AustLit

'Peter Sutton has been at various times, and sometimes simultaneously, a museum-based anthropologist with a foundational role in raising the profile of Australian Indigenous art, an anthropologist and linguist who has made significant ethnographic, analytical and theoretical contributions to both fields, and to the intersection between them, an expert on native title, and a public intellectual.

'The contributors to More than Mere Words reflect on Sutton's important contribution to linguistics and the study of Australian languages. The first two chapters give a historical perspective on the study of Australia's Indigenous languages.

'There follows a section on language as a reflection of connection to place, and then a set of essays on language in its socio-cultural contexts, spanning prehistory to the present.

'The final part of the book charts the consequences of the colonial encounter through a consideration of language endangerment. The volume's title captures both the complexity of languages as systems embedded in their social contexts through space and time, and a sense that this celebration of Peter's life and career cannot simply be read as 'mere words'.' (Publication summary)

'The Indigenous languages of Australia have been undergoing a renaissance over recent decades. Many languages that had long ceased to be heard in public and consequently deemed 'dead' or 'extinct', have begun to emerge.

'Geographically and linguistically isolated, revitalisers of Indigenous Australian languages have often struggled to find guidance for their circumstances, unaware of the others walking a similar path. In this context Re-awakening languages seeks to provide the first comprehensive snapshot of the actions and aspirations of Indigenous people and their supporters for the revitalisation of Australian languages in the twenty-first century.

'The contributions to this volume describe the satisfactions and tensions of this ongoing struggle. They also draw attention to the need for effective planning and strong advocacy at the highest political and administrative levels, if language revitalisation in Australia is to be successful and people's efforts are to have longevity.' (Publication summary)

The main title, Bunji, refers not just to the black rights newsletter founded by Bill Day, but also recalls the term used especially by Aborigines for a mate. Although mateship may have taken on something of a taint by now, this is in part a story of mateship in which one man shows that he can make a difference. This is a personal account of the struggle for Aboriginal land rights in Darwin in the 1970s and into the 80s.'  (Introduction)