that munanga linguist

wheee! that's my joyful noise after reading Jane's lovely post ...

Hey I came across another video chock-full of language. This time it's Yolŋu Matha and it's not a language learning video. It's a powerful message from an Arnhem Land homeland, from someone clearly and rightfully disturbed by the latest government policy that leans towards developing big communities (already often barely functional) and against homelands/outstations (often places where family groups live peacefully, happily and healthily while maintaining language and cultural traditions). It's worth a viewing. Here's the message from the mob that posted the video: Created in response to the Northern Territory and Federal Government's continued attempts to close down Indigenous Homeland communities. Yolngu and other Indigenous people have been living on their Homelands since before Settlement. Since missionary days they have asserted their desire to remain on their own traditional country. Most people thought this right was enshrined in the Land Rights Act (...

While in Alice I was lucky enough to visit the Ngapartji Ngapartj i office and meet a couple of the people involved in it. Just one of the things they are doing is making nice little language lessons. This one was availalble online. The language is Pitjantjatjara. (I'm assuming!!) Docker River Language Lesson from alex kelly on Vimeo . Neat huh?

(Marra - I'm going to Mparntwe (Alice Springs)) I'm off to Alice tomorrow for another week of teaching. It'll be freezing!! Yikes. I like Alice though. I love that you hear people talking language all the time, everywhere, unselfconsciously. Because I've worked on very endangered languages for so long, my instinct is to stick a recording device in front of their face before valuable data gets lost into the ether, but then I realise that there's no need to do that with languages that are still viable. (viable, yet still virtually ignored by wider society). Even though I'm enjoying my work, I've been missing Ngukurr and working out bush in general more and more lately. I think I'm over the burnout I was feeling two years ago and now I'm just feeling rather displaced from knowing how communities work and remembering what's important to people living in communities. I've become another whitefella who flies in and out (so-to-speak), hoping ...

Here's a little YouTube video featuring two deadly women from Barunga. It starts off in Kriol then goes into English, thanks to MK's wonderful English. If you watch it, you'll notice them being wonderful, but also a bit tongue-in-cheek, especially that Bangûrn. She's awesome. hehehe...

Well I'm off to Batchelor for the week to deliver another workshop. Except I'm totally unprepared for this one due to spending 2.5 days at Timber Creek and 1 day at Mataranka last week. Luckily I'm a clever chicken and will hopefully be able to think up some fun stuff and 'effective training activities' for my students to do. :-) I have five students doing Cert 1 in Own Language Work and their languages are Mayali, Rembarrnga and Dalabon. Hope it goes well! Wish me luck... It better go well, otherwise I'll be spewing come Thursday that I'm not in Katherine playing Netball. Actually, I'll be spewing about that regardless. I have an unhealthy passion for netball. To the point where I'm ready to singlehandedly put together an NT mens side so that I can start playing in the national competitions! heheheh.... When I'm totally over this linguist gig, I'm retiring to become a full-time tennis nerd and netball nerd. Now there's a career a...

In the tradition of the Simpsons episode that featured the "hooray for everything" group, I'm saying "hooray for Timber Creek". I've been here in Timber Creek for 2 days for an Indigenous Language and Culture workshop organised by the Education Department. (There's still a few of them there who still care about Indigenous Language and Culture!). The best part is that it's lots of new stuff for me. Being in Timber Creek is new for me. Being around people from places west of Katherine is new for me. And at the workshop, I've met people from Kalkarindji, Yarralin, Bulla, Pigeon Hole and Lajamanu - some places I've never been to. And there were people who speak languages that I've never really heard before or much of which was new and exciting for a language nerd like me - Jaminjung and Ngarinyman I've heard a little bit, but I've heard lots more the past two days and there was a Bilinarra speaker, Gurindji and Warlpiri speakers...