Dieri at Stirling North Primary School
August 8, 2025
The Mobile Language Team recently delivered a Dieri language workshop at Stirling North Primary School, led by Dieri singer and educator, Chris Dodd and Project Linguist, Phoebe Leggett. Stirling North Primary School is located on Nukunu Country, with the students representing a wide variety of Aboriginal language groups. The workshop involving 40 students, and was centred around a powerful song written by Chris, inspired by a personal and cultural story from Dieri country.
This workshop is a series of ongoing projects under the First Nations Languages Education Program (FNLEP). So far the FNLEP program at MLT has engaged 150 students.
Chris’s song tells the story of the once in 20 years event, with floodwaters flowing down from Kudnarri (Coopers Creek) to Kathi Thanda (Lake Eyre). It is a time where the country comes alive, bringing water, plants and animals to the land. The song is not just a reflection of seasonal change, but a celebration of the connection between language, land and cultural knowledge.
Chris recorded his song with the support MLT and the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at the University of Adelaide. This collaboration has provided a fun opportunity to bring the Dieri language to classrooms and communities.
At Stirling North, the workshop began with a warm welcome and an introduction with simple Dieri greetings. Greetings included mayi (hey), wardaṟu yini? (how are you?) for asking one person and wardaṟu yura? (how are you?) for asking a group. The children then learnt responses to these questions, nganhi manyu (I’m good) as a singular response and ngayana manyu (we’re good) for a group response. Students then listened to Uncle Chris perform his song live – a proud moment that brought Dieri language and culture into the classroom.
The children then focused on learning six Dieri words that are repeated in the song’s chorus. The words included ngapa (water), ngarrimatha (flood), thalaṟa (rain), parru (fish), mitha (ground/country) and daku (sandhill). These key words helped the students engage with language in a storytelling context. With guidance from Chris and Phoebe, they explored the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of each word.
To reinforce their learning, students created drawings to illustrate the meanings of each word and practiced writing them in Dieri. This hands-on activity gave students the chance to express their creativity, linking visuals of language and memory.
Learning these 6 words lays the foundation to further learn Chris’s Dieri chorus:
Ngapa-ngapa pirna ngariyi
Ngarrimatha wakarayi
Thalaṟa pirna kurdayi
Ngayanarni mithanhi
Daku pirna thana
Matya ngayana pankiyilha
Ngapa pirna ngakayi
Parru pirna pakarna
Translation Here
ngapa-ngapa pirna ngariyi (lots of water is coming down)
ngarrimatha wakarayi (a flood is coming)
thalaṟa pirna kurdayi (lots of rain is falling)
ngayanarni mithanhi (in our country)
daku pirna thana (there are big sandhills)
matya ngayana pankiyilha (so we are happy now)
ngapa pirna ngakayi (lots of water is flowing)
parru pirna pakarna (and big fish too)
The workshop ended with a sing-along, as students performed the song with Uncle Chris – enthusiastically singing the words they had learned together. If you’re interested in listening to Chris’s song, it will be available publicly soon.
A PowerPoint version of the lesson was left with the school, so teachers and students can continue to practice the song and Dieri vocabulary. The school was also given posters that show the Dieri alphabet and sounds. The MLT will return to Stirling North Primary soon to continue supporting the Dieri language learning.
“I was so very grateful for your visit to our school. It was great to see our students so engaged in learning some Dieri language. They really enjoyed connecting with Uncle Chris and learning more about their culture and connection to country. A fantastic session, Thank you”
Kirin Hoffman, Aboriginal Community Education Officer
Workshops like this demonstrate the power of language to connect students with culture, country and community. The MLT gives their most heartfelt thanks to Chris Dodd for sharing his story and song, and the staff and students at Stirling North Primary School for their commitment to language learning.
