Endangered Languages and Cultures

Two community forums with the Social Justice Commissioner

5 February 20111 July 2007 by Jane Simpson

People in Sydney concerned about Indigenous affairs may have the changce to attend two community forums this week with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The first is entitled Directions in Indigenous Policy and Decision Making: Ways Forward, at the launch … Read more

Thaynakwith people’s dictionary

5 February 201130 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

The only fluent speaker of the Thaynakwith people’s language, Dr Thanakupi Gloria Fletcher, has just produced a dictionary “that includes the traditional stories, songs and art of the Thaynakwith people” of western Cape York, with the help of other community members, and Bruce Sommer and Geoff Wharton. It was praised by Peter Beattie – wonderful to see a major government figure interested in Indigenous languages.

To be or not to be a field linguist? Amy Cruickshanks

5 February 201128 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

Thoughts from a student after surviving our Field Methods course.
The decision to take this unit of study came easily to me. Having had Field Methods recommended by fellow linguistic-loving students as one of the best linguistics classes EVER!!!! I was pretty much sold even before I knew the class was on offer. And as prior to this class the only world of linguistics I knew was a theoretical one with data being presented on a nice little platter for me to pick up and analyse with no thoughts or concerns as to how the data actually made its way to me in the first place, I thought it might make a nice change for me to personally go through the elicitation process. Plus, this way I didn’t actually need to deal with the sand and dirt that generally goes hand in hand with field work, as I could get some experience in the field right here in our beloved intransient Transient Building.

The devil’s in the detail

5 February 201127 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

(1) Details of changes to 7,000 people’s wages
On 1 July seven thousand Australian Indigenous participants in Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) are set to lose their wages. A few will have the CDEP positions converted into real jobs. But most will not.
There’s a worrying lack of detail as to how the Federal Government proposes to manage the transition and the immediate problems caused by lack of money in communities in which CDEP may be the main income. This is highlighted in the Social Justice 2006 report by Tom Calma, the Social Justice Commissioner. The report which was sent to the Attorney-General on 5 April 2007 contains an alarming indictment of the Federal Government and the Federal bureaucracy’s general ability to manage Indigenous affairs. It seems to have got buried in the publicity surrounding Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle “Little Children are Sacred”.
Backtracking, in Western Australia, police in Broome have already blamed changes in CDEP payments for drawing people into towns from the communities.

Mutitjulu Community Statement

5 February 201127 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

Concern has been expressed about the re-posting of the Randalls’ statement about Mutitjulu which was sent to me for circulation. So I’ve removed it. You can read it here at Crikey, and it is commented on in The Age. See also this article in the Brisbane Times, in which Donald Fraser, a community member, is … Read more

Abuse of Indigenous children in towns and communities

5 February 201121 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

Last time John Howard’s ship came in, it was a Norwegian freighter, as Max Gillies observed. Today’s Crikey has a Special edition: Howard’s Aboriginal emergency, which suggests that this time, he’s running the Aboriginal flag up the masthead.
Ten years ago when Howard came to power, his new Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Senator John Herron, said that his predecessors had got it all wrong. He wanted Aboriginal ‘self-empowerment and said that the Howard government would adopt ‘practical, commonsense policies’ on health, housing, education, employment and improve Aboriginal people’s lives.
That didn’t happen.

Endangered languages and Taiwan

5 February 201116 June 2007 by admin

[I began this blog on Saturday 9th June while sitting in Taipei Airport at the end of five extremely interesting but rather exhausting days in Taiwan. I was reflecting on the International Conference on Austronesian Endangered Language Documentation (held at Providence University (PU), and especially the two day post-conference excursion to Sun Moon Lake and Puli. I put the finishing touches to this post on Saturday 16th June sitting in Narita Airport, Tokyo, thanks to a four hour delay in the departure of my BA flight back to London.]
The International Conference on Austronesian Endangered Language Documentation, which was organised by Victoria Rau, Meng-Chien Yang, Yih-Ren Lin, and Margaret Florey brought together around 40 people from Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, UK and USA working on endangered Austronesian languages.

Indigenous Languages Strand – LingFest 2008 – Call for expressions of interest

5 February 201114 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

LingFest 2008 will be held at the University of Sydney, Australia, 1 – 13 July 2008. LingFest is a series of linguistics conferences and the Winter Linguistics Institute.
In conjunction with LingFest 2008 , the Indigenous Languages Strand will run between 7 – 11 July 2008. It will be held at the Koori Centre of the University of Sydney. The Indigenous Languages Strand will be a useful forum for a wide range of people working in the area of the revival and maintenance of Australian Indigenous languages.
More details follow, or download the form for expressions of interest here – deadline Friday August 24.

Lewis O’Brien’s biography

5 February 20116 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

Lewis O’Brien continues to be one of the mainstays of Kaurna Warra Pintyandi, the Kaurna language movement. There’s a favourable review in the Sydney Morning Herald of a book about him And the clock struck thirteen – assembled by the linguist Mary-Anne Gale from conversations and archival research. Nothing on the language in the review … Read more

WOTA LOTA – Gail Woods

5 February 20115 June 2007 by Jane Simpson

[From Gail Woods, Lecturer, Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics, Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education, with respect to the Languages in Crisis summit] Whilst the discussion paper is clearly focused on Languages Other Than Australian (LOTA) and the inherent security and economic risks associated with monolingualism, its sentiments could/should be subversively harnessed to develop the … Read more