Yearly Barngarla Linguistic Events

Kidz Club Educational Centre – Adelaide, South Australia

2 February – 27 November

Weekly: Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays

The Yearly Barngarla Linguistic Presentations at Kidz Club Educational Centre represent a sustained, living program dedicated to the revitalisation, transmission, and celebration of Barngarla, an endangered Indigenous Australian language originating from the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.

Delivered across the full calendar year from February 2 to November 27, the program offers three immersive sessions per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) for young language learners and their families. These sessions integrate language, culture, story, movement, visual art, and community knowledge, ensuring that Barngarla is experienced not as a static subject, but as a living, relational language.

The presentations are led by Language Specialist Stuart A Blair, with special guest presenters from the Barngarla community, and in collaboration with Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, a global leader in Revival Linguistics and language reclamation.

Cultural and Linguistic Context

South Australia is home to more than 43 Indigenous languages, each carrying its own epistemologies, oral traditions, and cultural frameworks. Unlike some languages that continue through intergenerational transmission, Barngarla experienced complete linguicide, with the last native speaker passing away in the 1960s.

Today, Barngarla exists as a reclaimed language, revitalised through:

* Archival documentation

* Linguistic reconstruction

* Community leadership

* Academic collaboration

Intergenerational learning environments, such as Kidz Club

This program positions children as active participants in language revival, not passive recipients, recognising their role in restoring sound, rhythm, and meaning to a once-silenced tongue.

Program Structure & Weekly Rhythm

Each week follows a predictable yet dynamic structure, allowing children to build linguistic confidence while remaining open to creativity and discovery.

Weekly Delivery

Mondays – Language immersion, sound awareness, oracy

Wednesdays – Story, Dreaming, sequential art, cultural knowledge

Fridays – Performance, drama, improvisation, reflection

This rhythm ensures continuity, repetition, and deep learning across the year.