Stories about our work
Every week we have a Miromaa story.
It might be one small moment. Or one piece of language artifact found. A word's meaning unlocked. A story come to light.
These stories belong to our Miromaa community members. They are not ours to tell. But when they share their stories with us, it shows how this language work allows us to access important cultural knowledge. And there are much more than stories to be told.
As Aboriginal peoples, our position and connection with the world around us relies not on our history but it is thousands and thousands of years of experience of gaining this understanding, this knowledge that we have from our stories to become more.
Miromaa began with reading the stories of others. Our language story begins on Awabakal Land in the 1800s. This is when Birbaan and others helped missionary Lancelot Thelkeld write down language from this place. Then our own stories of reclaiming language began in 2002. Each day, each month, a new story is found and explored. We record words and learn to speak those words for the first time.
Our Miromaa software and training takes us across our nation, to many islands beyond. Sometimes across to the other side of the world. We learn from the Pueblo people in the Rio Grande of the story about chasing the Roadrunner. This story is important to them, to that place. And through language it is told. We hear of a story from a grandson recording his grandmother’s language for the first time. She is the only one left speaking her dialect.
We can tell you stories of how we are now recording the stories of the whales. Some call them songs. But they are stories. We can tell how these stories have led us to listening to the wind, and the stories the wind tells us.
Stories of people being able to do this language work themselves are very powerful. This is genuine empowerment. And, yes, we look forward to helping others to be empowered. But what you do with your stories, in whatever form, is up to you.
Knowing the stories is just the start. These stories lead us back to living.
Below are anonymous quotes taken from the Miromaa software licence request form (field: “We'd love to hear more about your language work here”).
As a tribal member and teacher of our language it is vital that our language continue to be taught and communicated in our native tongue and never to be forgotten. In using Miromaa there is no other program that has worked as your unique software.
I am planning language workshops with youth to develop resources.
I have produced several books and booklets such as Parts of My Body in (____) language with illustrations by children from our (____) Community Kindergarten and was named by Department of Education as Elder of the Year in 2015. I attended a Language Seminar last year and we were shown your website. I teach language in early childhood centres and primary schools in our region and work with other community and traditional Elders to revive language with organisations as well.
I am currently compiling my own list of relevant/most common words and phrases...and would love to put it in such a format as Miromaa. I believe it will be of benefit to me, for generations to come.
I intend to use Miromaa to create lexicon of English words with definitions, sentence examples, audio and pictures catered to the learning ability of students with special needs. Currently there's no dictionary that caters to this group of people.
I am working on creating language learning resources on my families sleeping languages so that the (____ ) community can work on reviving our own languages.
No one in (___) community speaks the local language anymore I have decided to take advantage of using the local language putting into books starting off with body parts so the children here have some idea of the language. As a teacher I want our children of all ages learn language while growing up through kindergarten and moving into higher schooling. This may then start off other mobs wanting to do the same where it has been lost over the years. Going back into last year and this year I am using the children's art pieces then adding sentences with using one Aboriginal word of the body part then the English word after it. Many of our parents like the idea as no one nowadays does not use much language anymore or at all. Hopefully once the mob see the first part they may want their language started and even put into books or printed off in hard copy to go back to language any bring the feeling of pride and identity of who they are. My dream here is to store language of every tribe that comes through our kindergarten.
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We have started a language program and our group meet once a week to talk, study and come up with ideas and different ways to learn and talk our language..
This program will be implemented in teaching/training four new (___) language teachers.
Miromaa was highly suggested as the ideal platform to help the (___) Language Community to preserve our language and help make dictionary's and multimedia stories available for the next generation.
We are developing some programs through the IKC and school where we hope to provide new literacy resources to the Aboriginal children and adults of (____) community, and would like to get started while we can still speak with some of the elders who still speak some of these local languages.
I call myself a researcher because I am, and currently I'm writing a book with a local language component…I am building onto years of research that has been done previously within the core reference group of people I'm working with in this pilot project. I am not Aboriginal myself but everyone else in the group is, including my three children and their father's families.
I have seen how beneficial this software is to language groups. I have been involved with Indigenous Language work for many years and I have not been in a position to help others until I gained knowledge of linguistics, research and background information about the language groups that I would like to start helping.
I think Miromaa is a fantastic product and while I am currently putting (____) language data into Toolbox, by the end of the year I want to be able to pass this data onto one of the Traditional custodians of the language for them to take over the management of this material, and I think it would be much better if they learn how to do this using Miromaa.
I have been using another DB and believe this will be far easier both for people to update and also for everyone to use.
We googled information about the First Languages Program and saw that we could apply for a language grant. I spoke to my family…They all agreed that documenting our (____) language while people that are still alive would be able to support the development of the (____) dictionary using the the Mirroma program. What a great initiative.
I am wanting to start a database looking for words for our plants and uses of our plants and animals.
I want to be able to speak the language of my grandparents, so I can pass it on to my children later in life.
I am an anthropologist, linguistic anthropology always interested me. I heard about this program from a friend...I am trying to compile a list of words that my grandmother has deemed `important` she is 95 years old and has been writing a dictionary of sorts so that I can learn more...Since all the writing is handwritten I decided to get together all the words and make a dictionary out of it. That is where I am in need of the dictionary-maker software.
We are wanting this app so we can start putting words down and their meanings, this will be our foundation...
I am part of a team of insider and outsider linguists working to revise and improve our current SIL dictionary. My husband is helping with this and is currently studying at the University of Arizona…His thesis is to identify the best practices for creating the new dictionary. We have looked at various computer dictionary apps, but have not been satisfied. (____) informed my husband of your program and we would like to test it out and see if it is what we are looking for…
Language is powerful and I want to reclaim our Original language and bring back to life again.
I have been documenting my language and culture through photographs, notes, audio, and audio-visual since my teenage years. I received an MA in 2006 and I am now back in my community still documenting my language alone. I have published one picture dictionary and I am working towards publishing more language curriculum. This is the first language software I will have.
I have been documenting (___) language for a long period of time and am currently needing to consolidate the information in a usable form especially as more members of our community are returning to country and are requesting language and culture resources.
I'd like to do a crowd fund for a research project to document my family history from (___). I am currently studying a certificate IV in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts so I'd like to make this an arts research project as well, documenting cultural arts practices such as weaving, painting, tool making, fire making, and anything else that can be recorded….I plan to upload the voice recordings of language words to Miromaa and share the site with kin. I would also produce a copy of all the information I gather for all kin who are interested…
I had just completed the miromaa training this week at my work office and wanted the program for my own personal use at home. So I could store the language and learn how to say words, and teach others.
Miromaa is by far the easiest most user-friendly software I have encountered out there… we know that the (____) communities are interested in working on their language so we hope I'll be able to offer my expertise and help them with their maintenance efforts.
I've previously designed my own databases with Filemaker Pro, but I would like to get to know Miromaa better so I can help community groups run it as it does seem more user-friendly.
Just wanting to create a small dictionary of (a) language translation to assist others in learning particularly English as a second language.
I have been involved in (____) Language development for the past 29 years. I have been making efforts to develop an orthography, primers and teaching members of the community to read and write in the language. To enhance learning of the language I want to develop a dictionary.
Recording of the languages will allow the documentation of the cultural histories for the 2 languages. It will allow teaching resources to ensure that there are fluent speakers within the 2 languages and that future generations will have access to their cultures and language.
We are in the process of rebuilding and revitalizing our culture and language without monetary resources and only with voluntary efforts. Also, we currently have several lists on Google documents of the vocabulary of our language (very tedious as it gets slower as the document grows) that we are seeking to compile into a Dictionary..In the past months after extensive research, I have found your dictionary-maker to best candidate to accomplish this task to preserve and print a practical and eye-catch dictionary that could be distributed to the remote areas of the (____) ancestral lands...
I am a retired person (aged 72) and although English is my mother tongue, I have learned Gaelic as an adult and have reared my 3 children speaking it as their first language…I have been very much involved in trying to keep our language from dying out.
This software is incredibly useful and I've already been talking to some friends from other communities who also do language work about it. I look forward to creating a database of knowledge for my community - and appreciate the kindness I experienced while visiting Miromaa.
I would like to compile and build my own English/Arabic Dictionary.
The Malaysian (___) community uses a whatsapp chat group and we try to encourage each other and share some words. While the intentions are good, I can see that this sharing is not sustainable beyond the enthusiastic members. So, if all the sharing data can be compiled into a dictionary using technology like Miromaa, then works and cross references are preserved and can be further enhanced. I am doing this work on my own and at 54 yrs old, I hope to do some good work for my community. I think if I can start it off, it can possibly excite my community to get more licenses to do collaborative work.
I am researching the local language while building a dictionary with soundclips and images.
I love my language but it seems it is going to be lost in time. (___) language, which is this language was group with, is being introduced in schools. However, it does not preserve the original form of the language and usually it combines all of the ethics and local dialects together. Therefore, I want to collect all of the words particularly for my people's language…
I would love to be able to use Miromaa for our efforts in saving our language. I am a teacher of (____) language. We currently have less than 5 remaining speakers so the urgency and severity of our language grows every day. I love that this is a program that everyone involved in the revitalization of the (____) language, the linguists, the teachers, the learners, would be able to contribute to and benefit from.
I have been working in the area of language and culture for over 10 years. I have created apps, blogs and website to promote language and culture. It is my passion. I want a personal copy to help my children learn more about both technology and language. However I would love to help promote schools in our region to utilise the technology and am happy to work in partnership with Miromaa to get schools to by the licences and create a network of people to help them enter the data.
I am looking to know the program better and to helping me learn my language while i have to move and work off country. From this, i hope to recommend and refer the program to the elders i know down here in (___) for their use in language work.
…I am trying to learn our language in an effort to keep it alive and pass it on. I have just finished cert 2 in Language. Next year I will be doing Cert 3. Every handout I get in class, I transfer to a spreadsheet. I use control F for finding words and hyperlinks after each word…I came across your software while googling. It would be a wonderful tool to have.
I am currently doing my own cultural heritage research and would like to obtain this program so I can save the knowledge of my family.
I just saw Daryn's SILs presentation and the (Miromaa) software looks incredible! I am working with speakers and educators in (____), British Columbia, on the effort to revitalize (____) a severely endangered language...
I am assisting in a low budget pilot project to place language materials on a server to give online access…The Miromaa software looks to be an ideal resource to present language words and meanings plus multimedia in an accessible format…
I am currently working on a PhD in Linguistics at Yale University where my concentration is in language documentation and reclamation. There are some published grammars and dictionaries of the O'odham language, but none of them focus specifically on the dialect spoken in my home community. I have previously written an O'odham course book based in my dialect for beginners as part of my academic work, and I hope to supplement the growing body of literature by creating a dictionary to be both document my community's dialect and provide heritage learners in my community with more resources.
Really excited about getting to know Miromaa properly and working with it ... and even more excited about assisting language speakers to use it for collecting their language - and taking control of that themselves...
Right now, I am using excel sheets mainly to record new words of the language and the improve those words which are already listed in other dictionaries. but Excel, while a great software, is still not quite capable of lexicography work.
i would like to work on making the dictionary for my community and i will be working on land based with the school when i am done my schooling…next year, and maybe i can further it by doing this for other communities if they ask me.