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Harmony Day
No full textHarmony Day 2026 is on Saturday, March 21, 2026. It is part of Harmony Week, which celebrates Australia\u27s cultural diversity and runs from March 16 to 22, 2026
\u27Buga Yanu Junba: Strengthening First Languages and wellbeing through collaborative songwriting\u27
No full textIn September 2025, Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre (MWRC), Indigenous Literacy Foundation and Tura released Buga Yanu Junba, a songbook and companion album of 22 original songs in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Walmajarri, and Kimberley Kriol. But where did these songs come from? This presentation traces their origins in a three-year participatory arts-based research project: a collaboration between early childhood educators at Baya Gawiy Buga Yani Jandu yani U in Fitzroy Crossing, facilitators from the Perth-based cultural development organisation Tura, and a researchermusician from the University of Melbourne as part of Tura\u27s ongoing SoundFX program.
The research pursued two interconnected goals: to increase the number of early childhood songs in local languages, strengthen cultural knowledge among young children, and support intergenerational transmission of knowledge from Elders; and to investigate—through participatory action research and the Most Significant Change methodology—how songwriting in First Languages can support healing and wellbeing for educators, children, and families.
The presentation will include performances by songwriters from Buga Yanu Junba and discuss research findings about the wellbeing affordances of language songwriting and singing through a framework of Aboriginal Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003).
The project\u27s distinctive contribution is its focus on early childhood educators—a key cohort for sustaining intergenerational language transmission—and how creative collaboration centring local languages supports wellbeing for all participants alongside language strengthening
