Cirrus@Austlit

'The town of Parkes is famous for the annual Elvis Festival and for its role in helping to beam astronauts onto the moon (as seen in the movie The Dish).

'Something you may not know about this town is that each week over 1,000 people learn the Wiradjuri language. That's around 10% of the population. It's taught in every primary school as well as in high schools and at TAFE. As you drive into Parkes and neighbouring Forbes, you'll pass prominent 'Welcome to Wiradjuri country' signs along the road. As you walk into the main building at Parkes Public Primary school, you're greeted with a bright wall filled with Wiradjuri nouns and verbs. In the prep classroom, the colours of the rainbow are plastered around the room in language.' (Introduction)

'Since the beginning of 2017, Aboriginal students at Eden Public School, on the far south coast of New South Wales, have been learning the language of their elders.' (Introduction)

'A football stadium. An onshore gale. Rainy squalls. Nearby construction work. 

'Are these the right conditions for a demonstration of the National Anthem in Dharawal language?'  (Introduction)

'Anyone who has ever lived in a remote Aboriginal community understands the importance of hand signs. These are meant not only for the hearing impaired, but are a bedrock of everyday communication. For many generations they have served as an effective means of communicating detailed messages over long distances throughout Aboriginal Australia.'  (Introduction)

'On the first day of NAIDOC week 2012, Wurundjuri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy shares her story about her connection to the Woiwurrung language.'  (Introduction)

'Joy Bonner of Hervey Bay understands the importance of remembering. Joy is doing everything she can to make sure her traditional language, Butchulla, is not forgotten.'  (Introduction)

'According to Suellyn Tighe, a Gamilaraay woman from Coonabarabran, the modern Aboriginal story is a difficult one.' (Introduction)

'Whenever Peggy Patrick's name is spoken, be it by Indigenous or non-Indigenous Australians, she receives a special reverence. Peggy Patrick is a woman of singular magnitude.' (Introduction)

'A few people speak the Indigenous Djabuguy language fluently. Michael Quinn, an Englishman, is one of them.' (Introduction)

'Language workers from right across the top end and throughout WA got together this week for the bi-annual Wanala Language conference.

'ABC Open held a video workshop at the conference to demonstrate how easy it is to share language through video. This is the outcome of the workshop.'  (Introduction)

'E.M Forster once mused, ‘How do I know what I think before I say it?’ It beautifully sums up the intricate links between thinking and speaking, words and culture, which are explored through the latest film in the 'Mother Tongue' series.'  (Introduction)

'A film about my journey home to Girramay country and family after many years of feeling disconnected from my culture.'  (Introduction)

'Wajarri country is inland from Geraldton, Western Australia, and extends as far south and west as Mullewa, north to Gascoyne Junction and east to Meekatharra.'  (Introduction)

'Margaret Carew has been working with Indigenous people and their languages in the Northern Territory for over twenty years.'  (Introduction)

'Rhonda Radley is a descendant of the Gathang and Dunghutti speaking people. She sees a need in her community to bring women from all the different Aboriginal groups together. She has found strength within herself to drive a movement that does just that, and to revive culture through language and practices.'  (Introduction)

'I first met Purtungana when I was working at Pundulmurra College in South Hedland as a lecturer in the Indigenous Australian Language Workers Program. She was a keen student, often the first to arrive and the last to leave. As I sat with her, working steadily through learning outcomes and assessments, I realised that I was fast becoming the student and she, the teacher.' (Introduction)

'Sue Hanson is a linguist, and for the last four years she's been working with a small group of women from Leonora, two hours drive north of Kalgoorlie in the West Australian Goldfields. They are some of the last remaining speakers of Kuwarra, the language of the people from around the Lake Darlot region, north east of Leonora.'  (Introduction)

'Marrin Gamu is a special video created by First Languages Australia to promote the diversity and beauty of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.' (Introduction)

'A Yorta Yorta elder films an ABC Open Video Postcard on a smartphone and blogs about her ancestral language.' (Introduction)