Jane Simpson

Ngapartji Ngapartji curriculum review

5 February 20116 May 2007 by Jane Simpson

I posted a while back about the very interesting Ngapartji Ngapartji Pitjantjatjara course. Here’s their call for some feedback. WANTED: Linguist, teacher, linguistics student or curriculum expert to review, critique and provide constructive feedback on structure, content and flow of Ngapartji Ngapartji online Pitjantjatjara language and culture site. http://ninti.ngapartji.org Please contact alex AT ngapartji.org for … Read more

Relocation of Language Groups – Jeremy Hammond

5 February 201129 April 2007 by Jane Simpson

[From Jeremy Hammond, Field methods student, University of Sydney]
In Australia the relocation or ‘resettlement’ of Indigenous Australians during the 20th century has caused the extinction of many dialects. The then Government motives of assimilation have caused fractured social and cultural landscapes. In western NSW at Lake Cargelligo, the Ngiyampaa and Paakantji people were relocated to Murrin Bridge in Wiradjuri Country and have lost much of their cultural knowledge.
Elsewhere in the world there are similar patterns and in particular high rates of urbanisation (such as in Vanuatu and PNG) may exacerbate this process. During a course on development in the Mekong River Region, I was made aware of entire village movement in the name of ‘progress’ (and check out today’s ABC Ockham’s Razor commentary by Milton Osborne on the Mekong and the Salween Rivers – he wrote River at risk).

Communicating about our work

5 February 201127 April 2007 by Jane Simpson

This week (23rd to 27th April) is Endangered Languages Week at SOAS and interestingly one of the themes that has surfaced repeatedly over the past days has been communication with the wider world about what we do as linguists, researchers and fieldworkers. Along with the stakeholders mentioned in Jane’s and my recent post, there is the general public. Many of them, from my experience, do show a keen interest in endangered languages and language documentation, especially in the ‘human side’ of the stories we have to tell. And there are various ways we can talk to them.

There’s data and there’s research

5 February 201125 April 2007 by Jane Simpson

[Joint post by Peter K. Austin, Endangered Languages Academic Programme, SOAS and Jane Simpson]
There has been a flare up on the LINGTYP list again (cf. PKA’s post last week) – this time from Gideon Goldenberg who suggested there is a distinction between research (good) and data collection (bad). He was writing about typological databases but it looks like the same opinion applies to documentary linguistic corpora – here’s what he said:

“The clear and sharp distinction between research and materials is essential. The latter will be needed to illustrate scholarly discussion, but data themselves are not research even though they require thoughtful preparation. When electronic means became available there was the hope that from then on the mere accumulation of data would no longer be able to give credit of scientific work; it unfortunately turns to go the other way about. To share databases with others is OK and can be beneficial, but do not mistake it for research.”

Ouch! All those digitised sound and video recordings with time-aligned multi-tier annotated corpora with linked metadata that we’ve been creating are fine and dandy, but it ain’t research folks!

Piranha Dandy

5 February 201115 April 2007 by Jane Simpson

Chronologically and perhaps otherwise connected with Peter Austin’s post on CDFM are discussions of Dan Everett’s claims about the Pirahã, a Brazilian group, which have hit the news recently (thanks Jeremy). The good thing is that Everett’s claims can be tested. The hyperbole surrounding them is probably bad – for the people, and for the … Read more

Victorian state government language policy

5 February 201127 March 2007 by Jane Simpson

Last week the Victorian government announced its first step towards a policy on Indigenous languages. So, Noel Pearson was onto something..
I wonder what’s on their wishlist? Dual naming of places (that’ll be slow after the Grampians fiasco)? More ceremonial language used on ceremonial occasions and in official publications? Some Indigenous languages to be taught in schools (that will require a big investment in preparing teaching materials and training teachers, to avoid alienating kids)?

A week of Indigenous Australian languages

5 February 201125 March 2007 by Jane Simpson

It’s been a week for Indigenous Australian languages here in the Sydney area – the annual Australian languages workshop at Pearl Beach brilliantly directed by Joe Blythe, a new film on teaching NSW languages in schools, and finally the launch of Jennifer Biddle’s new book Breasts, Bodies, Canvas: Central Desert Art as Experience (UNSW Press).

Noel Pearson on saving Indigenous languages

5 February 201110 March 2007 by Jane Simpson

Check out Noel Pearson’s opinion piece in The Australian 10/3/07. He suggests that the two most important pieces of work in “saving” Indigenous languages so far have been the language documentation work undertaken by linguists (yes!) sponsored by AIATSIS, and the translations of the Bible done mostly by Summer Institute of Linguistics linguists. (And to this let’s add the importance of gospel song writing mentioned by Bulanjdjan and Wamut). He gently makes the point that linguists’ grammars are often inaccessible to speakers. We should listen; we can do better.

Notes from a field methods class (1)

5 February 20118 March 2007 by Jane Simpson

This week was the start of the Field Methods class. There are about ten of us, undergraduates and postgrads, with a range of interests, from about-to-head-off-to-the-field, to thinking-about-maybe-heading-off, to love-hearing-language-sounds, to love-language-and-technology, to I-think-I’ll-change-to-theory. I ‘m hoping that our class can keep up a weekly commentary on what’s been happening. I’m also hoping that together with the local PARADISEC people, Tom Honeyman, Aidan Wilson, Amanda Harris and Vi King Lim, we can create a space on the PARADISEC links web-site to put up final versions of useful information we create, and links to other people’s useful information. And of course, I’m hoping that we get suggestions for improving all of this!

Can’t get the words outta my head

5 February 20117 March 2007 by Jane Simpson

Several Indigenous Australian music stories.
Last year’s Stanner Award went to Allan Marett for his ethnomusicological study, Songs, dreamings, and ghosts: The Wangga of North Australia: Wesleyan University Press (2005). This is an award for “the best published contribution to Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Studies that is considered by Council to be a significant work of scholarship in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Studies and which reflects the dynamic nature of Professor Stanner’s life and work.”
And the award ceremony was moving. Yes there were speeches. And then Allan explained how the wangga songs link the living and the dead (and check out also the radio program Ghost songs). He showed three short clips of performances of wangga. Then Joe Gumbula, a Yolngu scholar and musician, and the first Indigenous Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, sat down on the floor with his didgeridoo. Allan sat down next to him with clap sticks, and they performed two songs, Allan singing. Many traditional Indigenous Australian songs are HARD, hard to learn the words of, and hard to sing, but he made it seem effortless. Two scholars and musicians, Yolngu and non-Indigenous-Australian, performing traditional songs together. A future for us all.
And then the other way around. Indigenous Australians have been writing and performing modern Anglo-Australian songs in traditional languages for a while now.