What to call January 26?

I'm sorry but I just can't stomach Australia Day. And not just for the obvious reason that it commemorates the day that British people claimed about 7.6 million square kilometres of Aboriginal land to be their own because a few blokes sailed into Sydney, made camp and stuck a flag in the ground.

For me, it's a day that will forever be tainted by the 2005 Cronulla Race riots. I don't think I've done anything to celebrate Australia Day ever since. It wasn't just the shocking images of the events on that day that disturbed me. What affected me more deeply was John Howard saying in response that he "does not accept that there is underlying racism in this country". What a display of leadership! (As well as being total BS).

So ever since, I've avoided celebrating Australia Day like the plague. Okay, some might say that makes me a party pooper and a bit full of myself. But I just can't.

But what I can do is find enjoyment in other ways. Last year, this awesome bit of standup comedy amused me no end. This year, I'm enjoying discovering alternative names for January 26:

Invasion Day - probably the most well-known alternative
Citizen's Day - a suggestion apparently related to Mick Dodson pointing out that many find Australia Day offensive in 2009 while he was Australian Of The Year. The idea of calling it Citizen's Day didn't go far. Unless you check out the worst of right-wing social media who seem to think that the name change is nigh on being made official.
Amnesia Day - I forget why this name was suggested... something about people forgetting it was a public holiday and going to work?
Stay-at-home-cause-you're-not-a-bogan Day - my new personal fave.

And I just thought of a new version of that last one: today I asked a friend if he wanted to go for a drink this weekend. Being non-Anglo and having experienced plenty of racism in his time, his swift response was "I'm not going out this weekend". So a new alternative name for Jan 26 is:

Stay-at-home-cause-you're-not-Anglo Day

What do you reckon? Do you like any of these alternatives or have you come across any other good-uns yourself?

A conference, language policy and Aboriginal languages in Federal Parliament

The other day, I was priveleged in attending a TESOL symposium about 'Keeping Language Diversity Alive'. One of the speakers, Joseph Lo Bianco was excellent and discussed Language Policy. He gave a handout at one of his sessions that I'm going to type out in full here, because it was a real eye-opener. It's from the Official Hansard of the Federal Parliament from a debate that happened on 10/12/98. Here's how it went: Mr SNOWDON: My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of the decision by the Northern Territory government to phase out bilingual education in Aboriginal schools? Is the Prime Minister also aware that his government funds bilingual education programs in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam? Prime Minister, given that article 26(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children, will you take a direct approach to the Norther

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The pitiful state of Recommendation 11.6 of the NT Fracking (Pepper) Inquiry

Today the NT Government announced that it's ok to start fracking the Beetaloo Basin, claiming that all 135 recommendations from the 2018 Pepper Inquiry report have been met and, therefore, fracking can proceed. Most of the recommendations - and you can go through them all here: Action items | Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northern Territory - are outside my field of expertise as a linguist. There's a lot of regulatory stuff, things about the mining industry, stuff about land and water management that others know much more about than me. However, as a linguist working in the Katherine Region for 20 years, there is one recommendation that sits in my wheelhouse so, after today's announcement, I wanted to take a look at it. It's Recommendation 11.6, which says: That in collaboration with the Government, Land Councils and AAPA, an independent, third-party designs and implements an information program to ensure that reliable, accessible, trusted and accurate information ab

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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

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that munanga linguist

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