Bunurong Language

This project is open to any Bunurong person, so we would love to hear from you! You can get involved in any capacity you’d like, we’ll work to support you. Just get in touch!

The support of our allies is very important in ensuring we can reawaken language. Check out the get involved page to find out some specific ways you can help.

Community consultation is the backbone of all of the language work that we do, and it is our top priority to make sure as many Bunurong people as possible can be involved in language work. We regularly reach out to community through the channels we have available to us, but sometimes we unintentionally miss people. Please get in contact with us if you want to be involved in the project, or if you have any specific feedback or concerns.

ICIP is owned by a community rather than individuals and can be both tangible and intangible. Australian intellectual property law does not fully protect ICIP as it does not cover oral stories, ideas, communal ownership, or content older than 70 years old. However, the language team seek to follow best practice by engaging in regular community consultation. This website and dictionary have been created with community and for community. Community members are owners of the language and knowledge contained within, thereby having the right to:

• Restrict any ICIP that may be secret or sacred;
• Benefit from the use of ICIP;
• Control recordings of ICIP;
• Ensure that ICIP is used only in culturally appropriate ways.

Currently, only community members are able to access the dictionary, and further restrictions are put on women’s and men’s knowledge where relevant. You have the right to withdraw consent for use of any recordings of language and knowledge that you have been involved in. The language program is constantly evolving and is continually looking to strengthen protocols surrounding language use and research. If you have any feedback of suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

You must obtain permission from the Bunurong community to use any Bunurong language for personal projects. Please contact us to discuss the details of your project.

You must obtain permission from the Bunurong community to use any Bunurong language for naming projects. Please contact us to discuss your naming request further.

Our cultural protocol for ngamadjiyt (non-Aboriginal) teachers is to treat Bunurong like you would a foreign language. If you went to Italy, for example, it would be appropriate (and even a good thing) for you to learn how to say some basic phrases like ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in Italian. This is why we include some words for common phrases on the website. We encourage you to use these while you are on Bunurong Country, and to teach these to others.

However, just because you visited Italy doesn’t mean that you have the right to teach Italian. Only Bunurong peoples should teach Bunurong language beyond these few common words. Please contact us if you are interested in having a Bunurong person come to your school to teach Bunurong language.

You are free to use and share any information that is on the public-facing portion of this website in the classroom (e.g. anything under the resources or our language, our journey headings).

You have permission to learn and share this information, but not to use it for any personal projects. You must obtain permission from the Bunurong community to use any information on this site for a personal project. To do so, or if you are unsure, please contact us.

Yes! You have permission to share any of the information given on this website. If using this information for a written document, please acknowledge us as the source. Citing information is given at the end of this page.

You must obtain permission to use any information or language on this website for a personal project (e.g. to name something, as part of a larger artwork or endeavour, etc.). Please contact us to get in touch.

Access to the Bunurong dictionary is currently only provided to Bunurong peoples. You are, however, able to learn and share any of the common words shared on this site. There are also opportunities to learn Bunurong language in a limited capacity by supporting us through a naming project or through the Ngiyamak Bunwurrung Language Industry Fund.

As a Bunurong person, this is your language. As such, you are entitled to share and use the content in this dictionary for whatever personal projects you desire. This can include:

• Using Bunurong language to name projects, organisations, spaces, etc.
• Sharing Bunurong language with non-Bunurong peoples.
• Etc.

This website does not impose any kinds of restriction on Bunurong peoples’ access to and sharing of language. However, certain uses of this website may be inappropriate in accordance with Bunurong Lore/Law. If in doubt, check with an Elder.

Please note, however, that you are required to seek permission to share any media in the dictionary. This includes:

• Audio recordings
• Videos
• Posters
• Songs
• Images
• Etc.

In these cases, you need to seek permission from the creator of the work. If you are not sure who made the work, please contact us.

This could be for a few reasons:

• We haven’t yet researched this word and/or added it to the dictionary.
• This word is spelled using an older spelling (e.g. one of the colonists’ spellings), and we have since changed the spelling of the word in the dictionary in line with the spelling system developed by 17 Bunurong Elders and Knowledge Holders in June 2025.
• Since this word was used to name the park or building, we have gotten access to new knowledge or materials which have shown that this previous word is inaccurate.

You can read more about the process for how we determine the language that goes into the dictionary, and why this can sometimes lead to changes, on the reawakening Bunurong page.

Most of the words in the dictionary come from the writings and journals of colonists who settled Melbourne in the 1830s-1850s. These colonists spoke with Bunurong peoples and recorded the language they spoke. These colonists were often inaccurate in their recordings, however, because they only spoke English and did not learn Bunurong properly. We find as many examples of different spellings from different colonists as possible and analyse them to try and find the way the Ancestors would have said and used the word. This is done by a team of linguists and through regular community consultation, which any Bunurong person can be a part of. You can see who is involved on the about us page.

You can read more about the process for how we find the language that goes into the dictionary, and the specific sources we use, on the reawakening Bunurong page.

This is probably because we haven’t researched it or had a chance to add it into the dictionary yet. We’re constantly adding new words to the dictionary, so it might be added soon.

It’s also possible that this particular word has specifically been excluded from the dictionary for some reason (e.g. at the request of community members or because we discovered that the word is not Bunurong, etc.). Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about a specific word, we’d love to hear from you!

You can read more about the process for how we determine the language that goes into the dictionary, and why this can sometimes lead to changes, on the reawakening Bunurong page.

This could be for two reasons:

• This word is spelled using an older spelling (e.g. one of the colonists’ spellings), and we have since changed the spelling of the word in the dictionary in line with the spelling system developed by 17 Bunurong Elders and Knowledge Holders in June 2025.
• Through our language research and community discussions, we have decided on a different ‘standard’ form for a word. You can read more about the process for how we determine the language that goes into the dictionary, and why this can sometimes lead to changes, on the reawakening Bunurong page.

Please contact us if you have specific concerns or questions about a particular word. We’d love to hear from you!

In June 2025, 17 Bunurong Elders and Knowledge Holders got together to decide on a new spelling system for Bunurong. This was so that we would have a single, consistent, easy to learn spelling system to make reawakening Bunurong language easier. This replaces the various earlier spelling systems, some of which were developed by colonists, some of which were developed by individual community members doing language work.

Individual Bunurong peoples are free to spell Bunurong however they would like. The spelling system used in this dictionary is the one endorsed by these Bunurong Elders and Knowledge Holders, and is intended to be a ‘standard’ form to make language learning easier for all Bunurong peoples.

The pronunciations given in this dictionary are the ones we think were most likely used by the Ancestors. This is based on analysis of how the colonists who recorded Bunurong language in the 1830s-1850s spelled and recorded the Ancestors’ speech.

Bunurong has some sounds which are very different to English, just like any other Australian Aboriginal language. These can sometimes be difficult for English speakers to hear, pronounce, or learn at first. Check out the pronunciation training resources in the dictionary or the spelling and pronunciation page for additional helpful resources and information.

Words are only included in the dictionary if we have direct evidence from a Bunurong person or from colonists’ records of Bunurong in the 1800s. These sources are given for each entry under ‘Where did we get this word from?’.

Please use the following information for citation purposes:

• Author: Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation
• Year: 2025
• Website name: Bunurong Language

You can contact us here.

You can contact us here.