About the Dhawa Dictionary
DICTIONARIES
Two language resources were used to create the online Dhawa dictionary including: "The Thaua Language: An Aboriginal Pictionary From The NSW Far South Coast" and an old cassette recording of Anne Wirrimah Thomas captured in an interview with Kristina Sands, a linguist at ANU.
"The Thaua Language: An Aboriginal Pictionary From The NSW Far South Coast" was authored by John Liston and published by The Country Area Program, South Coast, Department of School Education in 1993. Kristina Sands was engaged in the project to locate and standardise the language for The Country Area Program. On the recording of Anne Wirrimah Thomas speaking the words, Sands explains there are 21 words in the Dhawa language that are common with Djiringandj.
A total of 214 words were recorded for the online Dhawa dictionary, of which 21 are words used in common with the Djiringandj language. The words were spoken by Lynne Thomas, daughter of Anne Wirrimah Thomas. The beautiful artwork was created by Year 1 students at Narooma Public School, strongly supported by the Principal Paul Sweeney and teachers Virginia Hodge and Sharon Pearce with direction from Lynne Thomas. The art supplies were generously donated by Mercurius Australia.
We would like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved in the process of creating the Dhawa online dictionary.
- Words spoken by Lynne Thomas
- Words recorded by Brooke Small
- Words mastered by Sean Lilico
- Words uploaded by Lynne Thomas and Brooke Small
- Audio uploaded by Brooke Small
- Artworks by students at Narooma Public School
- Artwork digitisation and upload by Isobel Knowles
Three online dictionaries were developed throughout 2025 as part of the Yuin Digital Keeping Place Project, led by a Project Working Group of ten family representatives from Moruya to Eden, and developed in collaboration with SharingStories Foundation. The Working Group acknowledges that various spellings have been used throughout history. The spelling agreed upon by the Working Group for the purposes of the project is Dhurga, Djiringandj, and Dhawa.
