Transient Languages & Cultures

Doing the best by Indigenous children in remote communities

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:38:00 +1000

Last Friday was AIATSIS's Research Symposium on Bilingual Education, organised by Sarah Cutfield and Cressida Fforde. At the end, Mick Dodson launched a paper by Pat McConvell, Jo Caffery and me, which is now available online Gaps in Australia's Indigenous Language Policy: Dismantling bilingual education in the Northern Territory [.pdf]. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Discussion Paper 24.

Friends of Bilingual Learning have put out a media release on the subject, and resolutions from the symposium are expected soon, both long-term and short-term.

I was saddened to learn of the helplessness and isolation of the people who've been working with mother tongue medium programs. Many are Indigenous; many non-Indigenous staff have worked in these remote communities for decades. They're stayers. They get very little support. Policy-makers don't listen to them; they're treated as problems because they can see the importance of starting from where the children are at. They came in their holidays, some got funding from NGOs. It was humbling to hear that the symposium was valuable to them.

What came out strongly from the Indigenous participants in the symposium was the sentiment behind some of the paper titles: They are our children, This is our community (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma), and Nganimpa-nyangu kurdu-kurdu, nganimpa-nyangu Warlpiri Our children, our Warlpiri (language) (Warlpiri community members and Wendy Baarda). Yes we love our children, yes we want the best for them, yes we think they can learn both ways and live in both worlds. It is movingly expressed by Connie Nungarrayi Walit, a Warlpiri health worker:

“The one thing we have left from our parents and grandparents which is really our own is our language, Warlpiri. This is the last thing we have left to pass on to our children and grandchildren,”

The people who have decided that English shall be the language of the classroom will have taken that language away from Nungarrayi's grandchildren. Unintentionally, with the best will in the world, thinking they're doing the Right Thing by Nungarrayi's grandchildren.

3L summer school mid-term report - Peter K. Austin

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:42:16 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
29 June 2009

Well, we have just passed the half-way point of the 3L Summer School and things seem to be going pretty much according to plan. Despite some last minute scrambles (presenters dropping out and needing to be replaced, equipment needing to be bought, rooms being taken out of service) all the classes got organised on time and have run well so far. Even Blackboard, the e-learning support environment, is functioning faultlessly, enabling us to do away with photocopying handouts and having useless piles of paper at the end of each class.

There are 97 students attending the 3L summer school, representing 42 nationalities (Argentinian, Australian, Belgian, Benin, Brazilian, British, Cameroonian, Canadian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Ethiopian, Finnish, French, German, Ghanaian, Greek, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Malian, Mexican, Nigerian, Norwegian, Pakistani, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Saami, South African, Spainish, Swedish, Swiss, Taiwanese, Ugandan, USA). There are 18 instructors, who come from the three consortium universities (SOAS, Lyon and Leiden), along with colleagues from University College London. Three tutors from SOAS and a group of student volunteers, plus our Administrator Alison Kelly, make up the rest of the 3L team.

Bilingual education symposium - program

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:03:25 +1000

AIATSIS's Research Symposium on Bilingual Education is gathering pace. The program's now available. Audio recordings are expected to be available in a week's time.

Friday 26th June
8.30 – 9.00 Registration in the National Museum Foyer
9.00 – 9.30 Welcome to Country by Matilda House.
Introduction by Dr Lisa Strelein, Acting Principal, AIATSIS.

9.30 – 10:10 Mr Tom Calma (Australian Human Rights Commission)
They are Our Children, This is Our Community
10:10 – 10:30 Morning Tea

10:30 – 11:15 Dr Jane Simpson (University of Sydney), Dr Patrick McConvell (ANU) & Dr Josephine Caffery (ACU)
Gaps in Australia’s Indigenous Language Policy: Dismantling bilingual education in the Northern Territory

11:15 – 11:40 Leonard Freedman, Peggy Gallagher and Daphne Puntjina (Areyonga School)
Areyonga Two-Way School: What we do and why we do it

11:40 – 12:05 Rarriwuy Marika, Marrkiyawuy Ganambar-Stubbs (Yirrkala CEC), and graduates from the Yirrkala School Two-Way program
Dharktja Dhuwala Djambulu Maypa: My language has layers and layers of meaning.

12:05 – 12:30 Janet (Maxine) Nungarrayi Spencer, Connie Nungarrayi Walit & Wendy Baarda (Yuendumu community)
Nganimpa-nyangu kurdu-kurdu, nganimpa-nyangu Warlpiri Our children, our Warlpiri (language)
12:30 – 1:30 LUNCH

1:30-2:10 Ass. Prof. Brian Devlin (CDU)
Bilingual Education in the NT and the continuing debate over its effectiveness and value

2:10-2:50 Kathy McMahon (CDU) and Cathy McGinness (St John’s College)
Tales from the North: Bilingual pedagogy and sustainability

2:50-3:30 Prof. Joe Lo Bianco (University of Melbourne)
What Happened to Language Rights?
3:30-4:00 Afternoon Tea

4:00-5:15 Discussion Panel. Chair: Dr. Peter Toyne
Panelists: community members associated with NT Two-Way Schools; Prof. Joe Lo Bianco; Dr Inge Kral; Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney; Dr Jane Simpson

5:30 – 7.00 Reception at AIATSIS
Launch by Prof. Mick Dodson of:
J. Simpson, P. McConvell & J. Caffery 2009: Gaps in Australia’s Indigenous Language Policy: Dismantling bilingual education in the Northern Territory (AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper 24 - see here)

New publications from SOAS and FEL - Peter K. Austin

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:14 +1000

Peter K. Austin
Linguistics Department, SOAS

Two new groups of publications are now available from SOAS.

1. LDD 6
Volume 6 of Language Documentation and Description is now available. This volume is a fully-refereed collection of papers dealing with:

language documentation methodology
sociolinguistics and pedagogy for endangered languages
software applications

The papers were written specially written for the volume, and include the 2009 Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project Annual Public Lecture by Bernard Spolsky on the revitalisation of Maori. They represent important contributions to the theory and practice of the field of language documentation by leading scholars and younger researchers.

Contents

Editor's Introduction -- Peter K. Austin
Rescuing Maori: the last 40 years -- Bernard Spolsky
Dying to be counted: the commodification of endangered languages in documentary linguistics -- Lise M. Dobrin, Peter K. Austin and David Nathan
Data collection methods for field-based language documentation -- Friederike Lüpke
Audio responsibilities in endangered languages documentation and archiving -- David Nathan
Language management for endangered languages: the case of Navajo -- Bernard Spolsky
Language documentation and pedagogy for endangered languages: a mutual revitalisation -- David Nathan and Meili Fang
Managing linguistic diversity in the church -- Anicka Fast
Filming languages: implications of indigenous video production for language maintenance in Mexico -- Catherine Edwards
Documenting grammatical tone using Toolbox: an evaluation of Buseman's interlinearisation technique -- Stuart McGill

Volume 6 costs £10.00 (postage and packaging is £2.50 extra). To order go to our website, download the order form, and follow the instructions.

2. FEL books
The Endangered Languages Academic Programme (ELAP) at SOAS has joined with the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) to begin marketing and distribution of the series of publications produced by FEL over the past 10 years. There are 11 volumes available, covering a wide range of topics linking endangered languages to literacy, literature, land, language learning, media, multilingualism, migration and social impacts.

To celebrate this ELAP-FEL collaboration, from 15th June to 15th September 2009 each FEL volume is priced at £12, a saving of 40% off the normal retail price (usually £20). This offer is for a strictly limited time only.

To order your copies at this special price go to our website, download the order form, and follow the instructions.

News from the WA Language Centre Conference - Sally Dixon

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:28:33 +1000

[from Sally Dixon]

I was privileged to attend the WA Language Centres conference in Perth last week. Delegates from 5 regional language centres and several language programs spent three days swapping stories at the wonderful Kaditj internet café and conference facility, and probably could have talked for at least another week.

We were warmly welcomed by Noongar elders Dorothy Winmar and Gloria Nora Dann, and Justina Smith who shared her beautiful blend of contemporary and traditional Noongar dance. The progress of the Noongar language program has been breathtaking. Since presenting their very first book at the last conference only two years ago, the team (in partnership with Batchelor Press) has developed a great pile of resources with several different Noongar clans. There are also twelve short language lessons in development for NITV so stay tuned in for those. We also got to hear how language has been incorporated into the Djidi Djidi Aboriginal School in Bunbury. Moorditj!

Technologically-enhanced fieldwork - Peter K. Austin

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:12:44 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS

Last year I wrote about how mobile phones are being used to do "fieldwork at a distance", checking data with consultants, or collecting text messages of writing in endangered languages.

A recent blog post by ESL educator Tom Leverett alerted me to yet another possible technological aid for linguistic data collection and checking, Skype. Many of us know Skype as a way to make cheap (or even free) voice and video phone calls, but Tom points out another use for the software (in association with audio and video software) -- conducting and recording conversations. He reports on an experiment that he carried out with a colleague:

"Thom T., our lab director, who makes it his business to know these things, agreed to place a call, and sure enough, from my office to his, we not only had a call, but also recorded it; furthermore, he bundled up that tiny recording (he had recorded only a few minutes of it - still, he said, it was quite a large bundle) and sent that bundle to me over the text chat function that is right there on Skype ... one can send songs, movies, documents, anything, as one would on an IM or another chat function. But, you can do it, and look the other person in the eye as you do it. Look 'em in the videocam eye, anyway"

So, I thought, what about interviewing consultants on Skype and using it to collect material to be added to a documentary corpus, check grammaticality judgements, socialise with the community, get feedback on materials, or indeed, just about anything that involves two-way communication? There are, however, limitations, as Tom points out. Two of these are bandwidth and interference:

Australia beats US, again - Peter K. Austin

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:02:43 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
7 June 2009

That's my tabloid journalist headline for what is a serious, some would say momentous, development in the history of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), namely the adoption last month by the Executive Committee of the LSA of an Ethics Statement [.pdf]. Its Ethics Committee has been working on a draft statement for the past two and a half years, and engaged in consultation within the Society.

There is an article dealing with the issue in this week's Inside Higher Ed, but it focuses on what I believe are two less important aspects of thinking about ethical issues in linguistic research, namely what could be paraphrased as "how to stop linguists from screwing things up" and "how to get round the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process".

Endangered Languages in Chronicle of Higher Education - Peter K. Austin

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:10:23 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
4 June 2009

This week's Chronicle of Higher Education has two articles by Peter Monaghan on endangered languages issues. The first is entitled Languages on Life Support: Linguists debate their role in saving the world's endangered tongues (viewable free on line, and includes material from interviews with Nick Evans, Michael Krauss, Richard Rhodes, Noam Chomsky, and myself. Some of the topics covered will be familiar to readers of this blog, like what Monaghan calls "a 'commando style' of recording trip" (something Jane wrote about as Fifo (fly in fly out) fieldwork).

AIATSIS Research Symposium: Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:05:08 +1000

Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory: Principles, policy and practice

AIATSIS Research Symposium

Date: Friday, 26 June 2009
Venue: Visions Theatre, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
Time: 9:00am – 5:15pm, followed by a reception at AIATSIS

Good news!

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:59:49 +1000

The Australian Research Council have funded a project 2009 - 2012 Strategies for preserving and sustaining Australian Aboriginal song and dance in the modern world: the Ngarluma community of Roebourne, WA.

The researchers are Sally Treloyn (CDU); Allan Marett; Andrew Dowding, Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation

Project Summary
This project makes a major contribution to the community in which it is based by developing an appropriate and efficient model for cultural maintenance and regeneration through repatriation, recording, documentation, and digital dissemination. National benefit derives from the development of a model to preserve and sustain endangered cultural knowledges associated with song and dance, and a pre‑emptive strategy for the recovery of almost extinct traditions. National benefit also derives from establishing Australia at the forefront of international efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritages, by revealing how access to recordings via digital platforms contributes to cultural maintenance and regeneration.

Wunderkammer update

Tue, 26 May 2009 09:37:43 +1000

Work continues on the Wunderkammer software package, which makes electronic dictionaries available on mobile phones. A new version of the package, with new features and bug fixes, is available from the Wunderkammer website: http://www.pfed.info/wksite/

We'll be presenting the Wunderkammer software and talking about some of the dictionaries that use it on 1 June 4pm to 5.30pm in Eastern Avenue Seminar Room 119, Sydney Uni. If you're in Sydney, come along.

Send a letter to a Minister - Ngapartji Ngapartji

Sun, 17 May 2009 20:59:52 +1000

[From Alex Kelly, Ngapartji Ngapartji and BIGhART]

Dear friends and supporters,
After 5 years working on Ngapartji Ngapartji, building the language website [and see blogpost] and touring the show, we have the opportunity to engage with the people who can help move the issue of Indigenous languages forward in leaps and bounds. Currently, without any supportive Indigenous languages policy at a federal level we are left with a culture of fragmented and unspoken policy that prioritises English at the expense of Indigenous languages.

There is a long history of campaigning and lobbying for Indigenous languages in Australia, with some successes, and periods of regression. Hopefully Australia is emerging from a particularly unsupportive period in the last 15 - 20 years. At the end of June we will make our contribution to that process by going to Canberra to talk to the Ministers for Indigenous Affairs, Education and the Arts to talk about the need for a long term whole-of-Government strategy on Indigenous languages and a National Indigenous Languages Policy.

We would love to be able to present each of the Ministers with a pile of letters from individuals and organisations about why it is so important, and why the Australian government needs to provide national leadership on indigenous languages - NOW OR NEVER.

Please take the time to write a letter - handwritten or typed, with or without letter-head - and send it to us by the 10th of June. You can email them to alexATngapartji.org, or post them to Ngapartji Ngapartji, P0 Box 2765, Alice Springs NT 0871.

You could include references to the importance of Indigenous languages

to a sense of identity, belonging and self
as a key to unlocking education participation
to improvements in mental health
to improvements in literacy and numeracy
being taught alongside English and not subordinate to it
and being taken out of the 'too hard' basket before it is too late
or any other issue that you think is relevant

It's going to make a big difference too, if we can demonstrate to them the reach and difference that this one area of policy could make. We look forward to being able to place your letter directly in the hand of the Minister who can make a difference.

Alex Kelly
Creative Producer, Ngapartji Ngapartji

Endangered languages and finances - Peter K. Austin

Wed, 13 May 2009 20:32:09 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
12 May 2009

The financial difficulties currently facing the world's economies are having an impact on funding and support for research on endangered languages in various ways. (I heard the current situation referred to in Australia last month as The GFC ("Global Financial Crisis"), an acronym that I initially confused with The BFG (as a Roald Dahl fan) and that doesn't seem to have much purchase outside Australia -- even Wikipedia is taking the G out of GFC.)

Here are some of the signs:

the Sorosoro Programme of Fondation Chirac has postponed its planned annual events at the Musée du Quai Branly from early June to the end of 2009, or possibly even later (videos of last June's events are here)
the planned World Language Centre initiative of the Vigdis Finnboggadottir Institute in Iceland is being scaled back and no new international activities are now planned until early 2010
the laying of the foundation stone for LINGUAMÓN - Casa de les Llengës that had been scheduled for last year will now take place in November this year with the building planned to be open in 2011 (Linguamón continues to be active and an electronic newsletter is now available in Catalan, Spanish and English)
the DoBeS programme of the Volkswagen Stiftung will not have a funding application round in 2009 -- the next application deadline will be in September 2010 with funds available from 2011

Things look a bit gloomy for the next year or so, however there is some good news. The grants from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme that is administered by SOAS have not been affected as the funding base was established by a commitment from Arcadia (formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund) back in 2002. In fact, under new arrangements recently negotiated with Arcadia, ELDP's budget end date has now been extended until 2016, some four years later than originally anticipated. There are two grant cycles this year: the second cycle of grant applications opens on Friday 15 May, with a closing date of 3rd August (see here for details).

EuroBABEL projects announced - Peter K. Austin

Tue, 12 May 2009 21:54:38 +1000

From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
12 May 2009

As I reported back in October 2007, the European Science Foundation has been working on a project called EuroBABEL(standing for "Better Analyses Based on Endangered Languages") as part of the EUROCORES collaborative research infrastructure. The main goal of the EuroBABEL is:

"to promote empirical research on underdescribed endangered languages, both spoken and signed, that aims at changing and refining our ideas about linguistic structure in general and about language in relation to cognition, social and cultural organization and related issues in a trans-/multi-disciplinary perspective"

After a complex selection process that involved review by an international expert panel and then negotiations with national funding agencies, ESF has just announced the successful EuroBABEL projects:

Gayarragi, winangali, a new language resource - David Nathan

Mon, 11 May 2009 19:43:14 +1000

from David Nathan,
HRELP, Endangered Languages Archive, SOAS

Gayarragi, winangali, a new Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay language resource, is now available. Click on the picture to download.

Gayarragi, winangali is an interactive multimedia resource for the Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay languages of northern New South Wales, Australia. It is aimed at language learners at all levels, and anyone interested in these languages. It contains extensive language material, including audio. The main features are: