Little footsteps, big futures: honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day

In this article, Beth Thornber, Access Advisor on the First Nations Community Access to Archives project, reflects on the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day through examining the role of young First Nations people in language preservation and revitalisation. The article highlights the powerful example of two young Aboriginal boys who in 1836 recorded Awabakal language in personal copybooks as uncovered within the NSW State Archives Collection. These copybooks serve as strong reminders of the potential of archival material for language reclamation and the importance of championing First Nations children to learn, speak, sing and dance to the language of their ancestors.

On this year’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day (4 August), we follow in the footsteps of our little ones. Footsteps that have left an imprint on generations, through government archives and across Country.

The NSW State Archives Collection holds vast numbers of records that document First Nations children. Many of these records echo the painful truths of stolen childhoods – the forcible removal of children from their families, to be placed in institutions, trained as domestic servants or sent to missions away from Country. The state removal of children was intended to break the continuation of culture, and to sever identity. The loss of language and kinship was not accidental – it was state-sanctioned. Systemic. Strategic.

But our language existed long before ink met parchment. Before the state. Before the archive. It lives on today– in us, in our children.

Before colonial invasion, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages were spoken across this continent. Today, a small percentage of dialects are still in active use. But that number is growing, thanks to the work of communities, linguists, language custodians, and initiatives such as the First Nations Community Access to Archives (FNCAA) project at Museums of History NSW.

Through reading government records held at the Western Sydney Records Centre, the FNCAA team are uncovering language and cultural material relating to First Nations communities in NSW, with a focus on improving the discoverability and accessibility of the State Archives Collection. Within these archives the team has uncovered a powerful example of language preservation, of resistance, of black joy.

A significant find

In the early 19th century, Awabakal knowledge holder Biraban (M’Gill or We-pohng) worked with Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld of the London Missionary Society to document the language of the Lake Macquarie region. Their work produced some of the earliest known written records of a First Nations language in NSW. Among the names preserved is that of Little M’gill, and another boy, named as Billy Blue, both born around 1823. Their names do not just survive in the colonial record; their example endures through the ongoing reclamation and revitalisation of the ancestral language that shaped their identity. 

Uncovered in our page turn were two student copybooks handwritten in Awabakal. The cover of one book was inscribed with ‘Little M’gill’, and the other with ‘Billy Blue’s book 1836’. A transcription of the 1836 Annual Report of the Mission to the Aborigines at Lake Macquarie notes that Threlkeld had begun teaching two young Aboriginal students to read and write verses of the Bible in their own language.

These copybooks are powerful reminders of the enduring significance of language and the critical role of young people in sustaining and reviving it. The efforts of Little M’gill and his peers highlight just how vital it is that future generations of Aboriginal children continue to learn, speak and write in language – as a way of keeping culture strong and stories alive.

Reclaiming language

These early efforts in language translation became something more: acts of cultural preservation, rooted in First Nations knowledge and worldviews. Where others saw only religious instruction, Biraban, Little M’gill and Billy Blue ensured the continuity of their culture. They did not merely assist Threlkeld – they led him. It was their voice, their law, their language.

Language revitalisation is not just about preserving words. It’s about restoring identity. In the wake of child removal policies in which language was often the first thing taken from a child, the return of that language becomes a profound act of reclamation. Today, the footsteps of Little M’gill and Billy Blue are joined by many more. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are dancing, singing and speaking up strong – in schools, homes and community centres, and on Country. Language is not lost – it lives. From Awabakal to Wiradjuri, Biripi to Gamilaraay, our little ones are learning to speak the same words their ancestors spoke. The footsteps of Little M’gill still lead us– not just in the archives, but in the voices of children today who dance, speak and sing in the languages of their Country.