Welcome Hiroko!
Hiroko Shioji
Can you please introduce yourself?
My hometown is Broome, WA.
My name is Hiroko Shioji and I’m Karajarri, Yawuru and Japanese.
I’m a Yawuru language specialist teacher and language worker.
Can you tell us a bit about your language journey? Or about the language work you’ve been a part of?
My language journey began from a very young age. My grandmother would speak to me in language and I would try say it back. She used to laugh at me because I couldn’t say it properly but she made me determined to learn. It was because of her that I can learn language and be proud of our culture.
Like others I work in many areas of language work. However my first passion is teaching language. My qualifications and line of work have allowed me to work at the Mabu Yawuru Ngan-ga language centre to teach Yawuru to adults, at a local primary school to teach Yawuru to children, all the while being able to work on language projects and activities with people from my community and experts and professionals in their given fields of language work.
One program I’m really proud to be associated with is the two-year intense adult immersion language course myself and my colleague, Yirrmarda Coco Yu, implemented in 2016-2018 called Walalangga Yawuru Ngan-ga, which means ‘You will learn Yawuru language’.
What inspired you to get involved in language work?
Learning language has always been a dream of mine since I was a young child but I became serious about learning and teaching language as an adult after I had been teaching in the classroom for a number of years. I enjoy teaching but I enjoy teaching language much more.
What is one word you love in your language, and why?
One phrase I love in my language is ‘janyba liyan’ which to me means ‘sharing heart’ or ‘sharing nature’. It is something our old people have, it’s something I would describe my grandmother as having because without her sharing her knowledge and wisdom, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn and speak Yawuru today. I aspire to have ‘janyba liyan’.