Nominations now open!
Ciao, Konnichiwa, Salut, Yaama. Who taught you that language? Why not nominate them for the Patji-Dawes award?
The name of the award commemorates the teaching-learning partnership which underlay the earliest documented language learning in Australia’s history: that between a young Indigenous woman, Patyegarang (Patye or Patji, pronounced Pat-che), and Lieutenant William Dawes. Their close and humane relationship resulted not only in an exceptional mastery of the Sydney language by Dawes, but in a relationship of cross-cultural understanding that has been all too rare in Australia’s history.
The purpose of the award is to honour outstanding achievements in teaching languages other than English by an accomplished practitioner in Australia. Achieving proficiency in another language is one of the great learning experiences and our language teachers deserve our recognition.
The teaching may have taken place in any setting – school, university, private language school, government department or Indigenous community. Help us show that Australia has many languages!
Nominations close 8 March 2021
Nominate here – http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/education-and-outreach/dawes-award/