This translation of the iconic song “Fast Cars” commenced in 2018 during a workshop with “Resource Networks for Linguistic Diversity” now known as “Living Languages”. The Far West Languages Centre staff and locals were doing some language linguistics and translation work which is what led them to translate a song with the assistance of Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity staff Amy Parncutt & Ebony Joachim.

The Far West Languages Centre staff member, Estelle Miller, did a lot of pronunciation & translation work on this song, along with Lynette Ackland, Letisha Ackland and also local community person and Josie Rohl.

It was a great way to learn language and translation, which was the hard part along with correct pronunciation, but it took a lot of repeat, repeat, repeat work to get it right.

A trip on Country allowed for another community person Wangki Peel to assist with the translation & pronunciation while the Adelaide University - Mobile Language Team staff accompanying us supported with more guidance from people such as Beatrice Fagan.

Beatrice assisted Letisha with the repeating of the song, with audio placement & getting the rhythm right. Dr Paul Monaghan with his linguistic skills, and media man Will Fisher who captured photography and video footage, were also pivotal to the success of the project.

Letisha, with her talents of playing guitar and singing, kept persisting until it was right and as you can see by the footage, she has done a great job. Well done Letisha and well done to everyone else who contributed in some way whether it was a big part or just a small part.

It’s great to see people come together to create songs in Language.