AustLit

'It is often said that language reflects the reality and world view of its speakers. It is an indicator of both social behaviours and attitudes (Yallop 1993). On a smaller scale, words through their use, structure and markings can be like a window into this world view. Such is the case with the language and words used within Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories. This paper begins to open this window by examining the structure and meaning of words used within a traditional story told in the Ngaatjatjarra language in the Western Desert region of Western Australia. This story from the tjukurrpa or dreaming legend was told to Elizabeth Ellis, a Ngaatjatjarra woman, during her childhood years.' (Abstract)

'When I speak Pitjantjatjara, I am able to get across strong messages, from my spirit. In our own language, we speak with confidence, absolutely speaking from the spirit. Like sometimes we attend meetings and we speak entirely in Pitjantjatjara, forthrightly. I think to myself in meetings, 'I want to speak in Pitjantjatjara - because it is likely that if I speak in English my message will be weak'.' (Abstract)

'Anyone travelling up the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs passes two roadhouses within the first 200 kilometres - the first at Aileron and the second at Ti Tree. Most travellers stop at one of these places, perhaps for the free coffee on offer for the driver or some fried foods from the bain-marie. Remote roadhouses enable necessary stops and often provide modern facilities for the contemporary traveller. However, most roadhouses also bear witness to earlier encounters, as they were established as supply points, post offices and pubs in settlement days.' (Abstract)

'In this paper I will report on community-based language maintenance and preservation activity being undertaken by Alyawarr and Eastern Anmatyerr speakers on the Utopia homelands. Utopia (as it is generally referred to) is located in remote central Australia, approximately 300 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs. This decentralised community comprises sixteen or so homelands situated on the traditional country of the Alyawarr and Eastern Anmatyerr people. I will provide a background to language documentation and conservation, outlining current theoretical frameworks regarding linguistic fieldwork and briefly discussing how the two main branches of descriptive linguistics and documentary linguistics sit within them. I will then introduce the notion of community-based language documentation by offering a snapshot of ongoing work from the fledgling documentation project at Utopia.' (Abstract)

'At the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages we are embarking on a project that we feel will go a long way to addressing some central needs of language revival and reclamation work in Australia. Language revival is 'an emerging practice, building strength in different areas of the world mostly as part of the move to recover from colonisation' (Paton et al. 2008). In Australia, while we can look to experiences overseas for some support, the journey for the most part is travelling through new territory. This means that the communities undergoing this process and the linguists assisting at various levels are essentially required to make up the map as they go (see Simpson et al. 2008 for a comprehensive account of language documentation and revival in South Australia).' (Abstract)

'In this paper I discuss the work being carried out in Australia by Aboriginal people dedicated to the cause of language revival and maintenance in their endeavours as trained linguists, language workers or community researchers. These people are regarded as language activists in their community and more widely and regularly work with non-Indigenous linguists who specialise in the field of Australian Aboriginal languages. Many of these relationships work well in different situations, and continue to do so particularly when the Aboriginal member of a language team is in a position of power to negotiate their role and contribution to the project from a non-compromising starting point. At times tensions arise in the working relationships between these two groups and if these are not addressed early in a project, discontent and sometimes resentment can become an issue for the Aboriginal member of the team. Aboriginal people working in language teams on collaborative research projects or revival and maintenance language programs may feel powerless because of a lack of experience, training, knowledge or understanding of linguistic concepts. It also could be they don't have a high level of speaking competence in their own language or the language they are working with.' (Abstract)