that munanga linguist

I watched 4 Corners last night. The program - Punch Drunk - was about the personal and economic cost of alcohol to Australia's young people, police, health and judicial services. It was a great program. I've been put in hospital before because of stupid drunken violence and am all too aware of the problem it is in our society. Today I was flicking through the Marra grammar and rediscovered a nice little text by Mack Manguji Riley about how he doesn't like grog. Mack's little story was recorded in the 1970s and he died a long time ago (he's the brother of famous Marra artist, Ginger Riley ) but I really like his little spiel in Marra about grog. I thought I'd share: Nginarra, nomo laigim grog, gurl-alajurlu, gana nginarra, ganagu gurl-ngajinjiyi wirrju nana nanggayarra, ngabar-alama wul-jari, galimba ganagu wurg-balamayi wala wul-wayarra wul-jalguyi Mi, ai nomo laigim grog weya alabat dringgim, en mi, ai nomo dringgim, im nogud thanja, alabat siksikb...

I'm sorry but I just can't stomach Australia Day. And not just for the obvious reason that it commemorates the day that British people claimed about 7.6 million square kilometres of Aboriginal land to be their own because a few blokes sailed into Sydney, made camp and stuck a flag in the ground. For me, it's a day that will forever be tainted by the 2005 Cronulla Race riots . I don't think I've done anything to celebrate Australia Day ever since. It wasn't just the shocking images of the events on that day that disturbed me. What affected me more deeply was John Howard saying in response that he "does not accept that there is underlying racism in this country". What a display of leadership! (As well as being total BS). So ever since, I've avoided celebrating Australia Day like the plague. Okay, some might say that makes me a party pooper and a bit full of myself. But I just can't. But what I can do is find enjoyment in other ways. ...

No, not Priscilla. The real one. Starlady. ABC2 last night screened a terrific 30min doco about  Starlady  - a hairdressing, youth worker phenom doing great work in desert communities. If you missed the program then lucky for you the director has posted it on Vimeo :  http://vimeo.com/50807152 . Starlady in Areyonga. Source: ABC Not only was it a wonderful and interesting story, it provided a few genuine gems of wisdom. Starlady demonstrates how to deliver training and youth programs that are popular and engaging to young people in remote communities; a feat that many programs, including government school education delivery, often fails to accomplish. What is particularly special about this story is that the wisdom and positive example is being set by someone who has been discriminated against and would be seen as an outcast by many. Yet Starlady has a lot to teach munanga (non-Indigenous people). Some of the same people who would undoubtedly dispar...

A blogpost I wrote years ago about how to pronounce "Ngukurr" still gets hits now and then. Mostly from people who type "Nooka" into a search engine, not realising that the place is actually spelled "Ngukurr" and certainly not realising that there might be another, more authentic, way to say it. One of the gathering-dust-on-the-shelf jobs came to fruition the other day when I raced around Ngukurr with my iPhone interviewing a few community members on how to say "Ngukurr" properly. I edited it together into a nice little video that I'm really quite pleased with, especially considering I hardly ever work with video: And for those interested, here's a transcript. Translations are provided in brackets. The language is Kriol, except for Barry who uses Ritharrŋu as well as Kriol. BW: My name Benjamin Wilfred (My name is Benjamin Wilfred) RJ: Mi Rebecca, mi wek iya la ofis (I'm Rebecca, I work here at the office) BB: Ŋarraya ...

I've withdrawn my recent post about the Katherine AFL Grand Final. In writing the post, it wasn't my intention to offend anyone or inflame tensions. It seems apparent that my post did so I apologise.

On the weekend, Katherine's regional AFL competition reached its peak with the A Grade grand final between the Katherine Camels and the Ngukurr Bulldogs. The Camels are a predominantly non-Indigenous team from town (Katherine). The Bulldogs are 100% Indigenous, from a remote community four hours drive east of Katherine. These differences shouldn't be worth noting but the game was dramatic and the post-match analyses on what happened bring up differing opinions depending on who you talk to. The grand final is a big deal. About 200 Bulldogs supporters had made the trip from Ngukurr into Katherine to cheer on their team. They were a diverse bunch: kids, teenagers, adults and community leaders/elders. They are the children, parents, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and grandparents of the men on the team and they were rapt watching their relatives take to the field. Non-Indigenous football clubs have a different raison d'être  to community sides. For teams like the Cam...

I've done quite a few posts here about the national inquiry into Indigenous languages that's been going on for about a year. See here and here , for example. I'm very excited to say that the final report came out today and it's really good. I was very lucky to receive a preview copy of it last Friday because of my association with the language blog on Crikey . It was a media embargoed copy of the report and I wasn't allowed to disclose its contents until it became public today. (I'm so ready for CSI: Ngukurr... ha!). But getting the preview copy allowed me to write up a piece for Crikey which can be found here (thanks go to Claire, Aidan and others from Fully (sic) and Crikey eds for making my piece much better than it was going to be). It's been an exciting day. Personally, I was pleased to see my article published on Crikey and that it seems to be pretty well received and read. But that's just my own little smugness. Generally, I'm really ex...