About the Dhawa Dictionary

“Language revival is a very important thing. It helps you to see the Country; to read the Country. It’s really important for kids to learn the language. It’s definately a seed that our kids need to have.”

OUR APPROACH:
Two language resources were used to create the online Dhawa dictionary including: “The Thaua Language: An Aboriginal Pictionary From The NSW Far South Coast” authored by John Liston and published by The Country Area Program, South Coast, Department of School Education in 1993, and an old cassette recording of Anne Wirrimah Thomas captured in an interview with Kristina Sands, a linguist at ANU.

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. Thank you to Mercurius Australia for providing the art supplies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
– Words were spoken by Lynne Thomas and recorded by Brooke Small
– Audio recordings mastered by Sean Lilico and uploaded by Brooke Small
– Artworks by students at Narooma Public School
– Artwork digitisation and upload by Isobel Knowles

BACKGROUND:
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.