South Sudanese elders are teaching their native language to younger generations through a new literacy school.
The Nuer Language School (NLS) was born from growing concerns that South Sudanese youths were out of touch with their cultural roots.
It’s based in Melbourne’s south-east and teaches one of the most common languages in South Sudan.
Thok Naath, commonly known as Nuer, translates into “the people’s language”.
Nuer has two million speakers in South Sudan and 1.5 million in the western Ethiopian region of Gambella.
NLS president David Tut Kuiy, a former treasurer of the Sudanese Community Council founded in 1988, spent most of his childhood in Itang Refugee Camp in Gambella, Ethiopia.
He arrived in Australia in the 1980s and was one of the first South Sudanese people to settle in Australia and obtain Australian citizenship.
“There has always been a demand for the Nuer Language School from the community elders,” Mr Kuiy said.
“There was a lot of disengagement by the youth and a program like this enables us to unify our community.”
The program not only helps youths to reconnect with their roots but also offers adult classes to improve literacy skills, so they can read their mother tongue.
NLS operates across three campuses in Cranbourne, Dandenong, and Doveton.
About 25 children and 10 adults are consistent attendees every week.
“I am doing this so we can preserve the Nuer language because once you learn your language, it gives you an identity,” Mr Kuiy said.
Bichok Gony Guandong, an NLS volunteer tutor, echoed Mr Kuiy’s message.
Mr Guandong’s involvement in the program stems from his motivation to give young people the impetus to stay connected to their cultural roots.
This includes his own children, who have all been raised in Australia and haven’t visited his family overseas.
“One day, I want my children to be able to visit their relatives back home and have the ability to communicate with them — even if they struggle, I want them to at least be able to understand their language,” Mr Guandong said.
Pal Deng Pur, a volunteer tutor at the Cranbourne campus, said expanding the program created opportunities for others to learn the Nuer Language outside their tribal diaspora.
Mr Deng Pur is from the Gaatjaak clan of the Nuer tribe. He was forced to flee his village as a teenager to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya after the Civil War. He resettled again to Australia in 2003 on a humanitarian visa.
“We are doing volunteer work on weekends,” Mr Deng Pur said.
“The funding we get from the government only covers the renting of the buildings, but we are still struggling for school materials such as textbooks and stationery.”
As the program expands, NLS plans to purchase a bus to encourage students throughout Melbourne’s south-east to attend, particularly if they struggle with transport.
“We would like to expand in the future, and open more centres because Nuer speakers are not just in Melbourne’s south-east but regional Victoria, including South Gippsland, Geelong, and Ballarat,” he said.
Mr Kuiy said: “At the end of the day, your language is the epitome of your identity. If you do not revive it then it will be lost forever.”
– By Nyibol Gatluak, a student journalist at Monash University
