
First Languages Australia has partnered with ABC Splash in a Marrin Gamu competition. The competition is a fantastic opportunity to build a relationship with your local Indigenous community. Find out how!
First Languages Australia has developed Marrin Gamu, a song for Primary school children and teachers, to promote the diversity and beauty of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
The Marrin Gamu song is designed for translation into local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages across Australia.
Australia has hundreds of first languages, and to celebrate National Reconciliation Week (27 May and 3 June), ABC Splash is collaborating with First Languages Australia to see Marrin Gamu sung in as many of these languages as possible.
We're inviting students and teachers to learn the English words to this short song and engage with their local Indigenous community to translate them into the first language of their area.
Once students have mastered a local version of the song, make a recording, then share and upload the video to the Splash competition page.
All entries will go in the running to receive the major prize: a visit from a professional video production team to film the students performing the song!
This competition will run until 10 August 2016, so that all schools have time to develop the necessary relationships and participate in the project.
Visit the Marrin Gamu website for an example to help get you started. There's also a range of curriculum-linked classroom activities developed around the project.
First Languages Australia was invited by the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to participate in an expert group meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, January 2016.
Representatives of First Languages Australia Paul Paton and Daryn McKenny travelled New York to take part.
The meeting Indigenous Languages: preservation and revitalization (articles 13, 14 and 16 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) was undertaken to build upon recommendations from the previous expert group meeting in 2008, focusing on the principles of cultural diversity and indigenous languages as a way to promote intercultural dialogue and affirm indigenous peoples identity.
Paul and Daryn had the opportunity to speak at the meeting about the state of language revival in Australia and demonstrate projects and initiatives which are making positive inroads into language revival and cultural strengthening.
To read more about the meeting click here
To find out more about the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues visit their website, facebook or twitter page

Daryn McKenny and Paul Paton. "When we started to get our language back, we got our power back" Daryn. Photo courtesy UN.