89-year-old Uncle Peter Salmon is the last remaining native speaker of Thiinma, a language of the First Nations people from WA's Gascoyne Region. The award-winning musician is trying to preserve it through song in a bid to keep it alive for generations to come.
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00:00 Uncle Peter's salmon is telling stories of birds flying in the sky, in a language on
00:13 the brink of extinction.
00:21 As part of a song recording session, preserving these words and a culture nearly erased.
00:46 Uncle Peter grew up in the upper Gascoigne, where he learned English from station workers.
00:52 At home, his mother taught him his own language, Thienmar.
00:56 His sisters were taken away, so he was the only sibling to learn the ancient language.
01:01 It was the welfare days and they come round to get a lot of kids off the station to put
01:09 them in the mission.
01:12 And yeah, that's where we wasn't allowed to speak our language.
01:18 Uncle Peter wants to help his sisters learn their language to pass it on to younger generations.
01:23 It does make me feel real better when they start to pick up or pick it up.
01:31 I'll be really proud of it.
01:36 To someone to talk to in my language.
01:39 In the two centuries since European colonisation, more than half of the languages spoken by
01:43 First Nations people have been silenced.
01:47 Communities across Australia are now working to reawaken them.
01:51 Uncle Peter Salmon's language-saving work was recognised last year when his band won
01:56 the WA Music Song of the Year award.
01:59 At 89 years old, he's planning to release more songs.
02:03 For Nana Gail, it's a song about the sound of rain that has a special place in her heart.
02:10 Remind me of my mum, my family, my grannies, and who I've been before I was taken away.
02:18 And Peter's granddaughter wants to pass on her new knowledge to the next generation.
02:23 Singing the language, yeah, it's helping me more even to read the language because, like
02:29 I said, I never grew up in it.
02:32 I'm honoured that Pop's allowing us and want us to learn it.
02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]