nick and I met with Camilla to organise her visit. We are looking forward to welcoming her.
Today Emily-Jane Woodhead and I were honoured to meet with the OAMS Elders for a few hours to discuss our Little Libraries project. They were very enthusiastic about the selected books written by Indigenous authors, and rated by 35 OAMS staff during 2024.
The list of Indigenous children's books is here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources
They provided many great ideas for using the books with OAMS children and families, as well as within the local schools and community. One wonderful idea was for elders to sit in the waiting rooms where some of the libraries will be housed and read books with children while they are waiting to be seen for medical and dental services.
We hope to learn more from the OAMS elders in the future. It was such a special day (and thanks for allowing us to use this photo).
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| Elders providing feedback about the books (photo included with permission) |
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| Emily-Jane talking about our research |
The sites where some of the little libraries will be located
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| Adam Gollan (OAMS), Sarah Bartlett, Annette Steele, Sharynne McLeod, Emily-Jane Woodhead |
Research can be such fun. I have never before conducted research next to a jumping castle. Thanks to the OAMS staff, families and children who yarned about our research, looked at the children's books and participated. Lots of people were interested in reading books with their children/grandchildren - so in the future it would be great to have books for people to take home too. Here are the children's books that Ebony has selected for us to use in our research: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources
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| Sharynne and Ebony |
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| Sharynne and Emily-Jane by the jumping castle |
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| Our children's books near the jumping castle |
Today Emily-Jane Woodhead and I had a fun day learning from staff and children involved in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (ACCHO) that have invited us to work with them. What a fun day.
Everyone loved the books (and snacks) we have bought for the ACCHO with the grant money. We will profile these on the Multilingual Children's Speech website soon. Thanks to Ebony Hay, Child Health Navigator, who partnered with us to select the books and undertake the research.
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| Sharynne McLeod and Adam Gollan |
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| Ebony Hay and Emily-Jane Woodhead (CSU) |
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| Kids Club - "I like this book - we read it at school" |
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Today Emily-Jane Woodhead, Sarah Bartlett and I had a wonderful day analysing data from our Indigenous children's communication research and preparing for more data collection with children, families and staff next week. It was serendipitous that we were joined by early childhood education researchers Prof Linda Harrison (Macquarie University) and Dr Leanne Gibbs (CSU) for a short while to plan how to share the resources with the Indigenous children at their school holiday program next week.
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| Emily-Jane, Sarah and I celebrated our birthdays too :) |
Today at the Dhuluny Aboriginal Art Market I met two Wiradjuri children's book authors: Larry Brandy and Jessica Leffley. We are purchasing Indigenous resources as part of our current RHRI grant to support rural children's communication.
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| Jessica Leffley |
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| Resources purchased from Reilly Callie |
Today was the 200th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in Bathurst. A sad day in the history of our nation. To mark this occasion, "Dhuluny: The war that never ended", a thought-provoking exhibition, is at the Bathurst Art Gallery https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/dhuluny-the-war-that-never-ended/
"Dhuluny means the direct or gospel truth, and the commemoration offers visitors the opportunity to share and understand the true history of our country and celebrate the resilience of the Wiradyuri Nation."
The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation are hosting a series of events this week. I decided it was very important attend one of these events today. This afternoon I attended Dhuluny and sat with Wiradjuri woman Jessika Spencer (Ngurru: First Nationss Weaving) and learned how to weave as her grandmother had taught her.
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| My weaving |
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| Wiradjuri weaving |
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| Wiradjuri weaving |
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| Possum skin arm bands |
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| Ready for this afternoon's corroboree |
Prof Linda Harrison and I have been working on revisions for our co-authored paper titled "Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language in early childhood: Parent report as a predictor of school-age academic outcomes". This is part of our current research with the Rural Health Research Institute.
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I was honoured to receive an invitation and attend the Blak Tie Ball last night to celebrate 20 years of the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS https://oams.net.au/about/our-governance/) and NAIDOC week (National Aborigines and Islanders day Observance Committee). Prof Stan Grant provided an inspiring speech during the dinner. It was a great night of celebration about the achievements of the OAMS staff and community.
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| CEO Jamie Newman and Sharynne |
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| Over 300 people attended |
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| Prof Stan Grant provided an inspiring speeck |
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| Sharynne, Sophie and Harry |
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| Celebrating 20 years of OAMS |
The video from the night was posted on Facebook in October 2024: https://www.facebook.com/Orangeaboriginalmedicalservice/videos and I made a brief appearance :)
The Queensland Department of Education has just launched two excellent videos:
"The first Kindy uplift priority, ‘Creating culturally safe, inclusive and responsive Kindergarten Programs’ emphasises the importance of including all First Nations children and enhancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives within Kindergarten Programs. In this video we hear from Professor Tony Dreise about the importance of cultural safety. Explore further at https://earlychildhood.qld.gov.au/grants-and-funding/kindy-uplift-program"
"Multilingualism is a strength. More than one in four Australian children speak a language other than English at the age of starting school. Being multilingual has many advantages, including improved learning at school, social skills, self-confidence, and cognitive development. The two animated videos aim to empower families to maintain home language. The Language and Literacy team provides a range of resources encompassing evidence-based research, to enable educators, families and home tutors to support children’s development of language, reading and writing. Visit https://readingwritingcentre.education.qld.gov.au/ for more information."
Reconciliation week occurred at the same time as the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference. Members of our team attended and learned from these and other sessions:
"Key messages 1. Aboriginal leadership and collaboration is central to any clinical or research endeavour aiming to be culturally secure for Aboriginal peoples. 2. Only Aboriginal clients and research participants can ultimately judge the cultural security of a service or project practices. 3. Cultural immersion is the optimal way to learn about Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing and develop a critical perspective on current clinical practices"
UNESCO has declared 2022-2032 the Decade of Indigenous Languages. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation publishes children's books in Indigenous Australian languages https://shop.ilf.org.au/collections/all. The Charles Sturt University Libraries held a fundraising campaign earlier this month to support this important cause: https://library-blog.csu.edu.au/2023/09/14/great-book-swap-2023/
Today Prof Julian Grant (Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Science and Health) and I were invited to visit the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) by Jamie and his team.
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| Jamie, Julian, Sharynne |
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| Sharynne, Fiona, Debra, Julian, Ebony |