This year’s Naidoc theme, “keep the fire burning”, speaks to a cultural movement many Australians may be unaware of. Among the many fires we, as sovereign peoples, are stoking, language revitalisation is spreading like a cool burn, igniting our cultural vigour.
For me, language revitalisation has always been part of a larger project. In my professional life this has included naming significant policy work I’ve led in my Kooma language, as well as championing the reclamation of placenames like K’gari (Fraser Island). At home, I encouraged my daughters to deliver speeches in Kooma and write assessments in Kooma – made possible by a learning process that began with words and common sentences posted to the fridge.
