Wadawurrung is the language spoken by the Wadawurrung people.
Common Words
Animals & Birds
Other Words & Phrases
Language Resources
Wadawurrung Language Smartphone App - Intro
This app is an introduction to the Wadawurrung language of region that encompasses Geelong and Ballarat areas of Victoria, Australia. The content of this App was produced in partnership with the Wathaurung Aboriginal Corporation and the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.
Keeping Aboriginal languages alive
“If we can use places and names and language to educate people, we can be a much better society.” - Uncle Bryon Powell, Wadawurrung Elder.
This video was recorded at Woowookarung (Place of Plenty) Regional Park near Ballarat. It features Uncle Bryon Powell, Elder, Traditional Owner and Custodian of Wadawurrung Country and Stephanie Skinner, Traditional Owner and Custodian of Wadawurrung Country.
In the video Uncle Bryon and his niece Stephanie discuss the importance of First Peoples’ place names, and the preservation of the Wadawurrung language for future generations.
ABC Open Mother Tongue project
The ABC Open Mother Tongue project invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to share a story about their mother tongue.
Since colonisation, white fellas have tried to write down our Wadawurrung language, even though there are no equivalent sounds in English. We had no written language so early settlers wrote down what they heard using their own language trying to reproduce the sounds.
In this series of short films, we correct some of the language spelling of the places we all know and explain the meaning behind our stories.
Sources
The sources used to create the content on this page can be found on Wadawurrung Further Reading.