What we do

BKRLCC is one of twenty-six regional language centres funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Indigenous Language and Arts program. We work in communities and homelands of western Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park. We are an Indigenous-controlled company limited by guarantee with a board of five Indigenous directors and two independent non-Indigenous directors. We employ linguists, anthropologists, musicologists, resource development specialists, information technology specialists and community language workers and we are also the only organisation of the region exclusively focused on language and cultural heritage management.

We work in collaboration with regional organisations, government agencies and service providers, land management groups, schools, cultural institutions and anyone interested in the use, maintenance and revival of traditional Indigenous Australian languages of western Arnhem Land. Currently we run prograpms to support these languages:

• Bininj Kunwok (Kunwinjku, Kune, Kuninjku, Kundedjnjenghmi, Kundjeyhmi)
• Burarra and Gun-nartpa (and other related varieties)
• Rembarrnga
• Dalabon
• Iwaidja
• Djinang and Wurlaki
• Ndjébbana

We are seeking resources to commence the support of the endangered languages of Maningrida namely Na-kara, Gurr-goni and Kunbarlang and one of our current priorities to establish a hub at Maningrida with accommodation and office space.

The following is a list of some of the activities and programs we are currently running:

• Interpreting and translation work, including production of community awareness videos with voice-over in local languages and English or other language subtitles. We also do interpreting for legal, medical, cultural (museums, art galleries) and Indigenous company meeting work.
• Production of resources such as posters, websites, maps, books and brochures about Indigenous languages of our region.
• Online dictionaries using a platform developed by us with supporting media files (audio and video) for the following languages: Bininj Kunwok (including a separate dictionary for Kundjeyhmi in two orthographies), Burarra/Gun-nartpa, Djinang, Dalabon, Kunbarlang, Mawng, Rembarrnga, Ndjébbana and (coming soon) Iwaidja.
• An online course to learn Kunwinjku which runs for six weeks twice a year (March and September). An online Mawng language course is also currently in production.
• Documentation and field guides for names and cultural information about plants and animals designed to support Indigenous rangers and land managers. We currently have a book about names and cultural information about fish in Bininj Kunwok languages. We also have two books about plants, one focused on the Kundjeyhmi language of Kakadu National Park and another about all the languages of the Maningrida region (which will be launched in August 2026).
• Communication assistance and interpreting for Indigenous land owners working with mining companies for tenement lease issues, exploration and post-mining rehabilitation. Currently this work has focused on mines at Nabarlek and Ranger (near Jabiru).
• We have run public presentations for Kakadu National Park during visitor festivals and seasonal programs such as ‘Bird Week’ and ‘Taste of Kakadu’ programs.
• We do fee for service work for the Northern Land Council (cultural site surveys, conflict resolution studies, community awareness and consultation issues).
• We produce resources about people, places, songs and history. One recent example is the book produced in collaboration with Maningrida Arts & Culture about a traditional story in the Djinang language.
• We work with national cultural institutions to assist them with major art and cultural exhibitions. We are currently working with the National Museum of Australia to support their production ‘Water Spirits (Yawkyawk) from western Arnhem Land’ which will tour several countries in south-east Asia commencing in 2027.
• We document and promote traditional Indigenous music. Our team includes trained and experienced musicologists who work with Indigenous performers to ensure intergenerational transfer of music and dance traditions and the special song languages used in these performance tranditions. We also work with younger exponents of these traditions to train and support new singers and dancers.
• We maintain an archive of text, audio, video and photographs that contains material going back to the 1920s. We are currently working on a project to develop our archive to prioritise the application of best practice metadata conventions and access for local communities and organisations. * We train Indigenous language workers in language transcription, video production and archival metadata creation.
• We maintain a Youtube channel, Facebook page and Instagram account with material promoting our languages.
• We support young linguists in training such as PhD students and other researchers where appropriate and coordinate their introduction to the community and region.
• We promote principles of Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property and encourage all those seeking access to Indigenous cultural property to respect the use of these principles through agreements and awareness programs.
• We have online cross-cultural training courses for all new non-Indigenous residents of Jabiru and western Arnhem Land and offer these courses as part of a small business model for income generation for the language centre and to assist new residents of the region to better understand the culture of the communities where they are working.