Jeanie Bell facts for kids

Jeanie Bell was an Australian expert in languages. She worked to help keep Indigenous Australian languages alive. She also helped create important learning programs for Aboriginal students at universities and colleges.

Jeanie Bell's Life Story

Early Life and Education

Jeanie Bell was born in 1949 in south-east Queensland. She was a Jagera and Dulingbara woman. She grew up in Brisbane. After finishing school, she moved to Melbourne, Victoria. There, she studied at Monash University.

Working with Languages and Education

After university, Jeanie taught about languages for three years. She worked at the Yipirinya school in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. She also trained Aboriginal interpreters. These are people who help others understand different languages. She also helped edit two books about Aboriginal languages.

Jeanie taught Indigenous Australian language studies in Cairns. In 1984, she became a lecturer in Aboriginal Studies in New South Wales. A year later, in 1985, she became the first person to lead the Aboriginal and Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland.

Later, she returned to Alice Springs. She worked at the Institute for Aboriginal Development. In 1988, Jeanie was part of a special group. This group worked on a national plan for Aboriginal and Islander education. In 1990, she did research for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This was a big investigation into why some Aboriginal people died while in police care.

Jeanie also served on the Research Committee at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. From 2004 to 2005, she worked as a language expert and researcher in Melbourne. She helped the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.

Important Contributions and Recognition

Jeanie earned a master's degree in Linguistics from The University of Melbourne. This was for her work on the Badjala language. This language is a type of Gabi-Gabi. It is spoken on Fraser Island (K'gari) in Queensland.

She was very involved in bringing languages like Badjala and Yagara back to life. This is called language revitalisation. She also researched kinship (family relationships) in Aboriginal communities.

In 2012, Jeanie Bell was honored for her work. This happened during NAIDOC Week. The Governor General, Quentin Bryce, recognized her and other people who started the Aboriginal Languages Association.

In 1993, Jeanie was one of six Indigenous Australians. They gave the Boyer Lectures together. This was during the International Year of the World's Indigenous People.

There is now a scholarship named after Jeanie Bell. This scholarship helps Indigenous PhD students at the Bachelor Institute. It helps continue her work in sharing knowledge between different cultures.

Jeanie Bell passed away on May 12, 2024. She was in an aged care home near Caboolture.

Important Books and Papers

Jeanie Bell wrote many important papers and books. These works helped share her knowledge about Indigenous languages and culture.

• (2007) Bell, J. Why we do what we do! Reflections of an Aboriginal linguist working on the maintenance and revival of ancestral languages. Ngoonjook: a Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues (no. 30): 12-18.
• (2003). Bell, J. Australia's Indigenous Languages. Ch. 12 in Blacklines, Melbourne University Press.
• (2003) Bell, J. A sketch grammar of the Badjala language of Gari (Fraser Island). Masters Thesis, University of Melbourne.
• (1995) Bell, J. Working on a dictionary for Murri languages. pp 1-9 in Nicholas Thieberger (ed.). Paper and Talk, A manual for reconstituting materials in Australian indigenous languages from historical sources Canberra: AIATSIS.