AUSTRALIANA Aboriginal

Norman Baird once wrote that he was prepared to advocate for the Kuku Yalanji people as long as there was ‘a spark left within’. And he did. Norman fought in WWI and as an older man he recorded the ancient Kuku Yalanji language.

pp. 81 illusts + CD. SCARCE. First Edition. (label over ownership stamp on inside cover) #220424

Guugu Yalandji, also spelt Kuku-Yalanji, is an Australian Aboriginal language of Queensland. It is the traditional language of the Kuku Yalanji people.

The Kuku-Yalanji Language is spoken by approximately 500 – 600 speakers on the coast of south-eastern Cape York between Cooktown and Mossman.

Norman Baird was an Indigenous Australian who enlisted at Cairns, Queensland to serve in the First World War on 2 August 1917. His brother Charles Baird had previously enlisted in the WWI Conflict on 5 May 1915 and served with the 5th & 11th Light Horse Regiments.

He was born on 17 February 1888 at Cooktown, Queensland, the son of Robert Baird, an immigrant from of Ayrshire, Scotland one time Mayor of Cooktown, Queensland, and Dinah Dalkeith a Kuku Yalanji Indigenous Australian.

Norman also enlisted on 26 April 1943 at Cairns, Queensland for service in the Second World War where he served as Corporal with the Volunteer Defence Corps.