If you are in need of Miromaa support we have the following options available for you:
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02 4927 8222
Phone support is usually only available to people who have purchased a Miromaa license (except for emergency situations), not to those who have received Miromaa through our sponsorship offer.
We highly suggest that you submit your query via the online contact form or via email.
Below is a list of links that may provide support aand solutions for any issues you may come across when installing or using Miromaa.
According to Awabakal lore, a long time ago, the two upright rock-forms at Swansea Heads were once women.
The two women were turned to stone after getting into trouble from an Awabakal warrior. The reason for them being in trouble is not clearly told.
The women became protectors of the nearby burial sites of their ancestors.
The Awabakal people feared that sea monsters would move down Swansea Channel and into Lake Macquarie, so the two women kept watch for any coming danger. When they saw strange ships or creatures coming from the sea, the women would return to human form and warn the people of any dangers.
Photo: Swansea Heads
The Awabakal people spoke of a volcanic eruption that occurred during the Dreaming, in the area now known as Redhead. An ancient volcanic plug is believed to exist in the Redhead area. The Awabakal name of this volcano is Kintiiyirapiin.
A long time ago a great darkness came over the land. The darkness came from a hole in a mountain and blocked out the sunlight. The people and animals were all very frightened.
Messengers were sent out to gather up the people to have a yarn about how they could bring back the sunlight. The elders decided that they needed to cover up the darkness that was all over the ground. The men, women and children collected rocks, sand, branches and bark which they laid on the ground to cover up the thick darkness.
After the darkness was covered many generations walked on the ground pressing the earth flames and darkness together, which created coal or nikin in Awabakal.
Now when coal is burnt the ancient earth fire spirit is released.
WARNING: Please proceed with caution when reading the following information!
This story is men's business and should not be told to women or children. Consultation with a male elder is the correct protocol regarding this story.
We currently have no upcoming training dates set.
But don't wait for us to set the dates, if you have a group of people and can come to Newcastle, organise your own special training times and we will be here to help you.
This would be a self funded course, in other words you would have to fund yourself to attend, that would entail flying to Newcastle Airport and accommodating yourself in the city, there are some really nice places close to us, we also have the beaches and the harbour nearly at our doorstep.
We will provide catering during the days for morning tea, lunch and arvo tea.
If you are interested in booking a Miromaa training workshop please contact us ASAP.
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT PREVIOUS TRAINING SESSIONS
1. You must have already obtained and installed Miromaa and have at least attempted to use Miromaa
2. If you haven't obtained Miromaa but wish to attend apply for Miromaa now
3. You must have a good understanding of Windows file management ie. Being able to save files and locate them easily on your computer.
4. Are confident in using a computer and products like Word, Publisher, Powerpoint etc, you may not be an expert but you at least are not afraid to have a go
5. We are not teaching you how to use a computer but how to take advantage of the power which exists with the technology and the basic skills you already have.
1. Yourself of course
2. Your laptop in a sound working order with Miromaa installed - if you cant do this we have 10 laptops with Windows 7 and everything needed installed on them.
3. Your Miromaa DAT and multimedia files and folders on a USB memory stick if you have no laptop
4. Language evidence in some form, ie book, word list, dictionary, speaker, audio etc
This would be a self funded course, in other words you would have to fund yourself to attend, that would entail flying to Newcastle Airport and accommodating yourself in the city, there are some really nice places close to us, we also have the beaches and the harbour nearly at our doorstep.
We will provide catering during the days for morning tea, lunch and arvo tea.
We would look at the first day being a back to basic introduction and getting you back on track day, the next two days would be more specific in helping you really get to grips with using technology for your language activity. We envisage that the first day would be optional, those who are comfortable with the basics of Miromaa would not need to attend this day.
The next two days would include group lead activities in using Miromaa, Lexique Pro and other software programs, we will have on hand the latest technology hardware including Zoom recorders, digital cameras and video equipment. We will also attend to your own personal situations and needs in a one on one basis if so required.
We have been very fortunate to travel to various places around the country delivering Miromaa Technology Training to Aboriginal people involved with language maintenance programs in their area.
Some of the places that we have been to are:
We have also had the pleasure of having Aboriginal people come visit us in Newcastle for Miromaa Technology Training.
Some of the places that people have come from are:
This training has been done in conjunction with the following organisations and would not have been possible without their fantastic support:
The best way to describe some of the benefits of using Miromaa can best be explained in relation to the various users:
Language Worker
So for any Indigenous person in a similar role Miromaa can benefit you with the following:
Language Centre
Miromaa can benefit a language centre in the following ways:
Linguist, Researcher and Academic
Miromaa can benefit a linguist, researcher or academic with the following:
Unfortunately it does not run in the MAC OS X environment, you would have to run it via BootCamp or Parallels.
NOTE: In Miromaa the term "Tag" is equilavent to "marker" which is used in Lexique Pro, Toolbox and Shoebox
The following instructions are to assist you with importing a text file with recognised standard format markers into Miromaa
An example of what that text file may look like is:
\lx mowane
\ps noun
\ge kangaroo
Some handy, but lengthy, reference documents which can be used to assist you in understanding standard format markers are:
Here is a PDF document with larger images of some of the screen shots below for reference:
Keep in mind that if you are importing a text file into Miromaa we expect that you are probably a bit more advanced in using Toolbox and Lexique Pro than the "average Joe".
Now with our instructions/steps below we are going to try and make it as easy and graphical as possible with images.
We also want to acknowledge the huge input which Dr Christina Eira from the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages(VACL) provided us with on developing the import feature.
Thank you Christina.
If you or someone else has done work on your language using either Toolbox, Shoebox or Lexique Pro you may be able to import all of that data directly into Miromaa without having to re-enter it.
How it works is by creating a whole new Miromaa Dat file, it does not import into a current language Dat file, we dont know whether that is a high priority feature to have yet. All of the scenarios that we have come up with all revolve around creating a new Dat file, so that is what we have built here.
Now, because the type of text files have a million and one combinations available for field names (markers/tags) you will have to be aware that there maybe some limitations on how you bring data in, in other words you may have to compromise a bit with it, I emphasise 'may', because a lot of the time it is perfect. We have tested the Import feature with a wide mutitude of text files and it works great. Neverless we have produced what we feel is a very powerful and flexible Import feature into Miromaa to handle the majority of text files. Do not be afraid to have a few goes to get your import settings correct.
I am sure someone has got something that does not work or some situation that needs to be handled differently, I am sorry about that, please let us now using the contact miromaa form.
We hope you can see the value in what we have produced and get to use it to the best of your ability. We will continue to fine tune the Import feature and screen over the next coming weeks, updates will be available as normal.
The import area is only accessible via the LOGIN screen
This is pretty easy, just go to the top left hand corner and choose [open file], navigate to where your text file is saved and then select this. How you do this in XP or Vista is slightly different, we expect that you have good skills in file management with Windows already so this should be pretty easy.
Far Top Left Hand Corner
Top
After you have selected your text file from the [open file] button Miromaa will then analyse the text file and will give you a summary of the markers and their frequency in appearing in a record. Lets look at this more closely for an explaination.
Remember we use Tag instead of 'marker' (why - 3 letters versus 6 letters, its shorter).
Tag: \lx, Min: 1, Max:1. - 'Min 1' tells us that \lx appears at least 1 in every record and 'Max 1' tells us that the most times it appears in that record is once.
Tag: \ur, Min:0, Max: 1. - 'Min 0' tells us that there are some records where '\ur' is not present and the most that it appears in others is once.
Tag: \sd, Min:1, Max: 2. - The 'Max 2' tells us that there are some records where \sd actually appears twice as a field.
You may easily have a text file where you may have a marker appear 9 times, this summary will at least tell you this and later you will see the benefit of this. As Miromaa has fixed fields and 9 custom fields it means that not everyting can go where you want it exactly, maybe. What we have done, and you will see this below, is make it so that you can combine data into one or more fields.
Left Middle
This here is where your original text file appears so that you can vie it in further detail if needed, you can copy/paste but you can't CTRL+F or use the find command in it.
Bottom
This is the area where we will provide a reference guide for using the import feature.
Right Middle
This can be easy or it can be tricky, it just depends on what your text file looks like with the markers that you use.
If Miromaa analysed your text file and found that you have Max:1 for appearing records do the following:
So in the [your selection] column place your marker in the corresponding Miromaa field, have a look at the image above for an example.
That's the easy way.
If Miromaa analysed your text file and found that you have Max:2 or greater (eg. Max:3, Max:4 etc) for appearing records, you can do the following:
In the [your selection] column you can place your marker in the following various ways:
Example 1:
\tag(1)
\tag(2)
This means that the first occurance of that marker will appear in that field and the second occurance of that marker will occur in the other field.
Example 2:
\tag(1) \tag(2)
entering 2 markers into the one field like this means that the first and second occurance will merged into the one field seperated by a space.
Actual example - \sd(1) \sd(2)
N.b. you can also do this \tag(1) \tag(2) \tag(3) etc, this will merge those occurances into the one field.
Example 3:
\tag(1) ; \tag(2)
By adding the " ; " in between seperated by a space on either side means that the field will show the merged markers with " ; ", easy hey.
Actual example - \sd(1) ; \sd(2)
Now you can enhance this further by replacing " ; " with anything you like eg. \tag(1) and \tag(2), the word and now will appear in the merged field.
Actual example - \sd(1) and \sd(2)
Example 4:
\tag(;)
\tag(and)
This is a shortcut where the above in Examples 2 and 3 you specified which occurances will go where, here in this example you are specifying that all occurances will appear in that merged field.
Example 5:
\tag(2,;)
\tag(2,and)
This is a shortcut similar to Example 4 but in this Example, you are specifying that all occurances from the second onwards will appear in that merged field. You can use any number to start merging occurances from. This can be useful if you want to put the first and second occurances in one field, \tag(1) ; \tag(2), and the rest into another field, \tag(3,;).
Why the two options, well we have gathered samples of peoples text files where some markers appear up to 9 times for that record, that is way to much for Miromaa to show in its fields when merging, so you may have to experiment and break them up and move some occurances to custom fields as a suggestion.
Seperators can be anything without a space, any combination of characters or symbols.
If you enter a \tag that is not recognised it will treat this as text and place this into that field for all records
Semantic Domains and Parts of Speech
Within Miromaa these two bits of information are stored in there own seperate table for easy drop down access when using Miromaa.
All the same tag shortcuts can be used as they are above, however, this section treats just \tag differently. This is because these are stored in another table and each may be used in any number of entries. If you simply use \tag, then Miromaa will add each occurance to the table if it does not already exist, and link it to the entry.
Miromaa also allows sub lists of Semantic Domains and Parts of Speech where other programs do not. To overcome this, Miromaa would export these by separating the Semantic Domain or Part of Speech and their sublist by an underscrore, "_", so when importing, Miromaa will search for an underscrore, and create a sublist accordingly.
Example 6:
If we have in our file to be imported something like: \sd Semantic Domain_Sub Semantic Domain
Then simply using the tag \sd as your selection will create this Semantic Domain and Sub Semantic Domain and assign them to the entry.
Example 7:
If you have worked with another program to do something like this, but havent separated them by an underscore and used a second \sd tag, for example:
\sd Semantic Domain
\sd Sub Semantic Domain
Then you can accomplish the same outcome as Example 6 with: \sd(1) _ \sd(2)
Now that we think we are happy with our selections we can click the [Import] button and see what happens, the steps are as follows:
click [Import]
1. Please enter your language name or the name that you want to give the Miromaa Data file for this import
Here I entered the language name "Awabakal" and "Body" because it is only words on the body.
2. Choose the location wher you will save the date file, by default Miromaa chooses C:\Program Files\Miromaa 3\ we recommend not save it here but instead create a folder on your desktop, in My Documents or somewhere else.
Click on picture to Zoom in.
Note that the data file has been given the language name with DAT added. You can rename this later on if you wish.
3. The import will commence, you will no that this is happening as you will see the animated import window working away, you need to be patient here because some computers can take a while to do this, it is a very complicated import that is happening, a text file with 7000 records is not uncommon and could take tens of minutes to complete expecially if you have a older computer. Once it is done you will see this:
click [OK], then this 
the last one here is time information on how long it took, thats all.
4. Miromaa will then close the Import window down and return you back to the Login screen with the new data file loaded, please use the Username Admin and Password admin to login, once in you can see how it went and do whatever you want to do.
Visit here for your choices http://www.miromaa.com.au/support.html
Don't be afraid to play and try alternatives, if it went wrong just delete the Miromaa Dat file and Multimedia folder that it created and start again.
Now to enhance all of this new import ability which Miromaa now has we have also created a new Tab in the linguist area titled MDF, this tab now shows you that particular record which was just imported so that you can see how Miromaa handled the import of that particular record and also you still have information that may not have been imported kept within the MDF tab.
The MDF record tab is also editable, any changes you make will be saved here.
Down the track we may add further features or ability with exporting to this area, so we will need your feedback on this.
Over 200 users in Aboriginal nations across Australia, Canada, North America and Hawaii.
This booklet is a handy contact directory of local Aboriginal and Government Organisations.
Order yours today!
New "Speak Up" products are now available including magnets, mouse mats and key rings. Other products available by request.
This booklet is a handy contact directory of local Aboriginal and Government Organisations.
Order yours today!
Read about our various activities over the years in newspaper articles, radio interviews and
media releases.
New "Speak Up" products are now available including magnets, mouse mats and key rings. Other products available by request.
Click here to go to the form
