Event Information
Date/Time
Friday May 6, 2016
4:00 PM
Location
West Space
225 Bourke St (Level 1)
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
Auslan Interpreter/s
Marc Ethan & Mark Sandon
Language/ Cultural Consultant
* 10 spaces available for the Indigenous deaf community to attend.
Limited capacity, bookings required -ticketing@nextwave.org.au
Language and culture are one and the same, culture is the tree and language is its roots, one cannot exist without the other. This is why it is so important to include traditional languages in as many aspects of life as possible, especially in the modern era where our sense of place can be blurred at times—Mandy Nicholson, Wurundjeri language expert.
Next Wave acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands and waters the Festival takes place on and around, the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung lands, two language groups that form part of the Eastern Kulin Nation of southcentral Victoria.
Through translations and a series of workshops in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, we aim to raise awareness of Victoria’s first languages, and specifically (in the words of Mandy Nicholson), “why they are no longer spoken every day, but also why they are not dead: they are sleeping. Through raising awareness, we are reawakening them.
If something is dead, it can never return, but if it is asleep it can always be woken up.” We are thrilled and privileged to have received permission to include Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung language during Next Wave Festival 2016.
With thanks to Mandy Nicholson (Wurundjeri) and Fay Stewart-Muir (Boon Wurrung), Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Elders, and the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.