that munanga linguist

sorry sopi and others i've had a month long break from work and hadn't felt like blogging. actually, i still don't feel like blogging but i thought i'd better say hello after my mami's capital letter comment. i'm in katherine and have been back at work nearly a week. i should be off to ngukurr next week. i can't say i'm looking forward to it, but i know i'll be fine when i get there. it's proper wet season now so it looks like i'll be flying in to ngukurr and then will be there until the rivers decide to go down again (or jum jum in alawa). that might a good couple of months. i had a good break but it didn't really go as planned thanks to the guy who decided i would be the target of his random act of violence and fractured my cheekbone for me. that was followed by some minor surgery. fun fun. i'm still a bit sore about it - mentally and physically - and i'm not my usual cheery self at the moment. apart from that, my brea...

melabat iya la Ropa bin dum Kriol kos blanga munanga mob. Imin gudwan du. JBJ en im waif bin abum fan la tharran en tharran main magarra du. Imin ran fo 8 wiks en imin finish Wednesday. Dijan foto shoim yu ola pipul bin la thet kos. Anyany. Alabat bin gajim certificate du. :-)

Now that I've been working with Aboriginal languages for quite a while now, there's one question that I've lost patience for. It usually goes along the lines of: "So are they really different languages or just dialects of the same language?" At least that's a more intelligent version of: "Is there, like, more than one language?" (Try about 300 throughout Australia!) Then there's the downright shudder-worthy: "So do you speak Aboriginal?" I don't want to start getting snobby about this because it's not like any whitefolk in Australia were ever taught anything about Aboriginal languages in school or anything, so it's not their fault they are uninformed. But unfortunately, my patience for such questions has worn thin. Moving on from there, I'm continually amazed at actually how diverse the languages I work with are. In a way, it's quite absurd. At Language Centre the other week, we made a chart that goes in the kit...

I don't know what it is but me and everybody else here seems to be feeling slack at the moment. I partially blame the lunar cycle. I believe that for the few days after a full moon, you generally get a slack and unmotivated feeling. Full moon was last wednesday. But I also think it's because the end of the year is nearing and maybe we're all winding down. I know that I'm certainly looking forward to my xmas break. Do you know that right now is the longest I've ever been away from Brisbane. I can't wait to see that place again and some of the people in it. Besides feeling slack things are still rolling on. Last friday was a slack day, but a couple of people I work with were trying to sell some stuff they'd been given by family from Numbulwar. They had necklaces, didjeridus and woven baskets. They were trying to sell the baskets so they could afford to throw their 2 year old granddaughter a birthday party. The baskets were absolutely stunning I tell...

wednesday bin fulmun. ai bin luk thet mun en imin brabli purdiwan. imin gloglo en imin luk beautiful. dijan foto im lilbit dakwan bat maitbi yu gin luk thet glo la ola lilwan claud en that tri jeya la bodom.

Ai garrim wanbala gajin iya la Ropa en im hambag la mi nomo lilbit. Im oldei askim mi 'Gajin! Wotaim yu gon hodgson downs?' en, 'Ai kaman gada yu?'. Dijan gajin main, im sotava handicapped wan, bobala, bat im sabi hambag, ai dali yu. En ai nomo laigim wen im hambag mi. Samtaims mi brabli rud la im. Kapula taim ai bin jas ranawei from im en gu la Hodgson Downs misel en imin apset la mi bla tharran. A couple of weeks ago, i finally took her to hodgson downs with me. I wasn't happy about it, but after saying no for so long, i was obligated to take her at least this one time. But you know, my gajin, who is slow (is mentally handicapped the right word?), a terrible humbug, and has always frustrated me for 'getting in the way when i'm trying to work', well, she put me to shame. I took her to hodgson downs and brought her back, and she wasn't anymore trouble than any other passenger. On the way back, she asked if we could stop in at roper bar stor...

going to sleep last nite, my last thoughts were all about work. not only that, they weren't good thoughts. i was thinking about some of the local people I work with here and how some are being a bit slack or not taking the job seriously enough or that they need to work harder or be more motivated. i was thinking, right, tomorrow maybe i'll have to lay down the law (in a gentle way). along with these thoughts were the counter-thoughts - doubting my rights to impose a western work ethic on this mob or that i'm too tough on them when they've come a long way and continue to learn and worrying about if i rock the boat will people turn on me (or will i make this place as inhospitable as certain "learning" institutes next door to me). but regardless, today at work, when i felt the first few hints of skiving, i felt my cranky face coming on. but i didn't need to worry because today was a good day. maybe i didn't need to be explicit about my concerns of the...