Public Seminar - Goori Du'gool-yah (Aboriginal Heart Talk) with Winyuba and Gaiarbau on Languages, Culture, Country

Speaker:

Gaja Kerry Charleton, Industry Fellow, School of Languages and Cultures, UQ

Gaja Kerry Charlton is a Yagarabul First Nation person, Elder, Language and Cultural Custodian and Traditional Owner, verified Traditional Owners of Magandjin - Brisbane Region (East Yagara) by QSNTS and Anthropologist endorsed, in three native title claims in South East Queensland:  1. Quandamooka (Moreton Bay); 2. Yuggera Ugarapul Peoples (YUP - West Yuggera) and 3. Kabi Kabi Peoples.  My tribes are: Koenpul, Jandewal (Jandai); Ngunda/Undanbi); and Walangama in NQ.  Gaja is a Yagarabul word for eldership / seniority; Aunty a contemporary version.

Community work: founding member of Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC); member of Minjerribah Morgumpin Elders In Council (MMEIC) and their Language Working Group; Queensland Many Voices Indigenous Languages Policy Working Group member.  Co-Chair, 2017 - 2020 of Reconciliation Action Plan Steering Group, University of Queensland.  

Tertiary Qualifications:  Teacher, Trainer, Counselor, Language Fellow in School of Languages and Culture, University of Queensland.

Key focus areas: Reconciliation, social justice, community organisation & cultural strength building, Healing & SEWB, Language and culture repatriation; family and community history research and writing.                                                                                           

Abstract: 

Gaja Kerry has been transcribing and translating tapes recorded in 1950 by Dr. Lindsay Winterbotham and 1960 by Elwyn Flint, two Academics from University of Queensland, speaking with her Moreton Family Elder Winyuba and Gaiarbau, Jinibara Elder, both speakers of the Languages of South East Queensland. Gaja Kerry is compiling the grammatics and uncovering their use of polysynthesis in the language. This will inform the continuance of Yagara community language programs and production of their official Yagarabul Dictionary.

Performer

John Wayne Parsons is a proud Yuggerabul Ugarem le (man), based on Narrm (Melbourne), on the homelands of the Kulin Nation. He is a singer songwriter who has always loved singing and growing up in a family with strong spiritual and cultural influences. Among his many credits as a singer, John’s past performances and musical projects have contributed to telling the complex and varied stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. John Wayne prides himself on his culture and his singing practice, which is deeply embedded within his cultural identity and ancestral ties to cultural warriors and knowledge holders from both sides of his Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. John Wayne incorporates these important cultural perspectives into his music practice.

John Wayne has just completed his Doctorate at The University of Melbourne title: Song as a Mode to restorying first Nations Expereinces.