Pupils miss ‘Nana’s’ class

An irreplaceable connection to culture could be lost for South Hedland Primary School students during “Nana” Janet Stewart’s hiatus from her popular Nyangumarta language classes.

The Hedland elder is taking a break from teaching Nyangumarta to students two days a week and uncertain if she will be back in class in 2017.

Yet even though she has barely walked out the door, she said both she and her students were already missing the classes.

“I get a greeting from all those little ones, they put their arm around you, it makes your day,” she said.

“They get really excited, especially the non-indigenous kids, some of those little ones are like sponges, they love it.”

Her absence from local classrooms will be greatly felt with Nyangumarta being the most widely spoken Aboriginal language in Hedland, with speakers also living in Marble Bar, Warralong and Yandeyarra.

Ms Stewart, having grown up in Hedland and her traditional country near 80 Mile Beach, has been teaching locally for decades before concentrating in recent years on her language classes.

She has also been involved in promoting Nyangumarta by establishing dictionaries with the Wangka Maya Aboriginal Language Centre and been honoured with a NAIDOC lifetime achiever award for her many other projects.

She said one of her favourite memories at South Hedland Primary was the school camps to Warralong, where her students ate kangaroo tail with the community kids and even shared a yarn.

“They were really shocked those community kids that our kids could speak Nyangumarta,” she said.

She also urged any willing Nyangumarta speakers to help continue her classes by contacting South Hedland PS where training could be provided by the Department of Education.