"Modern Ways for Ancient Words"

Puliima National Indigenous Languages and Information Communication Technology Forum

The Puliima 2009 National Indigenous Language & Information Communication Technology Forum was kicked off with a pre conference gathering, on the evening of Tuesday 31st March, at the Koori Heritage Trust. It was great to get the delegates from all over Australia, Torres Strait Islands & New Zealand together before the conference so they had time to catch up and network with old friends and meet new people all with a common goal of reviving & maintaining our Indigenous languages. It was a casual gathering where the delegates could relax and enjoy delicious light refreshments, supplied by Black Olive Catering, & great entertainment from Aboriginal singer Kat Clarke and their band; Sean Harris, Clinton Dimer and Owen Atkinson. The pre conference gathering was a great way to get the delegates geared up and excited for the commencement of the agenda packed day one of the conference the following day. The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages hosted a great launch of local Victorian languages resources on the evening, and we also most surpised when they had also arranged for Kutcher Edwards to perform in the evening

On the morning of Wednesday 1st of April delegates gathered at the Koori Heritage Trust for the official opening of the conference, opened by Jeanie Bell from Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. It was an excellent privilege for Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) to have an important person such as Jeanie, who has been involved in Aboriginal Language work for many years, to open the conference for us. A moving welcome to country was performed by Wurundjeri elder, Aunty Joy Murphy, who we also felt very privileged to have involved in Puliima 2009. Delegates then enjoyed an amazing cultural performance including dancing, singing and didgeridoo playing by One Fire Dance Troupe.

From there we all headed to the William Angliss Institute Conference Centre, conveniently situated around the corner from the Koori Heritage Trust, where we got into the formal part of the conference. Here the keynote address was given by Aunty Joy Murphy. A variety of plenary presentations were delivered in the conference centre auditorium in the morning then delegates divided up into groups to attend breakout sessions and hands ons workshops in the afternoon.

Some highlights of the first day's presentations were the launch of the Our Languages Website by Dr Eve Fesl from Gubbi Gubbi country and Daryn McKenny from ACRA, a presentation on Preserving Traditional Songs and Dance by community member Mayrah Dreise and of course the fantastic Maori Language Resource presentation given by Professors' Tania Ka'ai and John Moorfield from Maori Language Institute - AUT University in New Zealand.

On the evening of Wednesday 1st April delegates attended the conference dinner at the William Angliss Restaurant where they could mingle and get to know each other even better, do some more networking and discuss the first day of the conference. This also gave delegates a chance to wind down and get ready for the busy second day of the conference. Brilliant entertainment was provided by Aboriginal comedian Kevin Kropinyeri, Street Warriors Hip Hop Group and the band MZ Lyrikal.

On Thursday 2nd April another agenda packed day of the conference began with some more excellent plenary sessions in the morning then breakout sessions and workshops in the afternoon.

Some of the highlights of the second day were once again a presentation from Rachael Ka'ai Mahuta on "Online digital repository of Maori songs" also Maxine Cowie and her "Unlocking Literacy Program", by far the most popular was the MARVIN Animation Program workshop by John Toyne from NTICED.

The conference was closed with an open forum where all delegates had a chance to speak and some very important issues about Aboriginal Australian languages where discussed in particular major concersn were raised in regards to the forced learning in English for the first 4 hours of each day in NT schools

The Puliima 2009 conference has had exceptionally good feedback from delegates. It has proved to be a wonderful success and has grown since the first was held in 2007. Thank you to everyone that attended and contributed. ACRA now look forward to holding the conference again in 2011. We hope to see you all there.

We have put together a "Final Wrap Up" of the conference here

You can view all of the photos from the conference here

And the pre conference archive here

Alternatively browse the links under Puliima 2009 in the top menu.