that munanga linguist

happy easter! It’s easter Sunday and I’m in Katherine – the big smoke. I’m staying with fellow munanga linguists Robert and Jenny. what a luxury having four days of doing whatever I want to do. Thursday I had a normal working day, although we didn’t do much. I had a run in with the couple who run the Batchelor building at Ngukurr (Adult education centre). It’s a very flash facility located next door to the language centre but it is totally under-utilised. Language centre is asking to be able to use it for Language Centre stuff but it’s causing some problems. My argument is that it’s a community facility and that the community should have access to it and be using it much more than it is being used at the moment. But the woman who runs it doesn’t want the building used that way. Which on one hand is fair enough, but on the other, the facility does belong to the community so I feel she should pay them more attention. anyway, the issue goes on and on so I’ll stop now. besides,...

After my 'ordinary' tuesday, wednesday has been kinda special. Why? Because after eight weeks of planning we delivered our first language lessons at Ngukurr School! Yay! I was up this morning working my arse off trying to finish off the class lists and other info for the teachers at the school. The logistics of this language program are out of this world. There are nine classes at Ngukurr school. We gave each teacher a list showing which one of six language groups their students belong to. But we only had two of the groups ready to go, the other four had to miss out today. So i made sure we had our materials ready, i made sure Baba G and Mami R knew what was going on. I went through the lesson plans, materials and language with them. Lunchtime came along and we went to the school: me, Baba G, Mami R, old B and old F. Of course, nothing runs that smoothly... Firstly, on our way to school, we found out that parents had heard that one of the teachers had hit a kid... th...

well, it's been two weeks since i posted. i might start posting daily (or near-daily) and making this blog a more personal thing. mainly because i can't remember what happens from one day to the next. i need *something* to remind me what happens in the 'kreisi komyuniti' i live in. so here's my story for today: oh... just so you know, i work at the Ngukurr Language Centre... my life has *become* the Ngukurr Language Centre... so I'll be writing mostly about... um... the Ngukurr Language Centre. Well, after a few phone calls I went and picked up my Baba (brother) G. We're *finally* starting the language program tomorrow after only eight weeks of planning. Anyway, we went to A's camp to find out if she's interested in helping out for the Ritharrngu and Ngandi classes. Poor thing, she's sick with blisters n wotnot. We also tracked Baba (sister) C who said she'd come down and help with the Nunggubuyu class. Yay! We've almost got a la...

what's this? another blog post already? well, don't ask me how, but i'm feeling a bit inspired... or is it cuz i just can't sleep. after a rather depressing post yesterday, i've actually had a good day today and feel much happier. i don't really know how it happened! maybe i made some progress today. the day started off with a brief conflict with a highly regarded academic linguist... who tried to intimidate me (and probably did)... so my day didn't start off great. but i guess some of the good things that happened were: talking a bit of Alawa again (which i miss), actually getting somewhere with developing the school language program, getting permanent access to the ultra-flash study centre next door (so we don't have to always be sweating on my tiny verandah while we work) and meeting someone here at ngukurr who could actually alter the state of sad and sorry lovelife. i tell you, some of the people i work with are pretty inspirational sometimes. ...

time for my next report... haha... well, i've been trying to maintain a bit of sanity and sense of self over the past month. i've been busy and overwhelmed by my work and by life here. I mean, while i usually talk about some of the cool and amazing things i get to do here, it's also very hard being here. and it's getting to me. it's hard to motivate myself when the job we're trying to do (support endangered languages) is just enormous. and i'm trying to do this job on top of all the other general difficulties of living in a little shack a long way from where i grew up and a long way from most of the people i love and i'm living within another culture too. so yes, i'm finding life tough at the moment. last weekend i ran off to darwin. it was good, but not great. going to darwin's a big effort (it's over 600kms away). and while i though it'd be great to just run away from here and have a break from everyone it wasn't really the ...