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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Fleur Connick

UNBELIEVABLE: We just stopped using it bringing back an indigenous language through children s books | History Defined

Moonahcullah Aboriginal Station
When the Moonahcullah mission in NSW closed in 1961, its residents moved to nearby Deniliquin and stopped using the Wamba Wamba language in public. Photograph: Fleur Connick/The Guardian

There were no children’s books at the Moonahcullah mission near Deniliquin, where Jeanette Crew grew up. They had a reader, but no stories. Fairy tales and fables – stories other children grew up knowing – were left untold.

“One of the most read things was a catalogue, one of those mail-order catalogues,” Crew says.

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