Successful Gangalidda language learning model pitched across Queensland
Her peers at Burketown State School, most of whom were Aboriginal, asked why.
As a high-schooler at boarding school on the Gold Coast her peers asked if she knew her Indigenous language from back home.
"I would say, 'I know a bit', but I wish I had the privilege of saying that I'm fluent in it," she said.
Now 22 years of age, Ms Yanner has returned to Burketown and not only does she know much more of the Gangalidda language — she teaches it.
Her role as partnership initiative officer and language teacher at Burketown State School includes delivering the Gangalidda language other than English (LOTE) program.
Karen Ford is head of curriculum at Burketown State School where more than 90 per cent of students are Indigenous.
Working closely with the community, she co-designed the Gangalidda LOTE subject within the Australian curriculum.
"We really needed to make sure we had all the protocols right," Ms Ford said.
The school started teaching non-assessable content in 2017 and developed an official curriculum by 2019.
The program has been cemented this year by hiring Ms Yanner, a Gangalidda woman, as its language teacher.
LOTE lessons are on a Monday, but the language is on display every day.
"If you walk around Burketown State School you'll see not just English names for things but you'll also see them in language," Ms Ford said.
In early primary, students learn key words and phrases:
For upper primary they have developed a junior ranger program, where Indigenous rangers deliver activities using the Gangalidda language on country.
This extends to the school's cultural sustainability garden, where they learn about medicinal plants and bush tucker.
The Burketown State School program is being presented across Queensland as a model for other schools to consider.
School staff recently travelled to the 2025 Gimuy First Nations Languages Workshop in Cairns and will soon attend the North Queensland Region Partnership Initiative Conference Townsville to encourage other schools to develop their own Indigenous LOTE programs.
As of 2024, 152 state schools were investigating, developing or implementing an Aboriginal language program or a Torres Strait Islander language program, according to the Department of Education.
Mossman, Yarrabah and Aurukun state schools all teach an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language.
Elder Murrandoo Yanner, the lead cultural consultant for the program, said a decades-old Gangalidda dictionary was crucial to its development.
"We had a lot of fluid speakers still in the tribe in the 1990s. Before they passed on we had our dictionary recorded, both in writing and recording, for the proper pronunciation," Mr Yanner said.
"A lot of senior elders from the Gangalidda people over the years … contributed."
The dictionary is comprehensive, including many variations that exist in the Gangalidda language.
"There's not a single word for crocodile — [there's] a crocodile, a female crocodile, male crocodile, saltwater crocodile, fresh crocodile, juvenile crocodile," Mr Yanner said.
Language is sacred to Mr Yanner and the Gangalidda people.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages could help increase school attendance and improve academic engagement — a sentiment shared by Mr Yanner.
"I think we'll make better, brighter children … for this community," he said.
Seeing his daughter Mayarr Yanner return to Burketown to teach the language has filled him with pride.
"Language is a part of our culture, and my identity, so it feels good to be able to reconnect," Ms Yanner said.
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