Learning Walmajarri

Walmajarri is one of the few aboriginal languages still spoken in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Many communities around Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing speak it as their first language.

Between 1998 and 2003 Multilocus worked with the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia to produce a CD-ROM language series called Learning Walmajarri.

The decision to use CD-ROM technology to support language teaching came in response to the fact that children have an affinity for computer games. The Catholic Education Office hoped that Learning Walmajarri would encourage local children to come to school to learn their language.

“As this is such a new medium for us, leadership and guidance given by [Multilocus Interactive] to our staff was necessary and well done. The fact that the project was completed with [Multilocus Interactive] working in Canberra and our staff in Broome indicates the degree of good communication skills involved.”  
Ms Joyce Hudson
Project Officer Catholic Education Office of WA
Kimberley Region

Along with the Catholic Education Office, Multilocus designed a three-part CD package for teachers of primary and lower secondary school classes to use in a supervised classroom environment. The package contains teacher notes, student exercises and a system to track student progress. Each CD-ROM allows students to record and practice words and sentences.

In designing Learning Walmajarri we deliberately set out to:

• Involve the Walmajarri community, children and teachers in producing drawings, animations and photographs; and recording the narration and video.
• Base content on material that Walmajarri children could relate to.

The first CD was launched in Perth in November 1998. Prior to this launch, all dealings between Multilocus and the Catholic Education Office were done remotely - using telephone, facsimile, Email, the Web and Australia Post. This distance dialogue included initial design, storyboarding, prototyping and production, all of which were undertaken with Multilocus and the Catholic Education Office separated by thousands of kilometres.

Walmajarri children are now using multimedia technology to maintain their linguistic heritage.

On 26 May 2001 at the 19th Annual ATOM Awards for Film, TV, Radio and Multimedia held at the Hotel Sofitel in Melbourne, Multilocus received an ATOM for Best Indigenous Resource for the CD-ROM “Learning Walmajarri 2”. In doing so we beat high profile entries from Film Australia and the ABC.

Special thanks must go to the children and teachers at Kururrungku Catholic Education Centre, John Pujajangka-Piyirn Catholic School, Yakanarra Community School and Wulungarra Community School, Joyce Hudson and Eirlys Richards and the Catholic Education Office of WA.

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