Our Vision
Grow the next generation of Pertame speakers within a strong, connected and thriving Pertame community to honour the culture and worldview of our old people.
Our Approach
Nurturing and raising the whole Pertame child
To give our Pertame children the best possible start in life, we must raise them strong in their enkga (spirit), mperrek (body), iterlentya (mind), welenty (emotions), nparn-irrentya (kinship) as well as ngetya (language).
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Ngetya
Thriving Languages
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Mperrek
Strong Healthy Bodies
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Iterlerntya
Strong, Growing Minds
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Welenty
Emotional Wellbeing
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Engka
Spiritual Wellbeing
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Nparn-irrenty
Kinship Connections
“English is a foreign language. Pertame language is our language. It’s our identity, it’s who we are, it’s where we come from, it’s our family. We have to instill in the children a love of their language, a love of their family, their culture, their land and therefore a love of themselves”.
— Kathy Swan-Bradshaw, Pertame Elder
Theory of Change
Language as the Life Breath of Our Community
We believe that by restoring our Pertame language as the living, breathing spoken word of our community, we can rebuild the critical Pertame structures to heal our children, community and country. We will raise our next generation of Pertame children as secure, connected and healthy people immersed within their language. We aim to create an intentional community, a village to raise our babies together, where we will maintain the highest standards of health, education, care and wellbeing, straight from our traditional knowledge.
Mother Tongue
To raise a whole Pertame child, it is critical that we support their mothers, grandmothers, family and community. There is a reason our Indigenous language is called our Mother Tongue. Mothers are the single most important person in a growing child’s life. Mothers are the givers of our life breath. The words a mother speaks to her baby are the most formative for the language that the child will speak. This is why we focus on supporting young mothers and carers to become fluent speakers, empowering them to raise their children in Pertame.
We also build up a system of support around our young mothers to help them reclaim their Pertame language and fulfill their cultural responsibilities with the backing of a whole community beside them.
