Welcome to WURREKANGURR (we all speak), the Wamba Wamba / Wemba Wemba Language Resource Website.

This web resource has been established by the Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre, on behalf of the traditional owners of our language and culture, for all speakers and learners of the Wamba Wamba / Wemba Wemba language as part of the Deniliquin Indigenous Language Project. This Language is spoken by Wamba Wamba and Perrepa Perrepa peoples.

It is based around a searchable language dictionary of more than 1200 language entries and has been developed from the ‘WembaWemba Dictionary’ by Dr. Luise A. Hercus.

The original dictionary entries were collected by Hercus during interviews between 1962 and 1970 with ‘the late Nancy Egan, Stanley Day and John Taylor and collated with earlier information, particularly that from A.C. Stone (1911)’.

This web database will also make available to the Community other language resources such as language recordings and documents made available from AIATSIS (Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies) and learning tools being developed as part of the Deniliquin Indigenous Language Project.

The project will continue to develop and add new database tools, documents and resources as feedback from teachers and the Community establishes need and when funding is available.

Yarkuwa would like to acknowledge:

  • the Australian Government Indigenous Languages and Arts Program for the grant which has made the development of this language website and other Wamba Wamba / Wemba Wemba language resources possible;
  • the wisdom, time and dedication of our orginal Deniliquin Indigenous Language Project steering committee: Glenn Ross, Karen Mobourne and Stephen Charles;
  • our Elders past and present for their continuing guidance and the traditional owners of the lands of the Wamba Wamba / Wemba Wemba and Perrepa Perrepa people.

  • Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre

    2017