Languages alive 2024

In the second annual NSW Aboriginal Languages Week, held on 20–27 October, we celebrate the determination and courage of First Nations peoples to maintain and revitalise languages. The First Nations Community Access to Archives team at MHNSW are working hard to uncover language and cultural material relating to First Nations communities in NSW, with a focus on improving the discoverability and accessibility of the NSW State Archives Collection.

The team’s examination of the collection began with the Colonial Secretary’s records from the 19th century, where the practices of forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are documented from as early as 1814.¹ These practices led to significant declines in Aboriginal languages being spoken and used across NSW.² However, we uncovered a powerful instance of language preservation that has inspired our team.

Traces in the records

On a mission in Lake Macquarie, NSW, established in 1825, Reverend Lancelot Edward Threlkeld of the London Missionary Society worked closely with a local Aboriginal knowledge holder, Biraban, to document the language of the Hunter River Lake Macquarie region. Threlkeld’s aim was to learn and record the language in order to teach the community the Bible in their own tongue. His approach differed from that of other missionaries who sought to instruct the local people in English. And while other colonists with an interest in language were busily compiling word lists, Threlkeld understood the importance of documenting the whole language to build an understanding of the grammar and structure. Threlkeld published several books on ‘the Australian language’ covering spelling and grammar and is believed to be the first person in Australia to translate the scriptures into language.

The team’s first find in the Colonial Secretary’s records relating to Threlkeld’s language work was a letter from him to the Colonial Secretary ‘enclosing a copy of [Threlkeld’s book] A key to the structure of the Aboriginal language’ to be included in the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.³ Although the State Archives Collection does not appear to hold a copy of this book, we have since found three 19th-century editions in other institutions: the National Library of Australia, the State Library of NSW, and the copy of the book included in the Great Exhibition was traced to the Royal Collection in London.⁴

In another bundle of the Colonial Secretary’s papers, this time relating to the financial operations and land grant applications of the London Missionary Society, our team identified two handwritten student copy books in language, inscribed on the front with ‘Little M’gill’ and ‘Billy Blue’s book 1836’. Two copies of Threlkeld’s printed pamphlet An Australian spelling book (1836) were also included.⁵

The context of these items was not immediately apparent; however, a transcription of the 1836 Annual Report of the Mission to the Aborigines Lake Macquarie, found on the Hunter Living Histories website, mentions that Threlkeld had taken on two students whom he ‘taught to read and write in their own tongue … Their unfinished first attempt in copy books, I attach, as specimens just as they left them; the books are made narrow to prevent soiling with their hands’.⁶ Threlkeld included the copy books and printed spelling books with the annual report as evidence of the progress he was making at the mission. A separate document gives the students’ probable ages as 16 and 18 respectively.⁷

Celebrating Aboriginal Languages Week

As we celebrate NSW Aboriginal Languages Week with the aspiration of seeing languages alive, these remarkable language and culture finds in the State Archives Collection, and their links to records held elsewhere, highlight the importance of collaboration across institutions to connect material for their return to language revitalisation communities. Please join us to celebrate NSW Aboriginal Languages Week.

Learn more about the First Nations Community Access to Archives project.

Note: Even though Threlkeld was the documenter of the language, we acknowledge Biraban as the knowledge holder and that this work would not have been possible without him.

Authors

Sarah Bunn | Supervising Conservator
Sarah is a paper conservator with over 30 years’ experience working across archives, libraries and galleries in Sydney and the United Kingdom. As paper conservator at the Art Gallery of NSW for 15 years she developed a research interest in First Nations works on paper from the mid 20^th century, and worked closely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curatorial team to deliver several major exhibitions of artists from Arnhem Land: Yirrkala Drawings and Art from Milingimbi: taking memories back.
Sarah has worked with the State Archives collection on several projects and is excited to be working with the First Nations Community Access to Archives team to continue her learning, share her conservation knowledge in practical ways, and contribute to highlighting First Nations’ languages and cultural material.

Gulwanyang Moran | Manager, First Nations Community Access to Archives
Gulwanyang Moran is a proud Birrbay and Dhanggati woman of the Gathang language group and Manager of the First Nations Community Access to Archives team at MHNSW. Gulwanyang is a power-conscious and experienced leader with over 20 years’ experience in Cultural Capability education and praxis. A passionate advocate of cultures and languages, Gulwanyang brings a wealth of knowledge working on the ground in her own peoples’ language and cultural reclamation work. Truth-telling, rematriation, anti-colonialism and supporting First Nations archivists centres the work she does within the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector. Through facilitating statewide language education and cultural programs, she maintains her understanding of the aspirations and needs of language revitalisation communities. Gulwanyang holds a Master of Indigenous Languages Education and informs national policy through the National Language Policy Partnership group as an independent community representative.