Full article issued by The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.
Two teachers of Australian Indigenous languages are the joint winners of the Patji-Dawes Award, for achievement in teaching languages other than English, and bestowed by The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Professor Nicholas Evans, Director of the Centre of Excellence and ARC Australian Laureate Fellow, said that the Centre has been thrilled by the spike in nominations of and by Indigenous people in the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
Sophia Mung, a Gija woman from Purnululu (East Kimberley, WA), has been recognised for decades of tireless work to ensure the Gija language is passed down to future generations. Brother Stephen Morelli is a Christian Brother, teacher and linguist who has worked closely with Aboriginal communities on the mid-north coast of NSW for over 30 years to revive and teach the Gumbaynggirr language.
The Patji-Dawes Award recognises outstanding achievements in language teaching by an accomplished practitioner in Australia, whether teaching in primary or secondary school, university, language schools or centres. It is named after Aboriginal woman Patyegarang and First Fleet Lieutenant William Dawes, who shared a student-teacher relationship that saw Dawes master the Eora language in the earliest documented instance of a settler learning an Indigenous language.