Michelle Jaquelin-Furr and daughter Brooke Joy reviving South Australia southeast Bunganditj language

Brooke Joy graduating with a masters of indigenous language from Sydney University in 2015 and wearing a traditional possum cloak made by her mother Michelle Jaquelin-Furr. Both decendants of Boandik woman Annie Brice, who was taught to read and write by governess Mary MacKillop, Joy and Jaquelin-Furr (far right) took a revival of the Bunganditj to South Australian southeast schools including Mary MacKillop Memorial School at Penola.
Images courtesy Joy family and ABC SouthEast South Australia News (by Kate Hill)

Michelle Jaquelin-Furr and her daughter Brooke Joy led a 21st Century revival of the culture of the Boandik people of southeast South Australia, with secial focus on their traditional Bunganditj language, considered a lost language during the 20th Century.

Michelle Jacquelin-Furr carried on the Boandik cross-cultural efforts of her great grandmother Annie Brice. Brice, daughter of Boandik woman from Mount Gambier, was taught to read and write in the South Australia’s southeast by a governess called Mary MacKillop, later to become Australia’s first Roman Catholic saint. Fluently bilingual in Bunganditj and English, Brice passed on cultural knowledge and stories while also working and bringing up a family most of her life as a single parent.

Jacquelin-Furr’s 2018 book Annie’s Story; Growing up Strong on Boandik Country honoured Brice’s life. Jacquelin-Furr’s daughter Brooke Joy became one of a handful of people in the world fluent in the Bunganditj language when she specialised in it while studying for a masters of indigenous language from Sydney University in 2015. For the course's graduation ceremony, Joy was permitted to wear and debut the possum fur cloak (Boandik mraat kuramu tutu) made by her mother and carrying symbols of Annie Brice’s life on the underside.

Jaquelin-Furr’s book on Annie Brice was written in English and translated into Bunganditj by daughter Joy. It had an audio version spoken in the native language, accessed by scanning the QR codes on each page.

Joy saw important part of the language revival as the focus on young children, who often found it easier to learn second languages and were able to carry it onwards: "They are the next generation, so it's important that we are inspiring our young children to grow up strong in their culture, and for the non-Indigenous children, to be part of that recognition.”  With her mother, Joy brought the Bunganditj language to children with fun sessions at South Australia southeast schools, including Mary MacKillop Memorial School in Penola.