Culture
Mimal supports language and culture work.
Strong Culture
Connection to country is an important part of our culture. We keep culture strong through protecting rock art and significant cultural sites, through working with our elders and learning and recording knowledge and stories to ensure they’re passed down through the generations.
In 2016, Rembarrnga and Dalabon elders brought back the Dow, a public ceremony that teaches young people about caring for country and managing fire. The tradition of Dow was nearly gone, but with help from Mimal we brought it back and shared the knowledge at Mobarn in June.
Strong Language
In 2017 Mimal paid for the Dalabon dictionary to be reprinted. We will soon have copies for our people who want to know more Dalabon.
We also work with linguists and universities to ensure that languages spoken in our region - Dalabon, Rembarrnga and Mayili - and associated stories are recorded.
This includes a new website Corpus created by CoEDL, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, which features stories from local speakers: https://www.gerlingo.com/language_detail.php?langID=7
There are many things that are pushing down the health of our people and our culture.
Our people are spending less time on country and more time in towns, more time with TV and Facebook and less time speaking language and acquiring indigenous knowledge. If we create more jobs, help people visit or live on country, support ceremonies and old people teaching language and get a good partnership with school we can turn the trend from going down to going up. The next 10 years are critically important in the struggle to reverse the loss of our cultural heritage. Mimal is committed to a range of actions to rebuild connections to country and to culture.
Connection to Country
There are many things that are pushing down the health of our people and our culture. Mimal is committed to a range of actions to rebuild connections to country and to culture.
Our people are spending less time on country and more time in towns, more time with TV and Facebook and less time speaking language and acquiring indigenous knowledge. If we create more jobs, help people visit or live on country, support ceremonies and old people teaching language and get a good partnership with school we can turn the trend from going down to going up. The next 10 years are critically important in the struggle to reverse the loss of our cultural heritage.
