Akurra trail signs first time Adnyamathanha culture or language on public display in South Australia's Leigh Creek
Some of the bilingual signs at Arrunha Awi (Aroona Dam) at the end of the Akurra trail from Leigh Creek township and following one of the Adnyamathanha creation stories.
Image courtesy Tracy Nelder
Bilingual signposting installed in 2021 along the 10.5-kilometre bushland Akurra trail to Arrunha Awi (Aroona Dam) brought public displays of Adnyamathanha culture or language – and the Madu creation stories – to the South Australian northern Flinders Ranges town of Leigh Creek for the first time.
The Akurra trail’s bilingual signposting was developed as part of the Leigh Creek Area School’s Adnyamathanha language learning program, running since 2019 in partnership with the University of Adelaide’s mobile language team. The bilingual trail was the Leigh Creek school’s response to a request from the parents and the Adnyamathanha language and culture committee that was very active in developing the school’s language programme.
Rosalie Richards, Adnyamathanha language coordinator at Leigh Creek school and a member of the Leigh Creek Community Progress Association, worked to secure a $10,000 grant from the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal to enable the bilingual Adnyamathanha-English signs for the trail to the Arrunha Awl (the Aroona Dam) that supplied water to the former coal-mining town.
Richards said that, with signs on the former trail to the dam, “you could have been in England. There was no mention of the Indigenous culture and stories tied to the land; no mention of the Muda (cultural story)”. The new bilingual trail followed the path of the giant snake Akurra, who emerged from and carved the landscape of the ranges. in the Adnyamathanha creation story.
Tarquin Strangways, one of the Leigh Creek Area School students involved in the bilingual trail signs project used it as part of his South Australian Certificate of Education criteria. He worked with Adnyamathanha elders, including Aboriginal community education officer Noel Wilton and Adnyamathanha elder Linda Coulthard, on the signs: "We really wanted to have the Indigenous heritage of the town, community and country recognised and an important way to do that was to include the Adnyamathanha names of places, plants and animals. But also to acknowledge that this is a really important site for the creation story of the landscape."
Leigh Creek school students engaged with the signs' information about flora, fauna and the season, as part of their syllabus, as well as walking the trail for their physical education. The signs also added to the cultural tourism experiences.
In 2021, Adelaide University mobile language team worked with filmmaker Max Mackinnon to produce a short film on the Akurra Trail. The team also worked with Adnyamathanha elders to translate another short film, Yurlu’s Coal, which shone light on a different Muda story.
