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2010 Update

Well goodness. I started this blog what... 4-5 years ago? Originally it started because I was living out bush finding life and work tough and blogging/writing about it was a good way to process my thoughts and not feel quite so alienated. The past few years I've been living in town (the big smoke!) and that same motivation for blogging has waned. (I also blame facebook - it's so much easier to write a 1-2 sentence status update then form actual paragraphs!)

But anyways, I'm still here and still in the NT working on languages. The update for 2010 is that I've spent 18 months working at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education teaching language and linguistics courses to people from all over Australia and it's been mostly really really great. But always in the back of my mind were the languages and people I grew close to while working at Ngukurr for three years. And with the languages so critically endangered I had to make a choice. So now I'm off on my next adventure - a PhD! Goodness. I'm looking forward to the challenge and to learning new skills and geting more knowledge (and wisdom... and less hair) but most of all I'm looking forward to devoting an awful lot of time and energy to Marra language and people. There are only a few very old people who are really strong in Marra language and culture and I hope to do lots of work with them while they are still with us. So, next week I'm off to Canberra to get started with my PhD studies and I hope to be in the field before I know it, recording and documenting lots and lots of Marra language and stories. Wish me luck!

You never know - I may even start up with this blogging business again...

Ma. Guda.

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