that munanga linguist

I need a research assistant! Can anyone help me out with the Tiwi word for European/whitefella/munanga?

I went to a party in Darwin on Saturday nite and there were a few Important People there. While mingling and making small talk I was asked a few times, "What's Ngukurr like?". I found myself completely incapable of giving a decent answer. Any suggestions appreciated... I just don't know how to answer that question...

It's common knowledge that health in remote communities is in a bad state. Good then, to read a couple of stories calling for action. Read this and this . There's no doubt that this mob here aren't very well off when it comes to health care. Just today, one of the language workers came to me cranky because he went to the clinic and the big blister on his foot from a scalding wasn't treated. Later, another of the language workers nearly collapsed in pain and has been at the clinic all day. He'd been scheduled in for an urgent colonoscopy and gastroscopy but of course the process takes a couple of weeks and he has to have it done 320kms away in Katherine. He's really quite sick now and me and all his family are very worried. But how much can you expect when there's only two nurses here today. That doesn't seem like much for a community of over 1000. And there's no doctor here til tomorrow. I don't know anything about health care but would ...

Today was scorching hot. It hit 41 degrees (at least). Luckily me and some of the language mob were joining in with a school excursion to the Wilton River, a nice little swimming spot about 30 mins away. The excursion was for the transition class - all five year olds. They have excellent local teachers and I brought along 4 language teachers. There was a lot of swimming as well as some language classes (the kids broke up into 4 different language groups and the assistant teachers joined in very well too). Plus one old lady showed the kids how to make a coolamon out of paperbark and their regular teacher made a paperbark raft and floated one of the students on it. We all had lunch, a cup of tea and it was quite a relaxing day and definitely a good way to pass time when it's 41 degreees. Here's a couple of pics. The first one is all the kids and their teachers at the Wilton River crossing. They're laying down like crocodiles. And then there's me with a bunch of ...

I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of a fame whore. And so I'm rather pleased with myself that a little article I wrote is currently appearing in a Melbourne street rag. But what is really neat is that the mag is not something I would thought I would ever be asked to contribute to. It's the inaugural issue of 'The Design Papers', a street mag put out by the National Design Centre in Federation Square. A designer called David Lancashire contacted us here and asked for a few 'pidgin' words. When I explained that what we speak here is Kriol and it's not a pidgin, they asked me to contribute a piece. So David Lancashire did some graphic design to illustrate the Kriol words I gave him, a wrote a piece about Kriol at Ngukurr and Peter Muhlhausler wrote a piece about pidgins. What I didn't get was what a design magazine had to do with pidgins and Kriol, but the story goes is that design can be used find common ground when language can't bri...

Today is payday and that means it's time for the big card games to start while everyone's cashed up. After school program today I was driving around with the two guys who teach Waagilak. We drove past one camp where there was a big group of people playing cards. "Gardi, bigis kadgeim jeya." (Woah, big card game there). I said. My waawa, W, said, "Thei nomo sabi gu la toilet wen thei la kad". (They don't go to the toilet when they're playing cards). "Maitbi thei gu la toilet jeya igin." (They probably go to the toilet right there). And we all chuckled. Then my maari T goes, "Thei maitbi plei garri kimbis". (They probably play with nappies on). And we all chuckled even more. Hahaha.

George Orwell's 1984 was written in 1949. I first read it 12 years ago and am re-reading it now. One great thing about the science fiction genre is that by stepping outside the world we inhabit it lets you look at things from the outside and can offer clarity when you relate the fictional world back to your own. Here's an except from 1984 that is quite striking: "The Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the application of a few simple rules. In reality very little was known about the proles. It was not necessary to know much. ... They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming-period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, fil...