that munanga linguist

Hey all. Sorry I’ve been slack with my blog. I was away from Ngukurr for a few weeks. Part of my time away was spent in Brisbane going to my first ever linguistics conference. 8 days of conference! Well, 3 days of conference then 5 days of linguistics courses. It was pretty full on, interesting and fun and very much a different scene from what happens here at Ngukurr. The main thing that struck me while at the conference was how different the two worlds of linguistics are – one world being the on-the-ground, community-based, community development, applied linguistics stuff I do here at Ngukurr and the other world being the world of academic linguistics which is what dominated the conference. While I find that world interesting and it definitely has a lot to offer, sometimes I couldn’t help thinking what little relevance it has to people like the guys I work with at Ngukurr – especially things like historical linguistics and typology… I can’t stop myself from thinking sometimes ‘y...

A few weeks ago, most of the people I work with started a Batchelor course (Batchelor is the college/university based in the NT specifically for Aboriginal people). The course they’re doing builds language work skills: reading and writing language, recording, teaching – all the same stuff we do here anyway. But I encouraged these guys to do the course so they can get accreditation for the training they’re already doing. And so a lecturer came out to get these guys started and we’re continuing meeting twice a week for tutoring sessions to get through the course. Yesterday morning only three of the students came but we got some good work done. They practiced using the minidisc to play recordings and then make their own. I helped make sure GB was doing it right and then off they went, all recording each other in Marra saying the bush tucker names they’d written down the day before. After that, we listened to the recordings and then transcribed FR’s recording. Well, I shouldn’t say w...

I've already blogged about the workshop we had at Numbulwar a few weeks ago (see below) and now here's a photo of everyone at the workshop. Biggest mob, hey? (And I've already sent it round with a press release... hehe...)

To put it very simply, my job involves revitalising as many as 7 endangered languages, which is … well … pretty huge. And it’s a job that can only be done in baby steps. And sometimes I see some of the baby steps… and on one hand, they’re not much, but on the other hand, they represent something quite significant. A few weeks ago, we put up some signs at the shop showing the names of eight animals in five different languages. This could easily be perceived as a fruitless activity – firstly, because hardly anyone is literate in their language and wouldn’t be able to read the words and secondly, the vast majority of people here seem pretty uninterested in their language. But four weeks on, two of the five signs are still sitting there at the shop and today I looked at the Ngandi one and someone had graffitied ‘Thompson’ at the bottom of it, which is the surname of the vast majority of Ngandi people here at Ngukurr. It’s only a little thing, but it means that that language, and the f...

We've had two big weeks and today is the first day I've had to relax (and try and make sure I don't get sick from too much work... and play). Last week, the Education department held a Language Revitalisation workshop. It was at Numbulwar, a community about three hours away which is actually on the saltwater giving it a stunning location. The workshop was pretty mega. The Ngukurr contingent totalled 13. Go us. Monday was our travel day and we waited and waited for the troopy to arrive from Katherine (carrying another 8 people headed for the workshop). Finally at 4pm they arrived. By then I'd already recorded old F saying a few words in Marra and then adapted our little computer game into Marra. And five of the men were long gone as they were travelling by plane. We set off before 5pm so it turned dark on the way. A few pauses and some water in the fuel line was nothing compared to the troopy getting bogged not far from Numbulwar. Our little Hilux had to act a...

"Ai bin gulijap krai" means 'I nearly cried'. Here at Ngukurr, middle aged and older people all have stories about being banned from speaking Language at school. I don't hear the stories that often, but I know they're there. I don't push them because I worry they might be painful or make people feel no good. But in the press release I sent around a few weeks ago, we approached the issue. Here's what I wrote (it was published in the Koori Mail): Once banned, Elders now teach children language "Older generations of Aboriginal people in the southern Arnhem Land community of Ngukurr were banned from speaking their traditional languages at school when they were children. Decades later, a dedicated group of the same people are putting their languages - now endangered - back into the classroom and teaching new generations. Now in its second year in its current form, the language program at Ngukurr Community Education Centre incorportates five langaug...

Believe it or not, but this motley crew is responsible for the revitalisation of Ngukurr's endangered languages. And they're deadly. Standing left to right are my mami (mother) R, baby M, and my wawa (brother) A, who are the Rembarrnga mob. Then there's my maari (mother's mother's brother) T, our Waagilak teacher, then me, then my nephew D, who works on Ngandi and my magarra (uncle's daughter) B, a Marra teacher. Sitting down are my anggul (uncle) E, our Ngandi teacher, my anti F, a Marra teacher, and JBJ, our chairperson. Thank you to my mami Sophie for the photo.