At least 30 members of the Deniliquin community gathered last week to the launch of The Pembengguk Wamba Wamba Read Aloud Books – a series of books written in the local Aboriginal language.
The series, which contains five books, is designed to help young children learn Wamba Wamba by “being read aloud” together in the classroom or at home with family.
For Yarkuwa’s chair Jeanette Crew OAM, providing the local schools and community with this resource is important because it’s something that she never had access to when she was a child.
Growing up at the Moonahcullah Aboriginal Station, approximately 40km north west of Deniliquin, Mrs Crew said Wamba Wamba was not taught in the classroom there or at the schools in town.
“We didn’t have any sort of reading resources,” the Wamba Wamba Elder said.
“There was nothing for us, there was nothing like Pembengguk books.”
But it wasn’t just her language. This extended to universal children’s books, bedtime stories, and fairy tales.
“Because we had a school at the mission, we weren’t interacting with the broader school community and we just didn’t have that.
“One of the most read things was a catalogue, one of those mail order catalogues.”
Mrs Crew said the new book series is important because it “continues” First Nations peoples’ connection with their culture.
“Our connection with our culture has never been broken,” she said.
“It’s not necessarily visible to other people because mostly it is invisible; it’s the way we live, the way we relate and unless you’re in there, you don’t see that.”
Mrs Crew’s father Neil ‘Rusty’ Ross was fluent in Wamba Wamba.
His entire generation was, and Yarkuwa hopes that these books can help teach the next generations too.
The word Pembengguk means children, and also family, Kethawil Pembengguk.
The five books in the series are called: Nyapa Lipkwil? (How Many Echidnas?); Kethawil Pembengguk (Family); Nyanya Yawirr? (What Animal Is That?); Penggek (My Body) and and Nyakanda Tirrilkata (I Spy In The Sky).
Daryll Bellingham, a language worker who collaborated with Yarkuwa on producing the books, said the purpose of this “magic” series is for them to be read aloud to children, at home or in the classroom.
Each book has a pronunciation guide to help sound out each word as you go and is designed to be interactive such as the song at the end of Penggek (My Body).
“The song makes it easy to learn, and it’s just such a buzz,” Mr Bellingham said.
“You get 20 to 30 kindergarten kids and they’re all singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes in Wamba Wamba. They’re doing the actions and they’re laughing and smiling.”
Mr Bellingham said the Pembengguk book series was a “community production”, which was made possible thanks to funding from the Aboriginal Lands Trust NSW and Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation (WCC) Language Program.
Two of the books were designed by Angus Rae and Catie Michael from Deniliquin High School as part of Yarkuwa’s year seven culture and language program.
Yarkuwa’s general manager David Crew said the books were also printed locally through 3G Printing in Deniliquin.
The educational books will be used as learning resources for Yarkuwa’s language programme in local childcare centres and Kindergarten classes this year.
“All the work Yarkuwa is doing is having a really positive effect on the wider culture of Deniliquin and the area,” Mr Bellingham said.
“That’s something I’ve noticed changing in a really positive way over the last 10 years, and it’s something that Yarkuwa should be really proud of.
“It’s not just maintaining Wamba Wamba culture and language, but it’s also adding such a positive effect to the whole community and wider culture here. It’s really important, we all benefit so much.”
Mr Crew said Yarkuwa’s next step is to attend the 2023 Puliima Indigenous Language and Technology Conference on Larrakia Country in Darwin in late August – a biennial event aimed at bringing people together, nationally and internationally, that discusses community-based Indigenous languages projects.
Yarkuwa has also been funded by the NSW Aboriginal Languages Trust to develop, with all our education providers, an integrated curriculum language program from early childhood right through school.
“That’s the next 12 months, and a big investment. Now, we can employ a new worker to work on that program, so it’s great to have that capacity to be involved.”
