Redfern Lingo Sessions on Biyal Biyal
Drawing on his thesis The Aboriginal Language of Sydney, Jeremy Steele presented more than 100 'lingo sessions' on the Sydney language Biyal Biyal at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern between 2014-20 as one small part of the cultural aspect of Redfern-based non-profit community organisation Tribal Warrior's 'Clean Slate Without Prejudice' program. Learn how this came about here.
All of those presentations containing interesting information about Biyal Biyal and English translations of Biyal Biyal words are available as PDFs to view and download. Access the presentations by searching using the Biyal Biyal or English word in the table below, or by scrolling through the buttons beneath the table. Click on the word, or button, to view the downloadable PDF.
How the Redfern Lingo Sessions came about
It is hard to say when I first met Shane Phillips, CEO of Tribal Warrior, but it might have been in the 1980s when I was working at the University of Sydney. My first diary record of him was in November 2005, outside Redfern station, when he hailed from across the road. He invited me into the Tribal Warrior office there. We subsequently bumped into one another on various occasions, including in June the following year. I offered to run a series of 1 hour language ‘lessons’ on Wednesdays at 4pm. This did not happen.
We met again in August 2009, again near Redfern station, when I gave him some vocabulary, of body parts as well as some Bundjalung words, which he was very pleased to get. He was impressed with the Bayala databases where they came from. The next month he sent an email asking for more Biyal Biyal (Sydney language) words, so I forwarded about 60 to him.
In May 2010 I sent him an email to repeat the offer of how I might provide a language course, if it were at the invitation of the Indigenous Community.
Some years passed. Then in June 2014 at Shane’s invitation I went to see him at Gadigal House, 166-180 George Street, Redfern, together with Keith Smith, historian and ethnologist. Shane described to us how he had embarked on a project to assist young Indigenous people in Redfern by introducing them to them worthwhile relevant activities, such as bush lore. One particular activity was done in conjunction with the police, a group with whom the community in this neighbourhood had traditionally been in conflict. Since the start of the community and police partnership program, known as 'Clean Slate Without Prejudice', robbery rates had dramatically declined. Shane said he was hoping Keith and I might participate in this program, on a voluntary basis, weekly on Wednesdays for about an hour, me to impart some language knowledge and Keith history and culture. We of course agreed. This was to be the beginning of a major commitment.
A few more weeks were to pass but finally the first session was held on Wednesday 30 July 2014. Here is how the diary recorded it:
This was the day of meeting the indigenous youths in Redfern. Encountered Shane Phillips and one or two others before getting to 166 George St. Redfern, and walked back up the street and to another location, down a side street to the right. There the event took place, part of a program Keith Smith said was called 'Clean Slate'. This was to give youngsters in difficulty a chance of beginning again. Apparently crime rates are only 20 per cent of what they were before this program started.
I set up the projector I had lugged along in a haversack, together with the computer. It was very heavy. Then after being introduced I began a Sydney language presentation mainly based on the 'welcome' I had devised:
I concentrated on the eight words used.
There were about a dozen present. The three young indigenous people soon left, but the older couple remained, as did all the adults. At the end there were some general expressions of enthusiasm. Shane particularly was pleased that the language teaching had finally come to pass and begun, after a dozen or so years. Next Keith Smith did a presentation mainly about the history of the area, showing maps, using my computer and projector for this.
There was no definite meeting place to begin with, and very little in the way of facilities, such as a slide projector (that is why I had to take my own), apart from a room. Of the dozen or so members of the Redfern community attending on this first occasion some were the teenager participants in the Clean Slate program.
The format of the subsequent more or less regular meetings with the local community took the form of a slide presentation on language by myself, followed by another presentation on history and culture by Keith Smith. Each presentation was original. In this venture we were all amateurs, neither Smith nor myself being teachers, while those attending were members of the local Aboriginal community. And while Smith and I were there every time, community attendees would change to some extent week to week. Sometimes we found out on arrival the sessions had been cancelled because of some community commitment, such as the need to attend a funeral. Nevertheless a basic participating core group duly emerged. For me the object was to impart information about the Sydney language and provide some vocabulary.
What had started with goodwill and enthusiasm on all sides gradually faded, though the process of declining interest was barely perceptible at the time. After a while all agreed that the sessions would be held only during school term time, something we the presenters were glad of as the preparation time each week took about two days, and often there would be only three or four community members there. These community participants over time became just the mentors of the Clean Slate program. All this went on for five years. By 22 November 2019 the diary recorded:
Emily (one of the Clean Slate mentors) said that the frequency of the visits might reduce to once every three weeks, or once a month, as Shane Phillips seeks increasing local indigenous ownership of the program. It would seem that our days are numbered there, and that a halt might eventually be drawn to our participation.
A driving force throughout was the Augustinians. They had been there for some time before Smith and I appeared on the scene. The Augustinians are a world-wide order of the Catholic church, who had taken on assisting the Redfern community as a special project. Their key representative was Paul Wilson, who was there without fail every week.
After the Christmas break that year the Redfern Lingo sessions resumed towards the end of February 2020. In mid March my wife and I went on a week-long holiday coach trip to Moree, during which the world changed. Covid-19 had arrived, putting a stop to a lot of things. There was no formal end to the Redfern Lingo sessions: they just never resumed after that. Keith Smith and I had put a lot into these sessions on a voluntary basis. If the community should ever want to revisit what had been offered to them, the language presentations are all here on the internet, while Keith Smith’s knowledge and scholarship, and information about the people of the Sydney region, can be seen on his website at https://www.eorapeople.com.au/.
In all 105 language presentations were prepared, all but the last being delivered. Perhaps the greatest legacy to the Redfern community is what was offered at the outset on the very first day: a ‘welcome to country’ they could use, in ‘language'.