AustLit

'Between 2012 and 2019 Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis, Inge Kral and Jennifer Green worked together to make an enduring record of endangered verbal arts in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands communities of Western Australia. They filmed traditional Ngaanyatjarra tjinytjatjunku or mirlpa (telling stories while drawing in the sand) with women and girls. They then loaded up some iPads with a drawing app and filmed younger women using this new technology to draw with as they told stories about everyday life in their desert communities.

'The sixteen iPad stories are presented in i-Tjuma: Ngaanyatjarra stories from the Western Desert of Central Australia and readers can view the films with a linked QR codes. The stories burst with colour and originality, blending tradition and innovation and providing a unique window on the storytelling arts of an ancient culture.

'Story writers: Joella Butler; Katrina Giles; Bethany Cooke; Claudine Butler; Phillipa Butler; Kresna Cameron; Delisha Reid; Donisha Yunkett; Trisha Lewis; Susan Reid'(Publication summary) 

 'It is important for us to read our own stories and to keep the tradition of our language for our future generations.' — Dereck Harris, Chairman, Ngaanyatjarra Council

'In the Time of their Lives is a wonderful book that honours the extraordinary heritage and historical trajectory of Western Desert (Ngaanyatjarra) speech, the importance of speech and the management of its varieties with a complexity and insight we have rarely seen in print. With a blend of interviews in translation, close examples of speech, first person testimony, photographs, film clips and historical material, Kral and Ellis have brought attention to the changing sensory world of Yarnangu, of sight sound and bodily experience as central to Ngaanyatjarra sociality and personhood. It is rare, indeed, to have such respectful research flow from the intimate and personal perspective of a committed member and active participant in Ngaanyatjarra life.' — Fred Myers, Silver Professor of Anthropology, New York University. (Publication summary)

'Place-based cultural knowledge – of ceremonies, songs, stories, language, kinship and ecology – binds Australian Indigenous societies together. Over the last 100 years or so, records of this knowledge in many different formats – audiocassettes, photographs, films, written texts, maps, and digital recordings – have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate. Yet this extensive documentary heritage is dispersed. In many cases, the Indigenous people who participated in the creation of the records, or their descendants, have little idea of where to find the records or how to access them. Some records are held precariously in ad hoc collections, and their caretakers may be perplexed as to how to ensure that they are looked after.

'Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond explores the strategies and practices by which cultural heritage materials can be returned to their communities of origin, and the issues this process raises for communities, as well as for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Mudburra is an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory (Australia). Many Mudburra people live in Elliott, Marlinja, Yarralin and Kalkaringi. The Mudburra to English Dictionary contains Mudburra words with English translations, illustrations and detailed encyclopaedic information about plants, animals and cultural practices. Also included is a guide to Mudburra grammar, an English index and handsigns used by Mudburra people. This volume is ideal for both beginners and advanced speakers of Mudburra, for translators and interpreters, and for anyone interested in learning more about Mudburra language and culture.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Long before bush balladeers such as Slim Dusty gave voice to a particular Australian rural experience, Aboriginal people from across Northern and Central Australia were using song to reflect on the rapid changes that came to their worlds in late the 19th and early 20th centuries. They captured major events and details of everyday life in their compositions, incorporating new themes into existing traditional song and dance styles. There were songs about the first and second world wars, about aeroplanes (Graham 1994), trains (Dixon & Koch 1996; Hercus 1994: 91-101) and buffaloes (Marett, Barwick, & Ford 2013). Other songs, many of which were recorded by Luise Hercus, commented on the new work regimes on pastoral properties. One example is the ‘Manager’ song, known widely across northern Queensland (Alpher & Keefe 2002). Even the less spectacular aspects of the newcomers’ lives did not escape the attention of these early bards who sang about station homesteads, ‘olden-time’ lamps and girls washing doors (Hercus & Koch 1999; Hercus 1994). In south-eastern Australia too Hercus recorded similar songs chronicling intercultural histories, like the Wemba Wemba song ‘Shearing on Tulla Station’ (1969: 95). Indigenous music provided ‘a site for creative and sustaining cultural responses’ to contact history (Donaldson 1995: 143) and it continues to be an important part of the intercultural dynamics of Australia (Ottosson 2012: 182).'  (Introduction)

'Sand stories from Central Australia are a traditional form of Aboriginal women's verbal art that incorporates speech, song, sign, gesture and drawing. Small leaves and other objects may be used to represent story characters. This detailed study of Arandic sand stories takes a multimodal approach to the analysis of the stories and shows how the expressive elements used in the stories are orchestrated together. This richly illustrated volume is essential reading for anyone interested in language and communication. It adds to the growing recognition that language encompasses much more than speech alone, and shows how important it is to consider the different semiotic resources a culture brings to its communicative tasks as an integrated whole rather than in isolation.' (Source: Publishers website)

'Sign languages, or iltyem-iltyem angkety, are in daily use in Arandic speaking communities of Central Australia. They are a form of communication used alongside other semiotic systems, including speech, gesture and drawing practices. Whereas sign languages used in deaf communities operate without any connection to speech, these 'alternate' handsign languages are used in various contexts by people who also use spoken language. They are culturally valued and highly endangered, yet there has been little or no systematic documentation of Arandic sign since Kendon (1988). In this paper we describe a pilot program to record Arandic sign languages, conducted by a community language team, funded by the Maintenance of Indigenous Languages and Records (MILR) program and by the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (ELDP), and auspiced by the Batchelor Institute (BIITE). Research into various aspects of multimodal communication brings with it many theoretical and practical challenges. New technologies and the ever-expanding potentials of data annotation systems create a plethora of choices and huge volumes of recorded material. Whereas the use of film in language documentation has recently become de rigueur, at least in some circles, it is often only as an adjunct to studies of spoken language. When the visual is foregrounded, as it is in sign and gesture research, additional layers of complexity are added that impact on all aspects of the documentation process. How, for example, do we balance the desire for naturalistic visual data with the need for visually 'clean' images? What lessons can linguists learn from ethnocinematographers (Dimmendaal 2010)? What kinds of resources will benefit the community and a range of users (scholarly, archival, educational etc), as well as satisfying community aspirations for medium and long-term engagement with their audio-visual language materials? How do we ensure that our methodologies are robust enough to allow comparisons between primary sign language corpora and alternate sign language ones?

' We discuss these issues and various others encountered in our research, including our field methodologies, annotation of film data, community consultations and ethical considerations, and issues that have arisen in designing an interactive sign language website for use as a teaching/learning resource in Arandic schools. Although the creation and management of digital archives for primary sign languages have been documented before (see Johnston & Schembri 2006), 'alternate' sign languages have received little attention.' (Publication abstract)

(Publication summary)

'Anmatyerr language, is spoken every day by about 2000 people in Central Australia. Most speakers live 200km North of Alice Springs. Anmatyerr -speaking communities include Yuelamu (Mt Allen), Ti-Tree, Laramba, Pulardi, Pine Hill, Wilora, Adelaide Bore and Pmara Jutunta (Ywerternt).'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Town Grew Up Dancing is Wenten Rubuntja’s story. It provides a rare view of events that shaped the life of an Arrernte man who has made a major contribution to the art and politics of his time. Wenten was a key figure in the land rights movement in Central Australia in the mid-1970s and has since played a lively and formative role as an Aboriginal statesman in his home town of Alice Springs. He is highly respected for the depth and breadth of his traditional knowledge and for his unique skills as a negotiator. This book reveals the humour and wisdom of an Aboriginal man skilled at engaging in both the traditional and the contemporary worlds. The story is told in Wenten’s own words – in his first language, Arrernte, with accompanying translations, and in Aboriginal English. The book also includes the voices of many who have been close to Wenten, including members of his own family, and others who have worked with him over the years. Additional commentary is provided by linguist and artist Jenny Green and historian Tim Rowse. This fascinating and innovative book weaves together autobiography and biography in a powerful story of recent Indigenous history in Australia. The book features Wenten’s own commentary on his paintings, and photographs in colour and black and white bring his story and Alice Springs’ colourful past vividly to life.' (Source: IAD Press website)

'These stories are a testament to the rick and detailed knowledge the Laramba women have of their environment – the plants and animals, waterholes, and bush medicines. These women grew up in the time of transition when the whitefella and the pastoral industry brought sweeping changes to their traditional lifestyle and country. They women vividly recount stories of the olden times – of hunting, of ceremony, and of moving across the country – before the advent of motor vehicles, whitefella tools and permanent shelters. Most of the storytellers were born during the early 1920s, although several younger women also share their stories. Renowned singers and dancers, the Laramba women are committed to the preservation and enrichment of all aspects of traditional culture. The stories are told in Western Anmatyerr and English and an extensive wordlist is also included. Along with narratives, beautiful line illustrations of plants, animals and implements highlight the importance of Law, land and culture.' (Source: Publisher's website)