Shaun Davies (activist)

Shaun is a member of the Yugambeh people, an Australian Aboriginal group whose traditional lands are located in South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales.[1] Davies is the great-great grandson of Julia Ford (c.1860-1896), an Aboriginal woman from the Beaudesert area who has the sole tombstone in the Deebing Creek Aboriginal Cemetery.[2][3] He grew up and has spent the majority of his life in Logan City, an area his family had lived in before the arrival of Europeans.[4] Davies learnt his Yugambeh language from his maternal grandmother, who was from the Beaudesert area, while his maternal grandfather was from Tweed Heads.[5] Davies has recorded talk in conversations with the linguist Margaret Sharpe,[6] his grandmother grew up with Joe Culham,[7] who Sharpe (then Cunningham) had recorded language from in 1968.[8] As a child, he was taught Yugambeh dreamtime legends from his Elders, such as that of the janjarri (the Yugambeh Yowie), a spirit that guards the region from trespassers.[9][10]

Shaun is a linguist and the Language Research Officer at the Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Research Centre,[11] where he has been since 2015.[12] Here, he aided the development and expansion of the Yugambeh App,[13] Google's 'Woolaroo' – an open-source photo-translation platform,[14] and writes/translates songs for the Yugambeh Youth choir.[15][16] Shaun has also provided Yugambeh interpretations for Ellen van Neerven's poetry.[17] Davies is an activist for Aboriginal language, and has advocated for the use of Indigenous place names over their contemporary English names, calling for Burleigh Heads and Mt Warning to be known by their Yugambeh names, Jellurgal and Wollumbin. This was opposed by Australian senator Pauline Hanson, while the Member for Burleigh, Michael Hart, was in favour so long as it was solely landmarks. Hanson subsequently featured the discussion on her Please Explain YouTube channel.[18] Shaun hosted Learn the Lingo on ABC Gold Coast - a radio show discussing Yugambeh language and other cultural subjects from 2015 to 2017,[5] and in 2019 appeared in the State Library of Queensland's Spoken exhibition discussing his personal history with the Yugambeh language.[19]

In 2020, Davies had a voice over role in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Yugambeh language series Languages of our Land,[20] as well as appearing in Disney's Spread the Word.[21] He appeared in the ABC documentary series Back to Nature where he guided the hosts through the Yugambeh language and stories associated with the Springbrook area.[11] Shaun is involved in protecting Yugambeh cultural heritage and land, being part of the consultation for the Gold Coast Light Rail construction's at Jebbribillum Bora Ring and a Cultural Heritage Coordinator,[22] he is also the treasurer of the Yugambeh Land Enterprise.[23] In late 2021, Davies was announced as an ambassador for the Proud City of Logan campaign, a local government initiative featuring six local champions, chosen to represent the diversity of people and lifestyles in the city.[24]

• Yugambeh language
• Yugambeh people
• Jebribillum Bora Park
• Logan City, Queensland