that munanga linguist

I tend to complain a lot more than celebrate when I look at how Australia as a nation treats Indigenous languages. Well, I'm pleased to share a few recent happenings that have left me feeling optimistic and a bit warm and fuzzy (for a change). First and foremost, the Federal Government has announced a full-blown parliamentary inquiry into "Language Learning in Indigenous Communities". This took me completely by surprise and totally blew my away! I have a real sense of hope with this. As was pointed out by Frank Baarda at Yuendumu, what's really great is the tone of this inquiry, which is framed very positively. It talks of 'benefits' and 'contributions' that Indigenous languages make and that avoids ethnocentricity. Often, policy discussions of anything Indigenous can tend towards talking more of deficits, issues and problems. I've copied the blurb of the inquiry's media release at the bottom of this post. Oh yeah, and please consid...

This is one for the linguists... A naive question I'd like to put out there: I really enjoy semantics: thinking and writing about word meanings, cross-linguistic translatability and all the other juicy stuff you get when you really try and pin down meanings of words, morphemes, phrases etc. which are usually tantalisingly slippery and have lovely fuzzy boundaries. But! When it comes to semantic theories, I just haven't come across one that I've liked. I've looked a little bit at NSM and am now learning a bit about frame semantics, but theories like this bother me. They all seem to have quite a lot of limitations, so much so that I wonder how useful they really are. Why can't we just write detailed semantic descriptions of words/morphemes/phrases etc. and leave it at that? This really is an issue I'm grappling with because my PhD thesis will hopefully be a lot about semantics, but I have this chip on my shoulder about semantic theories. Thought?Comments?Feelin...

Just a quick Hi while I have a few hours to kill in Sydney Airport. After a few great weeks out bush (that I haven't described in nearly enough detail here), I'm off on a whole different cultural experience. And believe me, compared to what I'm used to, sitting in a fancy cafe in Sydney Airport about to board a plane for America is definitely a cultural experience for me. I'm off to Boulder, Colorado to attend the 2011 Linguistics Institute , which is a summer school held bi-annually that attracts a lot of very clever linguists who come from all over the globe to deliver short courses on specialised topics. I'm excited and a bit nervous and going in expecting it to be an awful lot of work and assignments. As my Facebook friends may already know, I was also very pleased to see that my accommodation at the uni is very close to the tennis courts, so my beloved Babolat racquet has a prized place in my suitcase. :) But I'm also excited about being challenged and l...

How do I even explain how awesome, yet somehow unremarkable, last night was. Actually, I think it's unremarkable-ness is what made is so awesome... Last night, I was treated to 90 minutes of basically a private show of the most stunning traditional songs (Manikay) sung by my three wäwa (brothers), DW, BW and RW, accompanied on yiḏaki (didj) by our uncle DW. The reason I got to experience this is because young DW asked me the other day, rather shyly, if I had a recorder because he wanted to record old RW singing some songs that he wanted to make sure he'd learn properly. I've known DW for years now and he is a bit younger than me but a really great traditional singer and has been touring with the Australian Art Orchestra for several years on the Crossing Roper Bar collaboration. I was more than happy to help and I'm glad I did. It happened so organically - go and pick up DW, go see BW and RW. Go find the 'bambu man' (didj player). Sit down, warm up and awa...

My last couple of trips to Ngukurr to continue fieldwork on Marra have seen a slightly interesting development. Me and the Marra gang I work with at Ngukurr have continued our work nicely, going through old untranscribed recordings and also making new ones. What's changed on the past couple of trips is how we've been doing the transcriptions and translations. Last year when we started, most of the time I'd play recordings and the Marra gang would listen, repeat the Marra for me and translate it into Kriol, and I would enter it straight into ELAN. This is, I guess, a fairly standard way for linguists to work, with the linguist being the scribe and generally it was efficient and rewarding. But some sessions I'd encourage them to do the transcribing and practice/develop their Marra literacy skills. We had one long recording in particular that was perfect for this where the recording contained English translations and the Marra was only words and basic sentences. Most ...

ANZAC day came and went and, yet again, I found myself not caring and not getting it and wondering what the fuss is about. I feel like I'm being very un-PC and un-Australian way to think this way. I think the reason behind my feelings is that I question why there is so much hype and energy spent on ANZAC day - over the sporadic innocent deaths that have happened to our troops over the years - when the death and violence that was so prevalent in frontier Australia is virtually ignored. So many innocent Aboriginal people died and it's heartbreaking and unacknowledged and we are still dealing with consequences, especially here in the NT. It didn't happen very long ago. This arvo I again picked up John Harris' Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origins of Kriol which paints a vivid socio-historical picture of the NT when pidgin spread and Kriol developed. I'd like to share a section I hadn't read before today. It features a piece written by Robert Morice in 188...

I've been reminiscing lately and had a read through some of my blog posts from years back when I would post really regularly. (Okay, not so much reminiscing as procrastinating from study, perhaps). The blog posts that got the biggest responses were about the first community meetings after the Intervention was announced (see here and here ). I still regard the Intervention as one of the nails in the coffin that caused me to burnout and leave Ngukurr after three years of successful work. It was so demoralising to have something so huge dumped on you from 'above'. And I wasn't even an Aboriginal resident! The issue of the Intervention is ongoing. Many feel it is contributing to town-drift which is in turn leading to worsening homelessness, crappier housing situations, increased crime etc. The NT Government's silly 'Growth Towns' policy and neglect of outstations/small communities is also to blame, in my opinion. Oh, and check out Ngukurr mob talking ab...