Senior Australian of the Year Yalmay Yunupiŋu, Indigenous language educator

'It was my passion for education that kept me going'.

Transcript

00:00 Yurngaya. Who am I? My name is Yelmay Yunupingo Marika. I am an ancient rock. Mandula. Mandul

00:12 mandul. Manala. These are the important names of the rocks. This rock gives me strength

00:21 that has guided me through my journey. We stand against time. Always will and always

00:29 will be. My birth name is Marika, meaning lightning and thunder. So when I speak to

00:39 people it's with quiet lightning and thunder called Maradakton. This is my personality,

00:48 how I would express myself. Education in Yirrkala Mining School has always been my passion and

00:57 my most treasured accomplishment in life, besides my family and community. As a young

01:12 woman I was curious to know where education would take me. I was inspired by teachers

01:20 and my leaders. But all those years I never expected that I was going to become a teacher

01:29 linguist. I worked at Yirrkala Mining School teaching younger children for over 40 years.

01:40 Through this I became a teacher specialist in both worlds to benefit my people and community.

01:49 But also support non-Indigenous people to understand the real meaning of education in

01:57 both worlds. It's been a long and interesting journey. It was always, always wasn't easy

02:10 with lots of ups and downs. But it was my passion for education that kept me going.

02:20 I might have retired from school but I haven't stopped wanting to educate people to see the

02:28 benefit in both worlds way of working. Yolngu and Barranda education. Koonngiambut, Yolngu

02:40 healing, ancient bush medicine, ancient bush food to heal people. It's time Australians

02:53 learnt about this. Too many of our people are diagnosed with chronic preventable disease

03:00 such as kidney failure, heart disease, cancer and many more illnesses. Our people are sick

03:12 and dying, young and old. Unfortunately, Western medicine is not working on its own. We need

03:23 to marry both worlds of healing. My message is very clear. Yolngu bush medicine and healing

03:33 is vital for Yolngu. We need to give up priorities to culture ways of healing to bring balance

03:43 for better outcomes in education and health. We can't do this on our own. We need your

03:51 help to work together. We need to understand and respect the power of Yolngu healing. We

04:20 need equal rights including fundings, services and resources so we can work side by side

04:30 and support each other. And together we can share new ideas to heal our nation. Let us

04:44 stand up and work together. Thank you.

04:47 [Applause]

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