A wonderful wartangu

There was a fair bit of wartangu happening at the Creswick Neighbourhood Centre as part of an occasion worth celebrating recently.

Wartangu? I hear you ask. It’s Dja Dja Wurrung for "coming together" and this particular coming together celebrated NAIDOC week with the naming of several significant rooms at the centre.

Centre manager Chrissy Austin said she approached the Djaara Language Centre to gain approval to name a number of rooms in Dja Dja Wurrung words in order to begin the passage of integrating indigenous words into everyday language.

As a result, the centre’s programs room has become the wartangu (we come –learning/coming together/being together) room, the computer room/learning lab is now the nyakang nyernang (seeing and hearing – learning/education/getting education room) and the shared kitchen is now the djakitj (food) room while the library is the djimbayang (teaching/learning) room.

“We’re really keen to see the embedding of the indigenous language into our everyday language,” Chrissy said. “A main aim for us is to be more welcoming and inclusive and one of the ways is through language.”

After the naming event took place, Chrissy said that the indigenous Djaara naming of the CNC rooms was already proving to be a valuable means toward achieving that goal.

“It’s proving to be a really good tool for our teachers and for our volunteers. It’s the start of a journey for us. We’re just hoping to grow it as much as possible and bring people on the journey with us,” she said.

“I want to encourage people to not be afraid to make a mistake with the new names in the rooms. They’re absolutely fantastic.”

As part of the NAIDOC week event, Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Jason Kerr performed the Welcome to Country and a community art project was unveiled in the indigenous food and fibre biodiversity garden. Transition Creswick volunteers planted the indigenous food and fibre biodiversity garden in the neighbourhood centre grounds and it now features about 40 plant species native to Djaara Country including some species that have become critically endangered in the region.