Launch of Nulungu Research Institute’s Talking Heads Seminar Series
You are invited to the Launch of Nulungu Research Institute’s Talking Heads Seminar Series - a community driven, free event for everyone to attend. Wednesday 1st April from 12pm - 1.30pm. A light lunch will be provided from 12pm with the seminar commencing at 12.30pm. To attend, please REGISTER HERE Please notify of any dietary requirements by email [email protected].
Presented by: Educators from Baya Gawiy Buga Yani Jandu yani U, Gillian Howell and Annika Moses (Tura).
Welcome to Country, Light lunch and refreshments @12pm.
Opening Address: Emily Carter, CEO of Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre.
In September 2025, Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre (MWRC), Indigenous Literacy Foundation and Tura released Buga Yanu Junba, a songbook and companion album of 22 original songs in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Walmajarri, and Kimberley Kriol. But where did these songs come from? This presentation traces their origins in a three-year participatory arts-based research project: a collaboration between early childhood educators at Baya Gawiy Buga Yani Jandu yani U in Fitzroy Crossing, facilitators from the Perth-based cultural development organisation Tura, and a researcher-musician from the University of Melbourne as part of Tura's ongoing SoundFX program.
The research pursued two interconnected goals: to increase the number of early childhood songs in local languages, strengthen cultural knowledge among young children, and support intergenerational transmission of knowledge from Elders; and to investigate—through participatory action research and the Most Significant Change methodology—how songwriting in First Languages can support healing and wellbeing for educators, children, and families.
The presentation will include performances by songwriters from Buga Yanu Junba and discuss research findings about the wellbeing affordances of language songwriting and singing through a framework of Aboriginal Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003).
The project's distinctive contribution is its focus on early childhood educators—a key cohort for sustaining intergenerational language transmission—and how creative collaboration centring local languages supports wellbeing for all participants alongside language strengthening.
Artwork: A New Partnership by William Roe, 1994
