Werta Pertame friends and supporters. Arrangkerra marra? You all well?
2023 was a pivotal year for the Pertame School, in which we launched the first total Immersion Language Nest playgroup in Australia.
We are proud to say that we are watching our Pertame babies grow, thrive, talk and play in their endangered Indigenous language. We have run over 100 Language Nest Immersion playgroup sessions providing wholesome meals, social development, health, fitness and community connection to 27 Pertame 0-5 year olds.
We have run over 400 hours of complete Pertame immersion sessions, employing 13 young parents, 8 Elders and 10 Pertame support staff.
Our Pertame children have proudly sung in their language alongside Paul Kelly. Our Elders and staff have travelled and exchanged with First Nations communities in the Navaho Nation in New Mexico, the Yuchi Immersion School in Oklahoma and the Salish Immersion School in Montana USA.
Lastly, we have started the construction of our On-country Learning Hub - a permanent home for our language, on the land the language originated from.
However, this would not have been possible without the backing we have received from so many generous supporters and partners who have believed in our Elder's dreams to see our small grassroots program grow.
It takes a village to raise a child, and we thank you all for being a part of our village to gift Pertame babies their heritage language for the first time in 45 years.
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.
- Read our 2023 Annual Report and feel free to share the report widely.
Kind regards
Vanessa and the Pertame School team
MORE:
Pertame School (PESC)
Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics (CALL)Vanessa Farrelly, Arrernte Project Officer,