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Conferenced out but what fun! (Langfest recap Pt. 1)

After sweating it out in Katherine and Ngukurr over the past few months and doing lotsa really enjoyable and good work with the Ngukurr mob (which I haven't shared nearly enough of on this blog), I've now landed back in cold country (Canberra) just as the rain starts in the north and makes travel difficult again for a few months. I timed my return to Canberra for Langfest - a series of linguistics conferences held by various national language and linguistics associations - and I'm sitting here tired and fatigued from five long days of stimulating linguistics presentations and the endless socialising that happens throughout these events. Despite my fatigue, it's all been really great and I'm going to attempt a bit of a recap here. I could write a minor thesis on all the talks I went to and the ideas they threw up, but I'm just going to start writing and see how I go. Maybe a reader or two will stay with me! The first two days were for the Applied Linguistics

Starring on ABC

I forgot to mention on here that I was interviewed by the ABC a few weeks ago, along with BR who has been so so great in helping my with my Marra work at Ngukurr over the past 18 months. We were interviewed for ABC Radio's Northern Territory rural report, but they also did up a really nice online article where you can hear the interview and even hear a little bit of BR and FR speaking Marra at start. Here's the link .

Ai sabi tok Frentj na!

I wrote a post a while back about a little boy thinking I was speaking French when I was actually speaking Kriol. Well, I'm pleased to say, I speak French now! Haha. Not quite. I recorded old MT telling a story about one of her paintings the other day:   The painting is actually a gift for a French volunteer who has been working at the Art Centre here at Ngukurr for a few months.  So, after working with the recording in the usual way by transcribing MT's Marra and adding a Kriol translation (thanks to FR), I also added an English translation which was then translated into French! So, for the first time, I now have a Marra recording translated into French. Maybe it's a world first! Here's an extract of what MT told us (and yes, the French sounds clumsy sometimes because it's a fairly literal translation): Nana ninya, warr-iwiganji "rambaramba". Nyingaya-wajurlu gunyan, ya-girriya-ni, gana ngarr-abama. Gana ngarr-abama mingi gana... warlindu mi

Lovely photo - Marra mob join in the Song Peoples Sessions project

I just wanted to share this lovely photo that Ant from the Ngukurr Arts took of me working with the Ngukurr Marra gang today. We were going through some Marra songs that were recorded a couple of months ago as part of the Song Peoples Sessions project run by Winanjjikari Music Centre and Barkly Regional Arts. It was a good session and the translations and transcriptions will be published soon, along with a collection of songs from a range of endangered languages throughout the region. One of the old ladies here had already done a great job transcribing and translating the songs a couple of months back. We're just doing a bit of a clean up. Good work team! Lovely photo, I reckon. And here's a blogpost about the Marra part of the Song Peoples Session project. Keep an eye for the CD when it's released!

Gani n-marranguru gana ngarl-umindini

Here's a photo of my "office" for the afternoon: I sat down here with BR, FR and JJ to transcribe a story in Marra old MT had recorded with me last week. It's a great story about two men who encountered a submarine in the Gulf of Carpentaria while hunting for dugong but had no idea what it was. Initially, they thought it was a rainbow serpent.  Kudos to the language mob here for their wonderful work and contributions: MTs story was great and well told and this arvo BR and FR helped me plough through the 7-minute recording in just two hours, completing a nice transcription and Kriol translation. I have to share the bit that I loved the most, from when the army guys encountered the two Marra hunters: "Ngarl-urrumanji Ingglish?" Gani n-marranguru gana ngarl-umindini . Translation: "Do you two speak English?" Only heads were speaking.  Inferring that they just stood there and shook their heads.  How lovely is that! :-)

Welcome to the Art Centre

So I'm in Ngukurr again and have been hanging around the Art Centre a bit. They asked me to help with getting 'welcome' messages done in language, which has been kinda fun.  MT did the Marra one first: Ngarlarla ginya nuwu-minay ninya gana jarag-niwijujunyi waya-wayarra nuwu-minay.   Kriol and English translations:  Yumob gaman iya, yumob garra luk dijan weya mela meigimbat, nathakain yumob garra luk. Come here and you will see what we’ve been making. You’ll see different kinds of things. And then the next day, Rek-Rek did a Ritharrŋu version:   Gayunu nhuma nhä ŋ u yakun'na gamunu ŋ gu-mala ŋ uli napu dja ŋ 'gu ŋ u. Kriol and English translations: Yumob gaman luk dijan ola peinting, weya mela bin duwum.  You are welcome here to look at all the paintings we've been making. Was kinda fun thinking about Ritharr ŋu again!  What's also been fun is helping the French volunteer at the Art Centre straighten out some of the Marra that old MT

Stirring quotes from Aboriginal educators

Today I've been working on my submission for the Federal Government's Inquiry into Language Learning in Indigenous Communities.  As part of my research for my submission, I was searching for quotes from Aboriginal educators in support of bilingual education and Indigenous language education.  When I assembled the quotes, I found it pretty much heartbreaking to see the passion that is there when at the same time Indigenous language education is being denied because of the NT Government's ridiculous Compulsory Teaching in English for the First Four Hours policy.  Here's what I found today: What we want is both-way teaching in the school – not only for two hours a week but everyday there should be both-way teaching… That policy of speaking English only at the school is the wrong thing – it is not good for our children … they will forget their language  - Rembarrnga speaker Miliwanga Sandy (Beswick Community) (in Gosford 2009). I am a qualified bilingual teacher…

Federal inquiry into Indigenous languages and other good news stories

I tend to complain a lot more than celebrate when I look at how Australia as a nation treats Indigenous languages. Well, I'm pleased to share a few recent happenings that have left me feeling optimistic and a bit warm and fuzzy (for a change). First and foremost, the Federal Government has announced a full-blown parliamentary inquiry into "Language Learning in Indigenous Communities". This took me completely by surprise and totally blew my away! I have a real sense of hope with this. As was pointed out by Frank Baarda at Yuendumu, what's really great is the tone of this inquiry, which is framed very positively. It talks of 'benefits' and 'contributions' that Indigenous languages make and that avoids ethnocentricity. Often, policy discussions of anything Indigenous can tend towards talking more of deficits, issues and problems. I've copied the blurb of the inquiry's media release at the bottom of this post. Oh yeah, and please consid

Semantic theories

This is one for the linguists... A naive question I'd like to put out there: I really enjoy semantics: thinking and writing about word meanings, cross-linguistic translatability and all the other juicy stuff you get when you really try and pin down meanings of words, morphemes, phrases etc. which are usually tantalisingly slippery and have lovely fuzzy boundaries. But! When it comes to semantic theories, I just haven't come across one that I've liked. I've looked a little bit at NSM and am now learning a bit about frame semantics, but theories like this bother me. They all seem to have quite a lot of limitations, so much so that I wonder how useful they really are. Why can't we just write detailed semantic descriptions of words/morphemes/phrases etc. and leave it at that? This really is an issue I'm grappling with because my PhD thesis will hopefully be a lot about semantics, but I have this chip on my shoulder about semantic theories. Thought?Comments?Feelin

Nga-gin.garra na-Jidni-yurr, nga-jurra na-Balda-yurr / I'm here in Sydney and going to Boulder!

Just a quick Hi while I have a few hours to kill in Sydney Airport. After a few great weeks out bush (that I haven't described in nearly enough detail here), I'm off on a whole different cultural experience. And believe me, compared to what I'm used to, sitting in a fancy cafe in Sydney Airport about to board a plane for America is definitely a cultural experience for me. I'm off to Boulder, Colorado to attend the 2011 Linguistics Institute , which is a summer school held bi-annually that attracts a lot of very clever linguists who come from all over the globe to deliver short courses on specialised topics. I'm excited and a bit nervous and going in expecting it to be an awful lot of work and assignments. As my Facebook friends may already know, I was also very pleased to see that my accommodation at the uni is very close to the tennis courts, so my beloved Babolat racquet has a prized place in my suitcase. :) But I'm also excited about being challenged and l

Lucky me

How do I even explain how awesome, yet somehow unremarkable, last night was. Actually, I think it's unremarkable-ness is what made is so awesome... Last night, I was treated to 90 minutes of basically a private show of the most stunning traditional songs (Manikay) sung by my three wäwa (brothers), DW, BW and RW, accompanied on yiḏaki (didj) by our uncle DW. The reason I got to experience this is because young DW asked me the other day, rather shyly, if I had a recorder because he wanted to record old RW singing some songs that he wanted to make sure he'd learn properly. I've known DW for years now and he is a bit younger than me but a really great traditional singer and has been touring with the Australian Art Orchestra for several years on the Crossing Roper Bar collaboration. I was more than happy to help and I'm glad I did. It happened so organically - go and pick up DW, go see BW and RW. Go find the 'bambu man' (didj player). Sit down, warm up and awa

Heard of 'slow food'? How about 'slow fieldwork'...

My last couple of trips to Ngukurr to continue fieldwork on Marra have seen a slightly interesting development. Me and the Marra gang I work with at Ngukurr have continued our work nicely, going through old untranscribed recordings and also making new ones. What's changed on the past couple of trips is how we've been doing the transcriptions and translations. Last year when we started, most of the time I'd play recordings and the Marra gang would listen, repeat the Marra for me and translate it into Kriol, and I would enter it straight into ELAN. This is, I guess, a fairly standard way for linguists to work, with the linguist being the scribe and generally it was efficient and rewarding. But some sessions I'd encourage them to do the transcribing and practice/develop their Marra literacy skills. We had one long recording in particular that was perfect for this where the recording contained English translations and the Marra was only words and basic sentences. Most

Why I don't care about ANZAC day

ANZAC day came and went and, yet again, I found myself not caring and not getting it and wondering what the fuss is about. I feel like I'm being very un-PC and un-Australian way to think this way. I think the reason behind my feelings is that I question why there is so much hype and energy spent on ANZAC day - over the sporadic innocent deaths that have happened to our troops over the years - when the death and violence that was so prevalent in frontier Australia is virtually ignored. So many innocent Aboriginal people died and it's heartbreaking and unacknowledged and we are still dealing with consequences, especially here in the NT. It didn't happen very long ago. This arvo I again picked up John Harris' Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origins of Kriol which paints a vivid socio-historical picture of the NT when pidgin spread and Kriol developed. I'd like to share a section I hadn't read before today. It features a piece written by Robert Morice in 188

Intervention petition

I've been reminiscing lately and had a read through some of my blog posts from years back when I would post really regularly. (Okay, not so much reminiscing as procrastinating from study, perhaps). The blog posts that got the biggest responses were about the first community meetings after the Intervention was announced (see here and here ). I still regard the Intervention as one of the nails in the coffin that caused me to burnout and leave Ngukurr after three years of successful work. It was so demoralising to have something so huge dumped on you from 'above'. And I wasn't even an Aboriginal resident! The issue of the Intervention is ongoing. Many feel it is contributing to town-drift which is in turn leading to worsening homelessness, crappier housing situations, increased crime etc. The NT Government's silly 'Growth Towns' policy and neglect of outstations/small communities is also to blame, in my opinion. Oh, and check out Ngukurr mob talking ab

Useless bank

It's been said before but life in remote communities is tough. I've been helping the language gang at Ngukurr to establish themselves as an independent organisation to re-start the language revitalisation activities they were carrying out for years under the auspices of the now-crippled Katherine Language Centre. The Ngukurr group have held meetings and taken all the right steps to get established. Next on the list is to open a bank account. At a meeting, they decided on signatories and chose ANZ as their preferred bank (one of three major banks with branches in Katherine), all sensible and following the right processes. So today I went to ANZ to get the account-opening process started. The good news was that the Ngukurr mob have done everything right and have everything they need. Just one "simple" step that actually wasn't simple at all and really pissed me off... "So the signatories just need to come in to the branch and then we can set up the account

32 hours from Ngukurr to Katherine

Wet season travel in the Top End is never straight-forward. Ngukurr is cut off by road for 4-5 months every wet season, thanks to the Wilton and Roper Rivers rising and making crossing impossible. When it really rains hard, more crossings become impassable and it can turn into a nightmare. I was ready to leave Ngukurr in mid-Jan after a two week trip, right in the middle of the wet season. I'd booked my 4WD on the barge, which would take me up the river, bypassing the flooded crossings, and from there it's just a 3 hour drive back home to Katherine. A 5-hour trip all up - not much longer than the 4 hour dry-season trip. But the night before I was due to leave it rained and rained all night. Enough for me to be woken by splat.... splat... splat... near my head as the pounding rain found a way to squeeze itself ever-so-slightly through the roof. In the morning, I knew it would be touch-and-go as to whether my planned trip was achievable. After getting as much info as I cou

45 years in a day - Marra's remarkable resilience

Today was a fairly average day for my fieldwork in Ngukurr. Average, yet remarkable. Me and the Marra mob I work here with did two sessions today and did some good work on Marra. But just in those two short sessions, we spanned a 45-year period, exemplifying that the Marra language is actually being remarkably resilient given the sociocultural situation it finds itself in. This morning BR, JJ and FR worked with me and I encouraged them to continue some Marra literacy and transcription practice. So we used an archived recording made in 1966 by Margaret Sharpe and Stanley Roberts. It's a great recording to listen to and use for transcription training. The words and sentences aren't too fast and complex and we get to chuckle and Margaret and Old Stanley's not-quite-perfect Marra and English skills. It's also great that such an old recording is lively again. In the afternoon session, I had a go at doing my own elicitation session with FR and MT. BR and GB where there

Today's Kriol lesson

I'm still finding out new Kriol words and constructions even though I've been learning Kriol since 2004. This is exciting for me and a constant reminder of just how intricate and complex Kriol can be. It's so easy to just see the English-related surface of Kriol and miss all the juicy stuff going on behind the scenes. So today two young guys DR and KM were starting to transcribe a recording we'd made of them and I learned a couple of things. A new word: medrim . I'd listened to it on the recording but had no clue what the word was. The example sentence: Kriol: Ai garra medri im tha'n Gloss: I FUT beat+Tr him/her "that one" English: I'll flog her. Don't ask me where the word medrim comes from. I have no idea as of yet. Note also the contractions and dropping of sounds that happen all the time in the normal speech of your average Roper Kriol speaker. In the above sentence, medrim gets shortened to medri and tha'n is actually a cont