Talknology in the Service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation

Revivalistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 227-239
Author(s):  
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Sleeping Beauty ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aboriginal Children

This chapter introduces the fascinating and multifaceted reclamation of the Barngarla Aboriginal language of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. In 2012, the Barngarla community and I launched the reclamation of this sleeping beauty. The presence of three Barngarla populations, several hours drive apart, presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving talknological innovations such as online chatting, newsgroups, as well as photo and resource sharing. The chapter provides a brief description of our activities so far and describes the Barngarla Dictionary App. The Barngarla reclamation demonstrates two examples of righting the wrong of the past: (1) A book written in 1844 in order to assist a German Lutheran missionary to introduce the Christian light to Aboriginal people (and thus to weaken their own spirituality), is used 170 years later (by a secular Jew) to assist the Barngarla Aboriginal people, who have been linguicided by Anglo-Australians, to reconnect with their very heritage. (2) Technology, used for invasion (ships), colonization (weapons), and stolen generations (governmental black cars kidnapping Aboriginal children from their mothers), is employed (in the form of an app) to assist the Barngarla to reconnect with their cultural autonomy, intellectual sovereignty, and spirituality.

Our Children: Part of the Past, Present, and Providing a Vision for the Future: A Murri Perspective

1989 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 6-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilla Watson
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hunting And Gathering ◽  
The Future ◽  
Adult World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Aboriginal Children

“Aboriginal people have not … invented childhood.” This statement goes to the very heart of the difference between Western and Aboriginal societies as far as children are concerned. Aboriginal children have always remained part of the adult world.Separation or exclusion from adult activities was kept to a minimum. Indeed, most of those activities were planned and organised to ensure the maximum involvement of as many children as possible. This applied to hunting and gathering, to dance, song, and many ceremonies. From the earliest age, they were aware of what was going on in the community, and were exposed to the whole spectrum of human relations. The expression “not in front of the children”, which became the title of a TV sitcom some years ago, would not have been used by Murris.

The Northern Territory: An Aboriginal View of the Past

1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 42-44
Author(s):  
P. Read ◽  
J. Read
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Almost Everywhere ◽  
Unlimited Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Aboriginal History ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
History Books

In 1975 we were preparing a source book of the Northern Territory for the Northern Territory Curriculum Branch. There was a thick book at the end of it, but it was evident to us that only one section of the population was represented. That was the European, and only the literate part of that. The Aboriginal view of the past was simply not available from history books, nor, except to Aboriginal children, from anywhere else. It was obvious, that to produce an Aboriginal history of the Territory, we would have to move from reading the written word to listening to the spoken.This was the task we set ourselves for 1977–78. Employed by the Curriculum Branch, and backed by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, we would act as editors in the task of presenting an Aboriginal history of the Northern Territory to school children. All interviews and discussions would be taped, and cassettes made to go with each booklet of transcriptions and illustrations.Faced with an enormous amount of material, vast distances to cover, and not unlimited time, we decided, rather than produce a hotch-potch volume of what we had managed to record, to edit a series of shorter books on different themes. Some are on specific topics, like the Coniston massacre, or wartime recollections. Other topics are more general but no less interesting: how, when and why did Aboriginal people give up (or were forced to give up) traditional life; how they adapted to the European intrusion; why there has been a shift to out-stations and a preference for bicultural education?Obviously we have not been able to visit large areas of the Territory. We chose mostly to visit places where we already knew someone. Often this was the teacher, who would ask the community in advance if it were interested in taking part in the project. Almost everywhere, the older people were keen to tell stories of the early days, especially when they knew their words would be heard and read by children throughout the Territory. Generally the stories are no older than the third generation, and in English.

Giardia carriage in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children attending urban day-care centres in South Australia

1988 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 304-305
Author(s):  
T. R. GRIMMOND ◽  
A. J. RADFORD ◽  
T. BROWNRIDGE ◽  
A. FARSHID ◽  
C. HARRIS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Day Care Centres ◽  
Aboriginal Children

scholarly journals Q fever in South Australia: an outbreak in a meat-works

1962 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret D. Beech ◽  
A. E. Duxbury ◽  
Peter Warner
Keyword(s):  
Q Fever ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
American Continent ◽  
North American Continent ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Epidemiological Features ◽  
Very High ◽  
Abattoir Workers

This paper consists of an epidemiological study of 52 cases of Q fever occurring in metropolitan Adelaide in 1957 and also a description of the results of a survey of 516 sera obtained from abattoir workers.The only case occurring outside the abattoirs was a dairy farmer who probably became infected while visiting the abattoirs. If this were so the incubation period (35 days) of his disease would have been exceptionally long.The general features of the outbreak, which lasted several months, differed from those on the North American continent in that the latter occurred explosively within a few days with very high attack rates. The situation in the Adelaide abattoirs is similar to that in Brisbane, where the disease appears to be endemic. However, unlike in Adelaide, cases are commonly recognized outside the abattoirs in Brisbane.In the abattoirs the disease affected mainly inspectors, those working on killing beef, and those working on offal. Mutton workers were not so severely affected. However, all these groups had similar incidences of low titre antibodies suggesting that in the past Q fever spread equally in all killing departments. In departments not directly associated with slaughtering the incidence both of cases in 1957 and low titre antibodies was relatively small.It was suggested that the epidemiological features of Q fever in Adelaide could be explained by the irregular appearance of animals from infected herds situated perhaps in Queensland—a known endemic area. Perhaps the appearance of such animals in the Adelaide abattoirs might be governed by meteorological conditions such that they were prevented from going to the ordinarily most convenient slaughterhouse.

Aboriginal perspectives on kangaroo management in South Australia

2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Thomsen ◽  
K. Muir ◽  
J. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Commercial Harvest ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Rights And Interests

Kangaroos are culturally significant to Aboriginal people but Aboriginal people are generally not involved in kangaroo management or in the kangaroo industry. Our research has provided the first opportunity for Aboriginal people in South Australia to present their perspectives on the commercial harvest of kangaroos. Research methods were qualitative, involving consultations with authoritative Aboriginal people about their perspectives, aspirations, and how they see their rights and interests in relation to the commercial harvest of kangaroos. We found diverse views on this topic from Aboriginal research participants. For some Aboriginal people, strict cultural protocols preclude any involvement in the commercial harvest, but for people from other regions where the cultural laws concerning kangaroos are quite different, there is interest in developing enterprises based on kangaroo harvest. Despite the diversity of views about commercial kangaroo harvest, Aboriginal people across South Australia highly value kangaroos, and want to be included in decision-making processes for kangaroo management. There is potential for appropriate engagement of Aboriginal people in kangaroo management through improved communication, greater understanding and respect for the diversity of Aboriginal perspectives and protocols regarding native wildlife.

The Education of Aboriginal Children

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
P. egens
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Value System ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Balance Of Nature ◽  
Delicate Balance ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
White Settler ◽  
Australian Climate ◽  
Industrial Civilization ◽  
Aboriginal Children

I feel rather diffident in opening this topic as there are some of you who are far more experienced in this field than I am.I think that, in talking about the Aboriginal people, some basic premises should be stated first. The Aboriginal people had a highly developed tribal system and a much higher ethical structure than the white man has. By contrast, an excellent study of Australian values is contained in a book by Ronald Conway, a Melbourne Psychologist, called The Great Australian Stupor. His equation of the Australian value system is as follows:Material Wealth = Pleasure = Happiness= Reason for Living.He writes –Whereas the Aboriginal trod his enchanted earth for centuries on tip-toe, leaving the delicate balance of nature of a tired continent intact, the white settler preferred to greet the touchiness of Australian climate and soil with a murderous impatience.When the white man came to this continent he took the best land for agricultural purposes. He broke up the tribal system so that the Aboriginal people were left leaderless and landless. Now we expect, in our schools and other aspects of our society, that the Aboriginal people will bridge the gap to a super-industrial civilization (with its questionable value system) in two or three generations.

Burning the Bush: The Development of Australia’s Southwest Botanical Province

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Kost
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
The Past ◽  
Environmental Narratives ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
The Impact

Though early historical records frequently mention Aboriginal, or Noongar, firing in south-western Australia, little is known about how the Noongar people managed the vegetation with fire, or the impact this has had on the environment. This study uses interdisciplinary archaeology, with information from ethnographic data, historical records, and pollen records from the last 6,000 years to determine the actions of the Noongar people and demonstrate how the Southwest Botanical Province can be viewed as an artefact of Noongar land management. It is widely accepted that Aboriginal people have had an effect on some of Australia’s vegetation types through fire (Bowman 1998; Hallam 1975; Kershaw et al. 2002) although the extent of the influence of Aboriginal firing is debated (Mooney et al. 2007). However, pollen data and the study of fire indicators in Xanthorrhoea and Eucalyptus trunks have been used to demonstrate that the frequency of fire events in the south-west has decreased since European colonization (Atahan et al. 2004; Ward et al. 2001), resulting in the loss of fire-dependent vegetation species and changes in vegetation distribution patterns. This disruption of the vegetation communities has been compounded by the extensive clearing of land for farming and the displacement of the Noongar people (Dodson 2001). The impact that European colonization had on vegetation becomes more apparent as an understanding of the Noongar fire management practices is gained. There is increasing acknowledgement by researchers of the need to understand the influence of the past fire regime on vegetation patterns and to acknowledge traditional land management practices (Hopper and Gioia 2004), as well as the changes caused by European attempts to create a ‘natural’ regime, so that land management groups can take them into account when determining modern-day prescribed burning timetables. Archaeological studies such as this one can provide a unique insight into the past actions of people such as the Noongar, allowing us to determine how they shaped the landscape prior to European colonization (see Balée, Chapter 3 this volume for a more direct discussion of the ‘indigenous’ nature of pre-colonial landscapes; see Stump, Chapter 10 this volume for similar discussions of colonial and postcolonial environmental narratives).

What I Know Now: Radio as a means of empowerment for women of lived prison experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-27
Author(s):  
Heather Anderson ◽  
Charlotte Bedford
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Female Offenders ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
The Past ◽  
Almost Everywhere ◽  
Women And Girls

Incarceration rates are increasing almost everywhere and, while women and girls make up only a small percentage of the overall prison population, there has been a significant increase in their representation especially over the past 20 years (Carlton and Segrave, 2013). Despite the fact that societies are locking women up at increasingly high rates, the fundamental understandings regarding prison reform are based on a male norm, and do not meet the needs of female offenders (Walmsley, 2016). This article outlines the findings from the first stage of a grassroots action research project conducted with a support group for women of lived prison experience, based in Adelaide, South Australia, to investigate radio production as a means for supporting women in their transition to life outside of prison. The research found that empowerment manifested itself in a number of distinct ways, through both processes and the products of the project. Through the production of radio, women of prison experience recognised their own expertise and took ownership of their stories, while the radio products educated the wider public and validated the participants experiences.

Formal Education and Aboriginal Children

1986 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Christie
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Family ◽  
Aboriginal Society ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
First Time ◽  
Informal Process ◽  
Vast Range

All children, black or white, learn a lot more outside the classroom than inside it. All normal children, by the time they go to school for the first time, have already learnt to speak their mother tongue, have learnt who they are and where they fit into their family or community, and have learnt a vast range of behaviours which are appropriate (and inappropriate) for members of their culture. They have learnt all these through the informal process of socialization which affects all members of every culture throughout their lives. In traditional Aboriginal society, for example, hunting and food preparation skills, the traditional law, patterns of land ownership and important stories from the past, were all learnt informally in the daily life of the family. Only some sacred knowledge would be transmitted formally in a ceremonial context.

Aboriginal Culture in a Victorian School

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-18
Author(s):  
G. Barry
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
School To Work ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Migrant Population ◽  
Teacher Aide ◽  
New School ◽  
Aboriginal Children

On Friday July 7, Jungai Day was held at Bell Primary School, Preston, to mark the beginning of N.A.D.O.C. week for 1978. Bell has an enrolment of just under 500 and has a high and expanding migrant population.In early 1977, the first Aboriginal child arrived at the school, to add to the already complex nature of the school’s ethnic structure. Children from other Aboriginal families soon followed as the Housing Commission pursued its policy of providing houses that would match the finances of Aboriginal people.The Aboriginal children made an immediate impact on the school. For some teachers and children, it was their first encounter with Aboriginal people. The children also brought their own problems, apart from those usually faced by any child starting at a new school.It would hardly be overstating the case to say that the Aboriginal families would not have accepted the houses that they did, if they had not been in dire straits financially. The houses generally were small, cold, and inadequately furnished.During their first winter at the school, the children were absent for much of the time, due to illnesses that were almost certainly related to the quality of the housing. The long breaks in the children’s attendances, however, were also indicative of a negative attitude to school, an attitude that proved very difficult to change as the children were away so often.The situation didn’t really begin to improve until Pam Pederson arrived at the school to work as a teacher aide. Pam filled a crucial liaison role between the school and the Aboriginal families, as well as being a focal point of support for the Aboriginal children within the school.

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