Bluey Now Speaks Yolŋu Matha; Mob Note Our Language Is Finally Safe Because Even Hanson Wouldn’t Dare Defund A Cartoon Dog

The ABC will release five episodes of Bluey dubbed in Yolŋu Matha for NAIDOC Week, with King Stingray’s Dimathaya Burrawanga voicing Bandit. First Nations people celebrated — and clocked the genius of the hiding spot.

“They can come for SBS. They can come for the NIAA. One Nation wants to defund the whole ABC,” said Aunty Marlene Davis. “But Bluey? Bub, no politician in this country is brave enough to touch Bluey. It’s the one truly bulletproof institution we’ve got. So putting our language inside Bluey is the smartest move in the history of language revival. The safest place on Earth for Yolŋu Matha is the mouth of a cartoon blue heeler.”

She marvelled at the strategy. “They’ll cut a language program in a heartbeat and call it ‘savings.’ But cancel a Bluey episode and there’d be riots in every lounge room from Broome to Bondi. Our mob smuggled sixty-thousand-year-old language into the one show the whole nation would take to the streets to protect. That’s not luck. That’s tactics.”

Aunty Marlene was chuffed. “Dimathaya from King Stingray voicing Bandit, in language, at NAIDOC, theme ’50 Years of Deadly.’ Heart’s full, bub. Hide the good stuff inside the dog. Deadly, true god.”