that munanga linguist

melabat iya la Ropa bin dum Kriol kos blanga munanga mob. Imin gudwan du. JBJ en im waif bin abum fan la tharran en tharran main magarra du. Imin ran fo 8 wiks en imin finish Wednesday. Dijan foto shoim yu ola pipul bin la thet kos. Anyany. Alabat bin gajim certificate du. :-)

Now that I've been working with Aboriginal languages for quite a while now, there's one question that I've lost patience for. It usually goes along the lines of: "So are they really different languages or just dialects of the same language?" At least that's a more intelligent version of: "Is there, like, more than one language?" (Try about 300 throughout Australia!) Then there's the downright shudder-worthy: "So do you speak Aboriginal?" I don't want to start getting snobby about this because it's not like any whitefolk in Australia were ever taught anything about Aboriginal languages in school or anything, so it's not their fault they are uninformed. But unfortunately, my patience for such questions has worn thin. Moving on from there, I'm continually amazed at actually how diverse the languages I work with are. In a way, it's quite absurd. At Language Centre the other week, we made a chart that goes in the kit...

I don't know what it is but me and everybody else here seems to be feeling slack at the moment. I partially blame the lunar cycle. I believe that for the few days after a full moon, you generally get a slack and unmotivated feeling. Full moon was last wednesday. But I also think it's because the end of the year is nearing and maybe we're all winding down. I know that I'm certainly looking forward to my xmas break. Do you know that right now is the longest I've ever been away from Brisbane. I can't wait to see that place again and some of the people in it. Besides feeling slack things are still rolling on. Last friday was a slack day, but a couple of people I work with were trying to sell some stuff they'd been given by family from Numbulwar. They had necklaces, didjeridus and woven baskets. They were trying to sell the baskets so they could afford to throw their 2 year old granddaughter a birthday party. The baskets were absolutely stunning I tell...

wednesday bin fulmun. ai bin luk thet mun en imin brabli purdiwan. imin gloglo en imin luk beautiful. dijan foto im lilbit dakwan bat maitbi yu gin luk thet glo la ola lilwan claud en that tri jeya la bodom.

Ai garrim wanbala gajin iya la Ropa en im hambag la mi nomo lilbit. Im oldei askim mi 'Gajin! Wotaim yu gon hodgson downs?' en, 'Ai kaman gada yu?'. Dijan gajin main, im sotava handicapped wan, bobala, bat im sabi hambag, ai dali yu. En ai nomo laigim wen im hambag mi. Samtaims mi brabli rud la im. Kapula taim ai bin jas ranawei from im en gu la Hodgson Downs misel en imin apset la mi bla tharran. A couple of weeks ago, i finally took her to hodgson downs with me. I wasn't happy about it, but after saying no for so long, i was obligated to take her at least this one time. But you know, my gajin, who is slow (is mentally handicapped the right word?), a terrible humbug, and has always frustrated me for 'getting in the way when i'm trying to work', well, she put me to shame. I took her to hodgson downs and brought her back, and she wasn't anymore trouble than any other passenger. On the way back, she asked if we could stop in at roper bar stor...

going to sleep last nite, my last thoughts were all about work. not only that, they weren't good thoughts. i was thinking about some of the local people I work with here and how some are being a bit slack or not taking the job seriously enough or that they need to work harder or be more motivated. i was thinking, right, tomorrow maybe i'll have to lay down the law (in a gentle way). along with these thoughts were the counter-thoughts - doubting my rights to impose a western work ethic on this mob or that i'm too tough on them when they've come a long way and continue to learn and worrying about if i rock the boat will people turn on me (or will i make this place as inhospitable as certain "learning" institutes next door to me). but regardless, today at work, when i felt the first few hints of skiving, i felt my cranky face coming on. but i didn't need to worry because today was a good day. maybe i didn't need to be explicit about my concerns of the...

i forgot to tell you my other big news, although some people already know... ... i cut off my ratstail! bobala. a year n a half n it's all over. it was time. i'm not a bogan anymore. (well for a while anyway).

I didn't go to Hodgson Downs last week. I was too worn out and too demoralised by what was happening with the school program. Here's a story which contrasts the week before the language program was cut in half, and then the week after. Week before: Friday after smoko - Alawa class. We continued revising the first few song cycles from the ceremonial songs the old people has taught a few weeks ago, and that I'd recorded, transcribed and burned on to CD for use in the classroom and at home (I did this at the elders/community request). The boys and girls separated into their own groups and listened to the recordings with old people and other community members encouraging and helping them. They also had the transcriptions of the songs as a written prompt. After an hour or so, the boys and girls recombined to show the other group how they were going. The songs the students are learning are part of the circumcision ceremony. In some neighbouring communities, this ceremony i...

Earlier this year I was writing quite a few posts about how great it was working at Hodgson Downs. Well, recently my experiences there haven't been that great at all. It's a long story, and to be honest i don't quite know where it starts or ends. But it does feature the following: - some teachers putting the language program under the microscope after a year of barely taking an interest - the same teachers cutting the program in half and showing very little support of language and culture - the same teachers not acknowledging the commitment and effort that me, community members and the two teachers involved in the program put in... without any specific funding from the school or ed. dept. - the cutting down of the program at the very same time it was starting to grow... we'd just started working on teaching the high school kids traditional songs, which is really quite special my job is already hard enough and working for these endangered languages is already a very st...

dijan foto im shoim yu wotkain main rum. ai bin teigim det foto wen ai bin jidan la main sweg. yu gin luk main telibijin en postamob en futon main du. trai luk det neks foto du, im shoim yu main rum burrum nathasaid.

sambala bin wandi sabi wotkain main kemp iya la Ropa. Wal, tudei ai bin klinap en tjenjim main rum. En ai bin teigim foto so yumob gin luk du. en dijan foto, im bla sopi du, so sopi garra luk thet futon wen im foldidapwan. That's my futon newly folded into a couch and next to it is my swag which i sleep on. i have been sleeping on the futon laid out as a bed, but i find my swag more comfy.

ebribodi bin make me proud tudei. ebribodi bin dum rili gud job tudei. laik, main barn-ga R, im onli yanggel, bat imin yusimbat kompyuta tudei en imin lisin langa wan olgomen talking garra Rembarrnga la thet kompyuta. Ai bin dalim im ba trai raitimdan thet langgwij, en imin dum... onli slobala dumaji imin had job bla im, bat ai bin hepi bla tharran. en aftathet, mela bin dum skul program, bat mela bin dum nyuwei tudei... tudei bin onli blanga ola big children. ola boys first, then ola gel bin kaman. en imin rait... thei bin ol jidan en lisin gudwei, nomo ranaroun ebrijeya like usual. yuwai, imin gud dei tudei.

wal, mi bek iya la language centre. tudei, mela bin finijim tu mo lilwan stori blanga skul tumorra. det festwan, im bla Ngandi. Main anggurl E bin dum. Im gu: 'Wugu mirri nurudhung?' 'Ngarudhungi natjuh." "Juyh. Nurudhung." Im gudwan, especially because Ngandi im brabli endangered language bobala. Det najawan im blanga Marranbala. Main baba G bin dum garrim im deda, ol Ngamayang (danja im Marra skin). Marranbala tok: "Nanguni gana ni-jurra-yurra?" "Ginya wayburri nga-jurra-yurra." "Yo. Guda mingi." kila ngabi? Onli Nunggubuyu mob garra dum na. Melabat garra dum dislot lilwan stori la skul tumorra, bla meigim ola students jandap en toktok gija. Maitbi gudwan! I'll let you know. :-)

Didei ai bin jidan garrim main maari T, main wawa A en main mami R en ai bin tok la alabat blanga this skul program. Mela bin prektis wanbala activity blanga lenim ola kid bla tok 'wanim yu skin?', 'main skin im ______', lakijat. Aftathet, mela bin raitimdan lilwan roleplay, blanga ola secondary students. Im onli isiwan bat im gudwan. Mela bin pudum la Rembarrnga en la Waagilak. Iya thet Rembarrnga wan: "Yeneh-gah nginy-rongara?" "Nga-rongara gutta." "Mah. Nginy-rongara." En burrum Waagilak: "Nika-wala nhii waani ya?" "Ngumbala rra waani." "Waani nhu nhii." Ai bin kopi thet lil stori burrum Alawa. Alawirryunu yil-mumban: "Galagala yarla?" "Galunyindi." "Murru winya." Gudwan, ngabi? En burrum Ingglis, thet stori im gu: "Where are you going?" "I'm going that way" "Alright, keep going." Ii, manymak. :-)

so one bloke points to a black cockatoo and asks his mate: Nganjini-nda ninda? his mate answers, Ninda-nda lirrarduma so the bloke says Ninda-nda jijan wulunga-nya and his mate says, Mandi, ngayi ngaba-nya. Yilunga-nya. Good one, eh? This is what we (tried to) teach 20 teenagers today. Perhaps they learned something.

Hey everyone. Sorry i haven't blogged a decent post for ages. I haven't felt like doing it, so ... well... i haven't. But today was such a big and special day that i'm springing back into action (and maybe I'll go back and fill in some of the past two months sometime too). Today we had the official opening of the new extension and verandah of the Ngukurr Language Centre. It was really really great. JBJ and others had organised for there to be bunggul - traditional dancing - for the event. So late afternoon, people gathered, the dancers came, the songman was there and the bambu player too (didjeridu man), it all came together in it's laboured and deliberate way. Our new boss is out here for the opening, she's only six weeks into the job, but a lot of people here know her, they all knew her dad and she lived here for a while when she was a little girl. So the bunggul mob (dancing, singing, playing music (clapsticks and didj) slowly escorted her around ...

DSC00069 Originally uploaded by bump77 . dubala main banji (brother-in-law) en main nis. ai bin luk dubala la Malaysia. ai bin teigim dijan foto wen ai bin redi bla gu la eyapot bla kambek langa Australia. Ai bin brabli sed dumaji ai bin abum bigis mob fun la Malaysia. Im rait thet foto, ngabi? :)

DSC00068 Originally uploaded by bump77 . anyayn means something like 'awww cute' in kriol. this is another photo of my niece, taken while we were on Langkawi.

DSC00066 Originally uploaded by bump77 . While I was in Malaysia visiting my sis and her family, they took to Langkawi, and resort island not far from Penang. It was amazing. So lovely. I felt spoiled and wondered what I'd done to deserve it! This is us having lunch on the beach - my bro-in-law, my niece and my sis. Good times.

DSC00065 Originally uploaded by bump77 . This is my niece. I went to Malaysia to see her and her mum (my sis) and dad (my brother-in-law/banji). What can I say except that meeting her was fantastic. She beautiful and I love being an uncle. She was starting to feed herself. Room for improvement it seems. aww...

DSC00061 Originally uploaded by bump77 . Nganapparru is Rembarrnga for buffalo. Me and mum saw this one from the helicopter (see next post).

DSC00064 Originally uploaded by bump77 . My mum came to visit me in the NT and she paid for a helicopter trip up Katherine Gorge. It was fantastic, exhilarating and beautiful. Photos don't do it justice, but this might give you an idea.

DSC00059 Originally uploaded by bump77 . While in Melbourne, my good friend Nikki put me up at her place in St Kilda. Leaving her apartment each day, I was greeted by this wonderful view (and lots of screaming from the people on the rollercoaster). How can you not smile when this is the first you see when you leave home?

DSC00054 Originally uploaded by bump77 . After the game, we all got to run onto the field, which was actually very hazardous due to the hundreds of footies being kicked around. We all got hit at least once! hehe. In the photo is Anth, Richie, Me and Dave. (I had the best time that day!)

DSC00047 Originally uploaded by bump77 . Having at the game, with Anth and Dave. So many ppl! Photo by Richie Bauer.

DSC00045 Originally uploaded by bump77 . At the MCG. St Kilda v Western Bulldogs. Awesome.

Hello to anyone I know still reading this. As you may have gathered, I've left Ngukurr now. I'm on holidays! I don't feel like writing in this blog much anymore... sorry. I might start up with regular posting again, specially when I go back to Ngukurr. But if youse wanna know anything... ask me something in a 'comment'. Anyway, Melbourne is good. I'm staying with my lovely friend N in St. Kilda. My good mate R came from Adelaide to see me yesterday. We met up with my old friend A and my old nextdoor neighbour D and guess what we did? We went to the footy!! At the MCG!! It was incredible. Best ever. I'll hafta post the photos. St Kilda beat the Bulldogs in a close game. Hehe... loved it. So yeah, holidays are good, but I'm missing everyone in Ngukurr and Hodgson Downs and Katherine too. Doesn't matter tho', I'm gonna enjoy my holidays while I gottem.

I mentioned in the last entry that lots of kids from Hodgson Downs had gone to a nearby community for a big festival. Well, the community is called Barunga and is home to the ‘Barunga Sports and Cultural Festival’. I spent the weekend there and had a good time. People went there from all over… heaps of people from communities all over the region, people from Katherine, lots of tourists… it really is one giant get together. It’s fun for me seeing people I know from Ngukurr or Hodgson Downs in a different place, especially when they’re happy and having fun. The Barunga festival has lotsa sport. The girls’ big sport is the basketball (the Ngukurr girls won) and the boys are all involved in the footy carnival. I watched keenly as the Ngurralindji Tigers (from Hodgson Downs) competed but sadly were wiped off the field by the home team. Poor things. At sunset, on both days I was there, the Red Flag dancers from Numbulwar performed. They are so good. They perform traditional dances a...

DN's Clearance kick Originally uploaded by bump77 . Action shot! DN's clearance kick during the game between Minyerri Tigers community team and the team from Belyuen community.

Brolga at Mataranka Shell Originally uploaded by bump77 . On the way back from Barunga we pulled up at the Shell servo at Mataranka and there was this brolga hanging out in the driveway, unfazed.

Bigibigi on the footy field Originally uploaded by bump77 . While the Tigers were playing the Crows, a pig ran on to the field. Haha. Stupid pig.

Ngurralindji Tigers v Arnhem Crows Originally uploaded by bump77 . At Barunga Festival. The Tigers are in yellow and black of course. They lost.

Red Flag dancers Originally uploaded by bump77 . Red Flag dancers from Numbulwar at Barunga Festival 2005

I’ve had a big and interesting week. The biggest thing that happened was that S arrived to take over my post at Ngukurr Language Centre for the next three months. That means that time is swiftly approaching for me to be out of here, have my holiday and re-enter white society for a while. It’s been good having S here. It’s kinda re-invigorated me a bit. Having S take over also means that I can have my holiday with a clear conscience. There’s no way I could easily leave this place if it meant everything I’ve been doing this year was about to fall over. We had a good week at work. The Ngukurr language program went really well this week. We had all 5 languages going and we had a bunch of new people join in this time. One guy in particular was rather enthusiastic about getting involved in the language program which was lovely. I call him brother and he’s only about 35 or so. He’s a Ritharrngu speaker and it’s just so good to have young people keen to teach their language. S and me...

this week you could feel the season change. It's proper dry season now. It's cold now and you feel the air is just dry. It's had some kind of effect on me and everyone else too... most people I work with feel a bit sick or off colour and everyone is lacking energy and motivation. It's weird. so yeah, i've been a bit sick this week. The dumbuyumbu i had might've helped a bit, but not a lot. And I later found out that I made it way too strong and that's why it tasted so gross! haha... stupid munanga. This week was actually my last week in Ngukurr going solo. My contract finishes up in a month and I'm not coming back just yet. I need a good break from here. And I don't have to worry because I've got a good replacement coming next week. Her name is S and she's the one I took over from last October, so she already knows all about this job. She's had a good break now and is ready to come back. She comes next week and then we'l...

Yet again, I had a good time at hodgson downs last weekend. I tell you, that mob spoil it for this Ngukurr mob by being so nice. Alawa classes went well. I got in too late to do anything on Thursday but Friday we had a class that went well. I didn’t think it would because there was a community meeting on and I thought everyone would want to be there. But the two old men I work with to teach Alawa are so dedicated, they both rocked up after I thought I’d have to try and do something on my own. We ended up running a pretty good class. Some of the kids are actually getting into it. Their teacher made them make a little ‘pocket book’ that says on the front “Nanjal yemberli?” (what are you doing?). Then they stuck in a photo of one of the old men telling a Dreaming story. Then the old men put the caption to the photo which goes: “ Ninda ngemberli wulunga Wuradbunggu-yi, gada arrganya, ala murru Yilayi, Wanggurlayi, yil-jijan yil-murrgu ” which I translated (hopefully accurately) as...

i feel sick today. nothing bad, just under the weather with that general ache-y feeling. so i haven't done much work today and had a good sleep this morning after watching the end of the Spongebob Squarepants movie. but this afternoon I had to do a couple of jobs and the language centre mob all came over... not for long luckily because i wanted to have a lie down. but my baba stayed for a cup of tea... he's sick too... so after that we went to get some bush medicine so we can get better. it was the first time i've ever gotten bush medicine for me! pretty neat. we got some dumbuyumbu . I came back, boiled it up and made a tea out of it. but you know what? it's so gross! haha... i'm still trying to drink it. But then again, it is medicine... and medicine always tastes gross. i'm gonna try and drink some more. i'll blog more later.

Friday was an interesting day. I was at Hodgson Downs and Alawa classes were cancelled. This was because there was an official opening of the new secondary school unit. The opening involved ‘important people’ flying in for the occasion: the big two were federal senator Nigel Scullion and NT education minister Syd Stirling. It was all a bit of a circus really. I ran around for a while thinking I should be trying to network and talk to people about language stuff, but then I stopped and sat down with local mob… at one stage all the teenagers, another point with the old people… and found that much more pleasant and satisfying. I don’t even know where to start with this lobbying and politicking business. It was good sitting down with the local mob… they weren’t fazed by the circus at all. So while I was watching the ‘circus’ I was sitting next to an old man who humbugged me to go hunting that afternoon. It was about the best offer so after lunch we went off, me, two very old men – ...

Monday at work was another stressful day. again, it was just busy and relentless, one task after another interspersed with humbug and distractions. by the afternoon I must have had enough because something snapped. I got cranky and one of the people I work with and spoke semi-harshly to them, which I never do. well, that person got cranky right back at me and threatened to quit. I’m the kind of person who avoids conflict like the plague so this was pretty eventful for me. I don’t really know why I cracked it, something must have got to me but I don’t quite know what. I mean, I know the specific thing I was cranky about, but I don’t know why I actually cracked it today instead of dealing with it as I normally do. I think maybe I just hit the wall or something. so I was very worried about having that argument. I didn’t mean to upset the person and I was upset now too. And also worried about what the ramifications would be. But everything actually worked out really well. The ne...

Friday morning us language centre mob were invited to a CDEP meeting at the local council office. CDEP is the employment scheme that provides that bulk of employment here at Ngukurr and in every other Aboriginal community. In reality, it’s little more than work-for-the-dole, but it’s something. Anyway, John Howard’s government is implementing changes to CDEP (along with every other scheme pertaining to Aboriginal people!) which will make it tougher for this mob to keep going the way they have been going. So now, the CDEP mob who work with me will either have to go into the ‘employment’ stream – where they have one year to be trained up to move into a proper job (which don’t really exist) – or they go into the ‘community activity’ stream – where they can keep going the same way, but aren’t allowed to get any top-up pay so have to be content working for $200 a week! All the changes the Howard government are bringing in seem to assume that there is some kind of viable economy here at ...

For anyone reading this, I must be becoming repetitive... yet again, i'm here to tell you that here I am at Ngukurr, still tired, stressed, overworked and badly in need of a holiday. Yet, in spite of this, work is going well. If i was in a happier and healthier state of mind, i'd be able to be really excited about all the cool things were doing here, but as it stands, i'm just pooped. Yesterday (wednesday) morning, my mami N had organised to have a big bbq lunch at the language centre. It was actually a really good morning, because it was N's thing and I was just helping. We did grocery shopping, picked up some bricks and a giant grill for the fire place, some empty flour drums for tea and cordial, and then went out to get some wood. Me, baba G, mari T and mami N went to get wood. I'm still trying to muster the energy to learn some Wagilak from mari N but it's not happening very fast. Anyway, back at language centre, we set up the bbq and in the meantime,...

why am I so stressed? today was a normal day. Normal, yet I still ended up feeling completely exhausted, stressed and overworked by the end of it. It’s no good. I need to do something about this because it’s making me unhappy, affecting my work and worst of all, I don’t know why really… So in an attempt to find out why I’m getting so stressed, I’m gonna try to recount my day in step-by-step detail to figure out what happened, why it stressed me out and what I can do about it… firstly, I didn’t go to sleep til 12:30am last night, so not having enough sleep isn’t going to help me do my job in a relaxed manner… 7:45am: woke up… had slept in (sposed to start work at 8am). 8:15am: finished yesterday’s washing up, ate my weet-bix, started reading my favourite ever book which I’ve just rediscovered. 8:30am: first phone call. mami N called and asked me to pick her up to go to the police station to check on a family member who was locked up during the night 8:45am: showered, dressed, packed...

Monday morning and somehow was stressing before work even started. geez i need to learn better stress management. i was stressing because of the Ngandi course we've planned for this week... stressing firstly because i didn't know where the lecturer who is running the course was (he was due in last night) and secondly because i wasn't sure we'd get any more than a couple of students. anyway, i realised i was stressing for no reason and relaxed a bit, and by that time the lecturer had turned up... seriously 75% of the rest of the day was spent behind the wheel... and i didn't even leave this stinkin community! (until 5pm when we went on a quick outing). firstly i was trying to find ppl to join in on the ngandi course, then i was picking up my usual mob, then running around on the usual errands, then it was lunchtime... geez i don't know what happened today, but i did a lot of running around. The Ngandi course is going fine. It's being run by Batchelor col...

My visits to Hodgson Downs are still really great. I got there lunchtime on Thursday and shortly after we - me, some of the old people and one of the teachers - took the high school girls (about 12) on a bush trip to a place called Renyen. Two old men sat them down and told them about the place – the Dreaming story for the place and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don’t know about the girls, but I thought it was pretty special. Some of them were being so bratty and not listening, giggling, whingeing, just acting like two-year-olds really. It’s a shame because some of the other girls are actually quite interested and want to learn. So apart from a couple of girls driving me nuts, it was a good afternoon. I had a quiet evening then up for work again on Friday. I ensconsed myself into the world of sound editing for a while, then went to see if the old people wanted to come teach Alawa in the classroom. Well, there’s been a lot of arguing at Hodgson Downs lately, and it was just st...

You’d think I’d be happy to have two short weeks in a row, but really it just means I’ve got four days to do all our work in instead of five. Tuesday was interesting and lot of things happened. I had a run-in with the woman from Batchelor, talked to someone from Education Department about all the good work we’re doing at no cost to the Education Department, digitised some audio, helped Baba G start to transcribe some Marra, drew six large women on cardboard for tomorrow’s body parts lesson, a new worker started at the language centre, talked to Baba A about working on Nunggubuyu and started sorting out the Ngandi course being run here next week. And I finally got some printer ink cartridges after having no ink for two weeks!! hurrah. I won’t go into more detail. The only other thing I did was go on a bike ride to the airstrip and come back all sweaty. Today (Wednesday) is language classes at Ngukurr school. We’re still doing stinking body parts. Actually, it’s not a bad thing bec...

This is the second long weekend in a row. Last one I spent in Katherine, this one in Ngukurr. And it’s been alright. I’ve been able to relax to a significant degree. I didn’t get back from Hodgson Downs til 7pm on Friday and I just crashed out. Saturday morning I watched Rage and did my best to avoid humbug, ignoring the phone right-out. how rude! Well, I’d already been humbugged the previous day so at Midday I picked up old N and JBJ and went to pick up a washing machine for them and get their medicine from the clinic. After that, I snuck off to K’s… my only humbug free zone. Had a coffee, watched Degrassi and then we put on some music and turned her place into a mid-afternoon nightclub. Seriously! We danced non-stop for an hour and a half in her living room. It was quite therapeutic and put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Saturday nite I was invited to a munanga party. I still find munanga parties here a strange affair. You see, there are about 30 munanga liv...

Thursday morning I headed off to Hodgson Downs again. It takes about two hours to get there. We’d planned to go on a bush trip after I got there but I found out that there were nurses visiting and giving all the kids a check-up and blood tests, so no bush trip. So I didn’t end up doing much that afternoon, did a bit of planning, talked to the teachers and visited a few old people. After school I hung around with some of the kids and we kicked the footy around. Haha, I suck at football. No, I’m not too bad, but compared to these guys I am. They’ve got style and talent and were just shaking their heads at my kicking style. Oh well, I’m still learning. Friday morning we have language class. I was a bit worried about it because I hadn’t reminded all of the old people about it and I knew some of them were going away anyway. But when I went up the road to see who was about, again there was a group of 5 old people sitting there. Two of them happily came along to teach Alawa. So dea...

Tuesday at Ngukurr and the relevant adjective is 'reluctant'. I just didn't really want to be here. I had such a lovely and relaxed weekend in Katherine and I didn't want the stresses of work to come back so soon. And yes, much of Tuesday was spent dealing with humbug: trips to the shop, trips to the office, giving lifts to people, letting people use the phone. I somehow managed to get some time to myself to have a bit of lunch and then (after another couple of interruptions) even had a quick nap. I started to feel better after that. What was interesting was that in the face of my distinct lack of motivation, we still got stuff done. I started working with someone new on Ritharrngu and that was good. We sorted out this week's language class and without too much fuss. Today was a better day. I was a bit more enthusiastic and content about being here. Thankfully, I was also much more relaxed than last wednesday. (Wednesday's represent a peak in my stres...

Yeah, well, like I said, I left Hodgson Downs to go to Katherine. I watched the Hodgson Downs mob lose their football game, poor things. And after that, I had no plans except to chill out and take it easy – eat, sleep, watch DVDs, whatever I felt like. R and J were away and kindly offered me their place to crash at. Thanks guys. It actually turned into a lovely weekend. I met up with my banji (brother-in-law) from Hodgson Downs and ended up hanging out with him all weekend. He’s a lovely guy and one of my few good friends out this way. What’s really nice about hanging out with him is that he doesn’t drink or go to the pub, so I ended up having a healthy weekend and went to bed early and got plenty of much needed sleep. I’m still pretty amazed that my banji doesn’t drink or smoke or even drink softdrink. It’s almost unheard of, as far as I know, to find young guys from communities who are like that. Anyway, we just hung out all weekend, watched DVDs, went to the movies (Million...

Well, it was Friday morning at Hodgson Downs and I was organised. How did that happen? I didn’t really have anything more to prepare and no urgent last minute jobs so I waited to smoko and picked up old Cleo, old Stephen and old August to go and teach the high school kids some Alawa. The class went really well. Or as good as can be hoped when your audience is a bunch of teenagers, most of them sulky teenagers. The best part of the lesson was that old Stephen really was the main teacher. I was merely his assistant. Often, it’s the munanga – me – who ends up taking the leading role because the speakers can be a bit tentative about taking the leading role, but not today. Stephen and the others spoke Alawa, and I wrote down what they were saying. Stephen and the others made the kids speak up and repeat after them and I just pointed to the words on the board. Eventually, it was Stephen who was up at the board pointing to the words and making the kids say it. If only the kids had’...

It's only thursday and i can't even remember what i did on tuesday... lemme think. Tuesday we did planning for the Ngukurr language program. That went okay, although it's not flying along like last week. We didn't have anyone to help out for Nunggubuyu or Ritharrngu. Everyone else was a little distracted or something too, but we did get a fair bit of work done. Oh, one of the committee members, E, came to ask about that bloke who I was having problems with (see the previous post). He was asking why he was being a bit full on and reassured me that everything was fine and I've got everyone's support. That was lovely. By the end of the day, we had lessons planned for two and a half languages. But somehow I was still working at night, making worksheets n flashcards... just little jobs. crikey, i need to take it easy. I didn't get to bed til late, and didn't feel very refreshed in the morning. So the morning of language classes, and it was erratic a...

A munanga who works at the shop here, A, is making a Tshirt that will say 'no humbug' on the back and I told her how it's spelt in Kriol - 'nomo hambag'. That's going on the front. Haha... can't wait to see it. Speaking of humbug, I had a tough weekend. Well, in one way it was a good weekend because I didn't go anywhere and chilled out at home all weekend. But in another way it was tough to avoid the humbug. For example, at 9:30, my good friend K asked me over for a morning coffee. I arrived an hour and a half later. Between 9:30 and 11, N and J arrived and needed to call Gove hospital, R came and asked for some toilet paper, G came over to use the phone and the R came back wanting me to help her get a tyre off a rim. Ah, but somehow I managed to do not too much. I even managed to watch two dvds, one was totally rad: Princess Mononoke, an anime movie... very good, exciting yet beautiful. I never thought I'd get into anime movies but this on...

well, I'm only staying here for one night. And I only came to talk to the school and community members to see if they wanna start having language classes again. I didn't really have any actual language work planned. But the old people are so keen that they basically organised themselves to do some language work with me. After the usual stuffing around and to-ing and fro-ing, a group of old people were patiently sitting together, all interested in doing language work. So I came along and luckily had improvised some language work we could do. Five Alawa speakers all helped put language to a little fishing picturebook. It was pretty cool. A couple of younger people also took an interest. One of the best things for me was that one of the old men who was helping has never worked with me or spoken Alawa to me before, even though I knew he could speak the language. So it was great that someone new felt comfortable doing language work. (The other good thing about this guy doi...

It’s bedtime now, but I’m not at Ngukurr, I’m at hodgson downs, a community about 2 hours from ngukurr. This time last year, I’d just arrived here at Hodgson Downs and started doing two months of fieldwork for my honours thesis. It was the first time I’d ever lived on a community, but that 2 months was overall just fantastic and nowhere near as difficult as my time in ngukurr seems to be. So coming back to hodgson downs gives me a good feeling and I usually find being here a breath of fresh air. But I was a little bit nervous about coming here today. It’s been four months since I was here last. That’s a long time. Ngukurr is now more familiar to me than Hodgson Downs but it never used to be like that. But after a day here, I’m happy. A lot of people were happy to see me – old people, parents, teachers and kids from school. Not before long, two old people were speaking Alawa to me and teaching me again. Unfortunately I could barely understand what they were saying! I’ve been ...

I woke up this morning and had that first moment of the day when your mind is clear and serene… and you know how after that, you start processing your day and becoming aware of what’s going on… well, first thing I remembered was ‘oh my god. we’ve got language class today and we’re teaching five languages!’. I managed to remain a little bit calm and old N came round early. She’s really sick at the moment but still pushing on. At 9:30 we were at the Batchelor building and old N was scrubbing out the toilets because they were too dirty. We both cleaned the men’s. There was frog poo everywhere. We opened up the tank-part and old N kicked 15 green tree frogs out of the home they’d made for themselves. Haha… she was flicking those frogs everywhere. Soon, the language mob started to join us and we started preparing. The Nunggubuyu mob sorted out their lesson. The others were doing fine. Except for my poor old uncle E. He’s the only one who’s been working on Ngandi. And he’s old an...