Meet a language leader: Tahlia O'Brien

We caught up with Tahlia during our QLD PD workshop earlier this year, to talk about her language work and her experience of the workshop.

Tahlia O’Brien

Tell us a little bit about yourself and the language work you are part of.

Yurra Yalada. Ngayku burri Tahlia. Ngayku bama burri Kukubaka bajaku.

Hi everyone, my name is Tahlia. My Aboriginal name is Kukubaka which means ‘talk a lot’. I am a Kuku Yalanji woman from Daintree and China Camp areas and a Kuku Nyungkal woman as well, from the Shiptons Flat area.

So, I guess for me the language work that I’m involved in is just as a Kuku Yalanji woman who’s passionate about language - sometimes it’s through dance, sometimes it’s in education, and sometimes with art, and lots of other things I’m involved in.

What got you into language work?

I think from a very young age I was surrounded by a lot of people who taught me language. For example, my granddad, my mum’s eldest sister (my aunty Agie), and a good family friend Glen who spent a lot of time with our old people, he was also teaching me some language from a very young age, so I’ve kind of just grown up with it.

How have you found the workshop so far? Do you have a highlight?

So far, the workshop has been really deadly. I think for me the highlight is connecting with other mob who are passionate about language as well, so just being able to have the conversations to inspire ideas and all of that.

What are your hopes and aspirations for your language?

I think it’s just taking it to the next level, so normalising language use, just inspiring others to use it more, every day, and yeah, just seeing how many projects we can do, how many resources we can create, how much more language can just be all around us.

What is one word you love in your language or one thing that you love about your language? And why?

One word that I have grown to love and that’s naming my son - his Bama name is Ngalu-Ngalu, which I learnt from my elders that it’s a very old word, that’s been used way back by older people, but not a word that’s really used any more. And ngalu-ngalu means ‘healthy, happy, lively, mentally alert and refreshed’, so a lot of different meanings, but I guess it’s all about that life and that energy and so I really feel that’s a word that I’ve grown to love.

Thanks to intern Sarah Sandy for interviewing Tahlia!