The poetry of Oodgeroo (Kath Walker) brings vivid memories of myself as a school girl reading her poetry; sitting in my white white skin I wandered what it would be like to have that lovely dark coloured skin and imagine the derogatory prejudice that comes with it. Here is one of her poems:

A Song of Hope
by Oodgeroo (Kath Walker)

Look up, my people,
The dawn is breaking
The world is waking
To a bright new day
When none defame us
No restriction tame us
Nor colour shame us
Nor sneer dismay.

Now brood no more
On the years behind you
The hope assigned you
Shall the past replace
When a juster justice
Grown wise and stronger
Points the bone no longer
At a darker race.

So long we waited
Bound and frustrated
Till hat e be hated
And caste deposed
Now light shall guide us
No goal denied us
And all doors open
That long were closed.

See plain the promise
Dark freedom-lover!
Night’s nearly over
And though long the climb
New rights will greet us
New mateship meet us
And joy complete us
In our new Dream Time.

To our fathers’ fathers
The paid, the sorrow;
To our children’s children
the glad tomorrow.

Now I would like to share with you some paintings that bring back memories. I was sitting on the ground in a yard at Katherine with four Aboriginal women and my French friend Christine, trying to learn “dot” painting just by doing it. My first experience of Aboriginal culture.

At Springvale station in Katherine, I saw an early attempt to showcase Aboriginal culture. In the cattle yards by the homestead, one could learn how to throw a spear, blow through a didgeridoo, or watch a corroboree. It was a rather sad experience and a poor reflexion of Aboriginal culture.

http://www.butlergoodegallery.com/art/australian-aboriginal-art/

Finally this leads me to share this small clip of showcased, as opposed to original, culture. After years in Cairns, we visited the Tjapukai Aboriginal culture centre, which I would recommend to anyone to see and learn about this culture even though it is a second hand experience. This small clip is part of a dance although in different, and choreographed context, with movements which appear similar to the stamp and flourish of the main Wangga dancer in clip 10 of Dr Reid’s videos of Topic 12 of Australian’a Aboriginal languages.

Flare up in Brisbane Park

In my hometown Brisbane this morning  police stormed an inner city park and forced the people tending to the sacred  fire in the ’tent embassy’ away. For those not familiar with tent embassies or ‘soverieign embassy’ they are built on around five sites around Australia. The longest running one is in the capital Canberra which has been around since 1972. They are not camp grounds but rather a place to make a stand that this land is their birthright.

     ”You are breaking your own law” shouted one protestor . “Arrested for  trespassing  on their own land” said another. It begs one to wonder if this  frontier city is a police state. It seems that the police will arrest anyone protesting peacefully or showing dissent in this city. Furthermore this is an indictment against people protesting peacefully where their freedom of speech is being denied  It just so happens that this was on  the same day that the new Liberal government was sworn in.  With the new Lord Mayor and the backing of the new Premier Newman ordered 250 heavily armed police to smash up the embassy.  Not since 1984 and  the dark days of the Joh administration have police been involved to evict aboriginals.      

 However, as of tonite the sovereign embassy  has been re-established adjacent to Musgrave Park. The fight against racism in this state goes on.  

 
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/thirty-arrests-as-aboriginal-activists-protest-move-on-from-musgrave-park-for-paniyiri-festival/story-e6freoof-1226357851539

 Simon Mckean

Message Stick

Message Stick

This 95 year old Aboriginal elder is the matriarch of various tribes of the Yan-nhangu people on Murrunga Island, in the Crocodile Islands of north Arnhem Land.  She was announced as the Senior Australian of the Year in 2012. She is heavily involved in the teaching of the traditions and language of this culture as the only remaining one with the knowledge to do so.  This interesting program talks about the ranger program being operated in the area to teach young people the traditional ways and the language, under the guidance of Baymarrwangga.

This message stick program screened on May 12 2012.

Jane Herbert

Native language in the media

In every culture around the world there are socially undesirable activities that occur, which destroy the health and mind of community members. In the main-stream culture of Australia, there are campaigns that target speeding, smoking, teen-age drinking, ecstacy use and so forth. These campaigns are typically in English and are typically targeted at the anglo-culture of Australia reflecting the linguistic characteristics of the language.

At the bottom of this text is a TV commercial that has been produced for the Amata, Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands in western central Australia. The main focus of the commercial is to target petrol sniffing and cigarette use within the societies of central Australia – which is obviously a concern for the community as a whole, hence the active involvement in producing a community awareness message. The commercial uses a Milpatjunani (sand drawing). By using ongoing ever-changing pictures drawn in the sand, the traditional Milpatjunani is a traditional way of complementing an oral story. The Milpatjunani in the TV commercial is paired with song in language from the area.

Using traditional language and traditional Milpatjunani the commercial targets a forgotten culture in Australia, which mainstream media cannot accommodate. This method of ‘storytelling’ allows for a message to be conveyed through media to the community, addressing many socio-linguistic issues that mainstream media does not. The extension of traditional language to modern media will aid language maintenance and survival in the region, as messages will be passed on reflecting the socio-linguistic features of the language, including discourse and pragmatics.

Media is the easiest form of communication and influences so many people. By combining traditional languages with the media will ensure the languages become readily available contributing to language maintenance and survival.

Nait

Aboriginal Language loss

Whilst undertaking study of Australia’s Indigenous Languages; Linguistics unit, Aboriginal language loss in our residential area was brought into focus.  It was realised many aboriginal languages are extinct or near extinction.  My Topic 5 discovery “about the indigenous language of the area where you are now living” noted that the Jagera aboriginal tribe existed in a large area from Moreton Bay to the Bremer River and Lockyer Creek.  It also noted that language loss was greatly contributed to by European colonisation.  The Jagera language is one of the few surviving languages today.

Jeanie Bell, herself a linguist and of Jagera and Dulingbara descent, speaks passionately of language loss, preservation and revival. She states (Boyer Lectures: 1993) Colonists stopped Aboriginal people speaking their own language.  This then, would not allow teaching to the next generations.  In her “conflict, indigenous, language” transcript (2010), she discusses this forcible loss, language identity crisis and indigenous language revival.  It was also noted within topic 5 that Neville Bonner, a former Senator of Queensland, 1971 to 1983, was a tribal elder of the Jagera tribe.  His comments in the Australian Biography Government Project, interview transcript (1992), also confirm an “unfortunate loss” due to forcible shame of language, culture and history. He preciously retains his knowledge of a limited number of words, culture, tribal customs and dreamtime stories taught by his grandparents.

Available as a Transcript or MP3, The National Museum of Australia, 2010, conflict, indigenous language transcript,can be sourced at http://www.nma.gov.au/audio/search/keyword/query:language

Neville Bonner Interview Transcript and Video is available at http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/bonner/interview1.html      (Downloading video available via QuickTime Pro 7)

Australian Biography Government Project, 1992, Neville Bonner Interview Transcript, viewed  1 May 2012, http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/bonner/interview1.html

The National Museum of Australia, 2010, conflict, indigenous language transcript, viewed 1 May 2012, http://www.nma.gov.au/audio/search/keyword/query:language

Australian Museum , 2009, Cultural Heritage, Living Languages, Boyer Lectures 1993, viewed 1 May 2012, http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-Australia-Cultural-Heritage

University of New England, 2010, Topic Notes, Topic 5, Australia’s Indigenous Languages, University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

 A Morgan

Aboriginal English and the Legal System

Munya Andrews speaks on the subject of Indigenous language and contact with the law. She makes the point that the Australian justice system is culturally specific and alienating to Aboriginal people. It’s laws, values systems that decide those laws, the protocols, procedures, physical makeup (courtroom) and use of language are all culturally alien to Aboriginal people. She outlines a few of the communication problems that the Aboriginal people face when dealing with the legal system: differences in word meaning (‘kill’ means to hit), the Aboriginal use of questions (direct vs indirect) and cultural mindset differences (generality vs specificity and gratuitous concurrence). Towards a solution Andrews suggests making the legal system more accessible and inclusive to Aboriginal people and quotes Richard Trudgen as saying that ‘we have to understand the cultural world view of a people before we can understand what they are talking about’.

Carla Quigley (LING366 2012)

Australia National Anthem in Pitjantjatjara

Lovely to see a small fusion of cultures….

Carla Quigley