that munanga linguist

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...