The Preatures are a rock band from Sydney, Australia. They recently co-wrote a song called Yanada (which means "moon" in the Sydney language of Dharug) with Darug songwoman Jacinta Tobin. The Preatures want to assist the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to raise funds for their urgent work in documenting Indigenous languages, in particular the re-issue of Professor Jakelin Troy’s book on Dharug language, originally entitled “The Sydney Language”, first published in 1994 and is now out of print.

Professor Troy, whose dictionary ‘The Sydney Language’ provided the main linguistic reference for the Dharug lyrics in the song says “Music is the universal language understood by all people everywhere. The Preatures have created a song that reaches out across Australia and beyond that fuses this universal language with Dharug the language of the sovereign people of Sydney. This music was crafted with Jacinta Tobin, Darug woman and other members of the community and is a very important step in the reawakening of Dharug which is gaining huge momentum.”

'Yanada is a song about doing something outside your comfort zone that leads to a discovery of a different world" says lead singer Isabella Manfredi. "It’s a song about a connection to the land I call home, Sydney - a mystical place I realised I know very little about - and the role Indigenous language plays in this connection". 

For more information on The AIATSIS foundation, click here:  http://aiatsis.gov.au/

The Preatures want to assist the AIATSIS Foundation (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) to raise funds for Indigenous language dictionaries, and in particular help fund the re-issue of Professor Jakelin Troy’s book on Dharug, originally entitlted "The Sydney Language", which was first published in 1994 and is now out of print. 

All funds raised will go directly to the AIATSIS Foundation, who will in turn put the money towards the re-issue of Jakelin Troy’s book on Dharug Language.

500-1000 copies will be printed and will be available to community groups free of charge. It will also be free to view online. 

$10,000 will cover all costs associated with permissions, printing, binding and launching the re-issue.

Our 50,000 year old Indigenous culture, recognized as the longest running culture in the world, is at risk of losing languages and songlines within one generation unless we act urgently.

• Over 250 Indigenous Australian language groups covered the continent at the time of European settlement in 1788. 
• Most of these languages would have had several dialects, so that the total number of named varieties would have run to many hundreds (over 750)
• Today only around 120 of those languages are still spoken and many are at risk of being lost as Elders pass on.
• “One to two Indigenous languages are being lost every year” say experts who estimate if the trend continues only 50 Indigenous languages will be left by the year 2050.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages are not just a means of communication, they express knowledge about everything:  law, geography, history, family and human relationships, philosophy, religion, anatomy, childcare, health, caring for country, astronomy, biology and food.
• It is also the vehicle within which much cultural knowledge such as songs, bush tucker and traditional medicine, is stored.
• Less than 10% of Australia’s languages are comprehensively documented. One or two languages disappear every year. Of more than 300 languages that existed pre-colonisation, fewer than half remain are all are considered endangered, many critically.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are the first languages of this country and that’s something that ALL Australians should be proud of.

[taken from The AIATSIS Foundation's website http://aiatsis.gov.au/get-involved/foundation ]