Growing the Next Generation of Pertame Speakers
Christobel’s Dream
“It is my dream to teach my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren our language and show our culture to them so they can think and talk in Pertame. Our old people, poor things, have all passed away now. There are only a few of us left to teach our kids how our old people used to live”
Christobel Swan, Pertame Matriarch
Pertame is a Severely Endangered Central Australian Language
There are currently around 20-30 fluent speakers of Pertame still with us, all within the grandparent and great grandparent generation. Without serious action, Pertame will be lost within the next generation.
The Pertame School is a community-led language revival program empowering Pertame Elders to pass their language and cultural knowledge onto the next generation.
We are raising children as full Pertame people within their language, culture and knowledge systems, nurtured by a connected community support network.
Growing New Fluent Speakers
We are creating a living domain for the Pertame language, where children from birth to 5 years of age can be raised naturally as first language speakers through our Pertame Ngetya Untya Language Nest Playgroup. We are the first Total Immersion Language Nest in Australia.
We are leading the way in immersion language revival techniques in Australia
We collaborate on training with other endangered Indigenous Australia language groups on the most innovative methods to create new fluent speakers of their languages.
Our Values
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Ikerlta Tnartjek - strength-based
Pertame School focuses on the privilege of our continued ancient language and cultural strength
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Ntarnerretjek - Caring For Each Other
Pertame School is entirely led by Pertame family members. We know that our children learn better in a supported family environment
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Wemel netjek - Listening, Understanding
Pertame School focuses on building the next generation of Pertame speakers through oral breath-to-breath transmission
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Lhengaretjek - Respect
Pertame School respects our Elders as the living breathing encyclopaedias of our ancient language and culture
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Ngketja Rrukerl - Pertame language first
Speaking Pertame as a first language is our babies’ birth right. We prioritise our Indigenous language over the colonial language.
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Kangkentj - Kindness, Happiness
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Nyenta-irrentj - Togetherness
Pertame School prioritises bringing extended family together to grow in strength, cohesion and allow all generations to fulfil their kinship responsibilities.
