The NT is a hotmess

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Calling the police in the NT now goes to a centralised call centre in Darwin where the people who answer the calls have zero local knowledge. Elders in Lajamanu want to contact local community police but instead get a nitwit in Darwin asking ridiculous questions. (And would the police have Aboriginal language-speaking interpreters on stand-by? Don’t think so!). Nobody outside of Darwin wants this new centralised police call centre.

School starts today. Thousands of kids who speak Aboriginal languages are denied receiving an education in their own language. Attendance in remote schools is worse than ever and the Federal Government is rolling out the “No School, No Food” policy which has been shown to *not* work. The Ed. Dept is now recruiting teachers with no teaching qualifications, bringing in more outsiders who are clueless about working in remote Aboriginal Australia, even if their heart is in the right place.

The Australian Human Rights commission says the Super Shires might be worse than the intervention. From Mick Gooda:

I have not heard one person say anything positive about what has happened. People feel totally disempowered by it and if we don't do something about getting ... governance structures back into the communities, the outcome of this amalgamation will be probably worse than the Northern Territory Intervention.

Barack and Julia think it's all a bit of a laugh.
Darwin, 2011.

Phase two of the Intervention, labelled “Stronger Futures”, is being put through parliament. A senate inquiry has begun and many in the NT just want to see the Intervention and its remnants gone for good. Take a look at the submission from Ramingining elders to see how those subjected to these policies feel:

The intervention has been here for 5 years and what did it do? We got fences on our houses, but no new houses. Not for Yolŋu, only Balanda. No extra jobs.

We want our right to self-determination. We don’t want to be controlled from the outside.

We want our community councils back, and our assets returned. We want to be able to have a say in the foundation of any laws that effect Yolŋu in our communities.

We want bilingual education brought back. Every study shows that it is better for our people. We want elders to have a say in curriculums so it is relevant to our lives.

…we need our laws to be recognised along with Balanda laws.Our law is the basis of our society. We want our law recognised. We want our law holders to be recognised.

We are the land holders in our communities.
It is our land, it is our community and it is subject to our law.
We will not be assimilated by these policies.
WE CHOOSE SELF DETERMINATION.

Meanwhile, our politicians are more worried about some bratty kids who burned a bit of fabric with some stars on it…

… 3000kms away.

Ah, the magic of the NT. You’ll never never know, if you never never go.

A conference, language policy and Aboriginal languages in Federal Parliament

The other day, I was priveleged in attending a TESOL symposium about 'Keeping Language Diversity Alive'. One of the speakers, Joseph Lo Bianco was excellent and discussed Language Policy. He gave a handout at one of his sessions that I'm going to type out in full here, because it was a real eye-opener. It's from the Official Hansard of the Federal Parliament from a debate that happened on 10/12/98. Here's how it went: Mr SNOWDON: My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of the decision by the Northern Territory government to phase out bilingual education in Aboriginal schools? Is the Prime Minister also aware that his government funds bilingual education programs in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam? Prime Minister, given that article 26(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children, will you take a direct approach to the Norther

Luk mowa >>

The Oscar-winning Coda and its (mis)representation of interpreting (or, why I almost walked out of the cinema)

Ok so I'm a linguist not a movie critic but I am an avid movie-goer - part of the generation of Australians raised by Margaret and David to appreciate cinema and think critically about it. (I've even reviewed a few things on this blog: Short-doco Queen of the Desert , short film Lärr and some discussion of the brilliant Croker Island Exodus here ). At this years Oscars, the film Coda surprised many by taking out Best Picture. It seems like few people have even had a chance to see it. Here in little ol' Katherine, we have a brilliant film society at our local Katherine 3 cinema, where each fortnight we get to watch something a bit different. In late 2021, I had the chance to see Coda there, long before it was thought of as an Oscar contender. Now that Coda is being talked about more than ever before, I wanted to share my experience of watching the film - especially because in one scene in particular, I was so angry that I genuinely considered walking out of the cinema -

Luk mowa >>

Lärr: a gentle film revealing a gently evaporating world [short-film review]

Shorts films about endangered languages and culture form a small niche genre but there are quite a few out there. I've never seen one as gentle and beautiful as L ärr. Films in this micro-genre tend to do a few familiar things. They may be pedagogical videos, focusing on cultural practices that aren't being maintained well enough, and explicitly ask audiences to watch, learn and remember. There might be expressions of serious concern for the language and cultural shifts taking place and we see rhetoric from elders and cultural champions urging for action. Then there are ethnographic films - more 'fly on the wall' views of everyday life where constructing narrative or organising scenes to shoot are not primary concerns. L ärr is a 16-minute look at life with some of the last few speakers of Wägilak in the world, on their country, doing very Wägilak things. But the beauty of L ärr is its softness. The four men in the film let you gently into their world, on the remote out

Luk mowa >>

Comments

Unknown said…

Great post , I agree totally with the opposition to the call center being based in Darwin , a lot of people who live here have no idea how to speak any of the many different languages spoken by Aboriginal tribes and not a clue about the area outside of Darwin ..The thing I do disagree with is the statement by the Ramingining elders. I was in Ramo for 2.5 weeks , while my partner fixed the only road to the barge .. with no help just him and half the time the equipment had been stolen , smashed or mysteriously missing Diesel - For those who want jobs , there are plenty available - I ended up having to help my partner with the road as noone else was willing to !(I did get to drive trucks which was fun !)
I do agree that they should have more housing and facilities .. but us white folk are only there to help the community .. and if it wasn't for my partner the whole community would of had no food or supplies the entire wet season.
I think the answer lies in the future generations :)

7:39 pm

that munanga linguist

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