Aboriginal Culture, Heritage
& Arts Association of NSW

The word Miromaa is an Awabakal word meaning to "save" or stop from loss, referencing specifically stopping loss of language. Miromaa is about empowering Indigenous people to revitalise their language. Awabakal (pronounced Ar war ba karl) is the language of the region that Miromaa works to revive. Awaba means flat surface. This is the name of the lake. Kal denotes the masculine. It literally means ‘Man from the lake’.

Everything that Miromaa has learned in bringing back Awabakal language has created a useful model to enable other communities to conduct language work; Miromaa has developed language software tools and methods to enable Indigenous people to do the recovery work themselves.

Miromaa is not just working on Awabakal. It now works with 150 languages and has been instrumental in supporting many Indigenous language groups internationally to revive their languages, including 75 Native American groups. Tribal Youth Ambassador Jayden Lim, Promo Tribe, acknowledged Daryn McKenny and Miromaa in her acceptance speech when her work was recognised by US former First Lady Michelle Obama In the White House in November 2016.

Miromaa have a Library and Gallery on site that has 2,500+ books (including some very old and rare books) and 15,000+ digital books - all focused on Aboriginal culture, language and issues. Alongside this, the centre also have a collection of old photographs, rare prints and sports memorabilia. Our artefacts collection includes: didgeridoos, battle axes, spears, woomeras (spear thrower), grinding stones, digging sticks, coolomons, clapsticks, carvings and emu eggs.