A goori Renaissance

“I hope for a future where the concept of language revitalisation is obsolete, where we no longer need language centres, linguists, dictionaries or word lists. I dream for a Goori renaissance; art, music, culture, philosophy - every aspect of our society exists as an extension of our nationhood and is our languages made manifest. ”
Birrugan Dunn-Velasco

An elderly man and a younger man sit at a table, clasping hands and making fists, smiling and looking at the camera. The elderly man wears a hat with badges and suspenders, the younger man has a beard, tattoos, and wears a watch and a t-shirt that says 'harms' with a graphic. The background shows windows with curtains and a screened door, with some outdoor greenery beyond.

Systems Building & Goori Language Renaissance

In this talk, I propose a radical shift in how we conceptualise decolonisation. Too often I feel in the collective zeitgeist we reference Marx, Lenin, or Eurocentric ideology as our liberation framework. But if we are serious about "decolonisation" - as a buzzword operating within the paradigm that our languages must be our principal theoretical tool. As an extension of our laws and responsibility to our kin, country and land. I call this Systems Building: the extensions and manifestation of ourr eal political power in the ongoing project of the emancipation of our Goori cultural and political systems. This calls for what i call a Goori Renaissance; whereby thinking and operating in an immersive Gumbaynggirr context will spark development into new ways of thinking that we can't even concieve due to the limitations of the present. I pay homage to the Māori Renaissance of 1974, I’ll also reference Fight for Liberty and Freedom (Prof. John Maynard). This will also be a prime callout to our young people and argue that if we do not take radical steps now to create and harness a collective decision to save our languages like what happened in Maori Society then we are doomed.