Skip to main content

yo manymak wäwa!


My wäwa, BW, rocks. Here a few reasons why. (He's the one in the middle. He gave me this photo today, it was taken last month while he was in Melbourne).

He likes to teach anyone and everyone his language Wägilak. He cleans the council office here everyday and he's been teaching the Accounts woman a few bits of Wägilak. She came up to me going 'B keeps teaching me his language but I don't know what he's saying!'. So I asked him what he's been teaching her and then I wrote it down for her, and she knows it now. So every morning when BW asks her Nhämirri nhe? (how are you?) she answers, Manymak (good).

BW has started committing himself to teaching Wägilak in our school classes and he's excellent. He has authority with the kids and is a natural gifted teacher. Today, I sat down with him and my gaburani (uncle) DW and they made a new song to teach the little kids (to the tune of london bridge is falling down):

Detuŋdja ŋay djirryuna djirryuna djirryuna
Detuŋdja ŋay djirryuna
Larruwala ŋay gapugu

(The buffalo went down, went down, went down)
(The buffalo went down)
(He was looking for water)

And after making the song, BW said the words that are magic to any linguists ears... 'yu garrim teip? ai wandi pudum la teip.' (Have you got a stereo? I want to record it).

BW is also the man who got me up dancing bunggul and showed me what to do.

Last Friday, BW got back from Melbourne. He was down there (with 2 other guys from here) performing at Federation square, with the Australian Art Orchestra, as part of the Swimming World Championships festival. He also performed at the opening of an Ngukurr Arts art exhibition. Coming home, he was even more determined to strengthen and maintain culture, dance and language here at Ngukurr. What a good man. Manymak wäwa!

Comments

Sophie said…
Main dubala san! tu gud ai dalimyu!!!! Anyany dubala Wamut.
5:36 pm
Anonymous said…
Nhamirri nhe Wamut?
Munanga Wamut Garramala Julien brom Melbun iya. Ai bin filing brabli goodbinji langa baindim dijan blog blanga main ghuta BW's bijit langa Melbun garram main wawa RN en Yirritja Djungai JH. Manymak langa ridim dat najawan tings yu bin jinggabat du.

The fellas performances at Birrarung Mar and the NGV last week were astounding, and the Cultural and Music Workshops we did at the TAFE college for the University students were really well presented and received. Students and teachers are still talking about how impressive the guys were at communicating knowledge about their culture and about the strength of purpose behind their desire to share knowledge.

I want to pass on my thanks again for their professionalism, inspiration, friendship and generosity of spirit.

Ebriwan dat gajim Wagilak bunggul langa Melbun bin brabli kwesjinmak!

I'm hoping to visit Ngukurr again this dry. There is much to discuss with Wagilak mob about performances and personnel, and I also (really) need to practice my kriol and Wagilak.
I hope you will be there. I'm glad I can now keep in touch via your blog.

DjuDjuNama Wamut
1:02 pm
Anonymous said…
I've wanted to ask this for a long time. How is ä pronounced? I'd have thought [æ], but in a three-vowel system... is it [a:]?
6:23 am
Greg Dickson said…
Yeah, you're right.. it's a long 'a'. And 'o' is the long 'u' and 'e' is the long 'i'.
12:23 pm
Anonymous said…
Oh. Interesting idea.
9:05 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oscar-winning Coda and its (mis)representation of interpreting (or, why I almost walked out of the cinema)

Ok so I'm a linguist not a movie critic but I am an avid movie-goer - part of the generation of Australians raised by Margaret and David to appreciate cinema and think critically about it. (I've even reviewed a few things on this blog: Short-doco Queen of the Desert , short film Lärr and some discussion of the brilliant Croker Island Exodus here ).  At this years Oscars, the film Coda surprised many by taking out Best Picture. It seems like few people have even had a chance to see it. Here in little ol' Katherine, we have a brilliant film society at our local Katherine 3 cinema, where each fortnight we get to watch something a bit different. In late 2021, I had the chance to see Coda there, long before it was thought of as an Oscar contender. Now that Coda is being talked about more than ever before, I wanted to share my experience of watching the film - especially because in one scene in particular, I was so angry that I genuinely considered walking out of the cinema -...
3 comments
Luk mowa >>

Subtle features of Aboriginal English that I love: agreeing or confirming by copying

Linguists aren't supposed to play favourites, but I love Aboriginal English. Maybe because it's what the love of my life speaks and separating language from people and society isn't a realistic prospect. I'm lucky to regularly be around Aboriginal people speaking English in all sorts of ways and privileged to have insights into some of the more subtle ways in which Aboriginal ways of using English differ from the suburban white English I grew up speaking.  I want to share some of these more subtle features. Not just because I am fond of them but also because they seem to be features that escape the attention of most academic discussions of Aboriginal English / Aboriginal ways of using English. I'm going to skip over the complexities of what Aboriginal English is (and isn't) and also if/why that label is worth using at all (a chapter I wrote on Aboriginal English(es) dips into some of that discussion - email me if you want a copy). For brevity's sake, let...
18 comments
Luk mowa >>

The time Kriol went viral

Early in 2022, while doing my daily doomscroll on Twitter, I noticed Kriol becoming a topic of conversation. Excuse me, what? When part of my day job is trying to get non-Kriol speakers to pay attention to the fact that Kriol exists, I never expected Kriol to organically go viral! But it happened. And it wasn't cute. Kriol goes viral The story starts with Covid. In late 2021, the Aboriginal Health Council of WA  (AHCWA) created a few short Covid vaccination videos in some of WA's main Indigenous languages, nobly wanting to make sure remote Aboriginal residents were as safe from Covid as urban Westralians.  Made in collaboration with AIWA (Aboriginal Interpreting WA), five short videos appear on AHCWA's website - one with Mark McGowan on his own where he says: Hello, my name is Mark McGowan. I am the Premier of Western Australia. This is an important message to keep Aboriginal people safe. You can die from the Corona, or get really sick. It's time to get the Corona nee...
20 comments
Luk mowa >>