Just as languages such as Japanese, French and Indonesian are taught as part of the curriculum in Canberra schools, there's a dream the Ngunnawal language will end up being taught the same way.
There are no known fluent speakers of the Ngunnawal language, but Aboriginal elders and their families have spent the past four years working closely with linguists to revitalise it.
"We've gone from just a couple of hundred words … to over 2,500, and we're continuing to revitalise and create words," Ngunnawal elder Caroline Hughes said.
"For instance, yuma — we didn't have a word for hello, but neither did non-Indigenous people.
"And that's been a word that's brought about some form of reconciliation, of bringing people together."
Ms Hughes said Ngunnawal people were unable to speak their language as children, because they were forbidden to do so.
She is determined that will not be the case for the next generation.
Dickson College and Belconnen High School currently offer a unit of study in Indigenous language and cultures, and the ACT government says "all ACT public schools embrace cultural integrity through the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history".
But Ms Hughes hopes the language will one day form a bigger part of the ACT school curriculum and be spoken more broadly within the Canberra community.
"[It] definitely needs to be taught in school sectors: in early childhood, primary, high school, college, universities and at CIT," she said.
"And Ngunnawal people need to be leading that. We need to be the people who are sharing this language and it's part of our development for Ngunnawal people that we have that opportunity."
Workshops encourage Canberrans to 'spread the word'
Members of the Winanggaay Ngunnawal Language Aboriginal Corporation are further spreading the language through workshops as part of this year's ACT Heritage Festival.
Participants learn basic greetings in the Ngunnawal language, like hello (yuma) and goodbye (yarra), and children's nursery rhymes, and have the opportunity to ask questions about Indigenous culture and history.
Ms Hughes — who is also one of the directors of the corporation — said it was important "to have our language heard back".
"We want to hear more people out there saying greetings like yuma and yarra … and just be part of it," she said.
Ms Hughes said many people travelled overseas and heard native languages spoken, and she hoped that, one day, would be the case in Canberra.
Workshop educators Melissa Bell and Rebecca King like to give their participants homework: to practice what they learn and teach it to their family and friends.
"We're hoping that people will take the greetings that they've learnt today and go home and use them with their family and friends," Ms Bell said.
"Because people are familiar with nursery rhymes already, we're hoping that having a bit of a base to start with will help them with learning the Ngunnawal language, because it's so different to English."
Ms King said Ngunnawal greetings were a good opportunity for non-Indigenous Canberrans to honour the traditional custodians of the ACT.
"Language and culture have a symbiotic relationship, they depend on each other, and I think it's really important to share our language and culture with the wider community," Ms King said.
