Great-Grandmother Learns Native Language at Age 65

Julie Craig never heard her native Gumbaynggirr language growing up, even though her ancestors spoke it for thousands of years. Now at 65, she's finally learning it at preschool alongside her great-granddaughter Enalanii.

The reunion is happening at Kulai Preschool on Australia's Mid North Coast, where Julie first attended as a child in 1964. She now works there as an educator, and little Enalanii is carrying on the family tradition as the fourth generation to walk through its doors.

"I learn more from the preschool than what I did in my lifetime," Julie said. Her grandparents passed away when she was young, and her parents never learned to speak the language because it was forbidden.

Before 1972, Australian schools banned Indigenous languages under assimilation policies. Speaking your native tongue could get families separated or children removed from their homes. Generations grew up in silence, their cultural heritage locked away.

Today, Kulai and its sister school Dalaigur are among Australia's oldest Aboriginal-run preschools, quietly reversing decades of loss. Language classes happen through songs, dances, games and everyday moments like washing hands or coming in from play.

Julie's transformation shows in small, beautiful ways. She can't sing certain songs in English anymore because she's learned them in Gumbaynggirr first. Her granddaughter sings the language songs to her own mother at home.

Director Julie Carey has spent 34 years at Kulai watching families reconnect with their roots. Most staff members and parents are former students themselves, creating an unbroken circle of trust spanning six decades.

Sunny's Take

What makes this story shine isn't just one great-grandmother learning her ancestral language. It's that the children at Kulai are growing up with something their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were denied: cultural confidence from day one.

Uncle Fred Kelly, whose mother helped start Dalaigur Preschool in 1965, remembers when speaking Dhanggati meant getting in "a lot of trouble." Now he watches children freely embrace what his generation had to hide.

The impact is measurable too. Research from 2024 to 2026 found children in these programs show stronger cultural identity than previous generations. In 2022, the success inspired Australia's first bilingual primary school featuring Indigenous language, ensuring the learning continues beyond preschool.

Four generations of one family, all connected through the same little preschool where a banned language is finally coming home.