Nyangumarta Resource for School

Linguist Sophie Allen and Nyangumarta teacher Janet Stewart records the story of a day at the beach. (Photo by Eleonora Deak)

In January 2011, volunteer linguist Sophie Allan visited Wangka Maya to help produce language resources for schools. Sophie worked closely with Janet Stewart to produce a picture book and accompanying audio CD in the Nyangumarta language, which describes a visit to the beach.

Janet is an experienced teacher of Nyangumarta to children at South Hedland Primary School and these skills proved invaluable in the creation of this Nyangumarta language resource which can be used by Nyangumarta people of all ages.

Prior to her visit, Sophie had just finished her undergraduate degree in linguistics at Latrobe University in Melbourne, and planned to undertake Honours at the University of Melbourne in 2011. Her work at Wangka Maya helped her to develop her thesis ideas and gain some experience in the field. She planned to write her Honours thesis on the relationship between bilingual education and language maintenance/language rights.

The book and CD produced by Sophie and Janet was distributed to language classes at Hedland schools.