an ethical dilemma...

Background: I'm still here at Kalkarindji where alcohol is banned from the community, as it was before and after the Australian Government's Intervention. There's a club here where you can go to have a beer after work, but only if you've been to work that day.

Situation: There are two visiting tradesmen (white (kartiya)) staying near where I am who are having a quiet drink after work. They are breaking one of the laws introduced across most of the Territory when the Intervention came into being.

Ethical Dilemma: Do I say something to the Federal Government rep who lives here when I'm on my way out of town or do I let it go? (There are quite a few pros and cons which I won't go into... I'm hoping I'll get some responses that will flesh them out anyway...)

Back at Kalkarindji

Hello!

I'm in Kalkarindji for a week, delivering one of the language courses I teach to a small group of local woman who mostly work at the school. Today was the first day and it was a decent start to the week. The ladies seem keen and already skilled. Some speak Gurindji really well and have good literacy skills already. There are heaps of Gurindji books at the school and I brought a stack with me too. All really positive news - a fairly well resourced language with fairly strong speakers who are fairly literate and are fairly motivated. What more can you ask for?

The school has been really helpful and given students release to do their coursework and given us space in the library to do our work, so I have nothing but good things to say. But something interesting did happen when I was talking to a staff member about how exciting it is to have so much there all ready to capitalise on for a language and culture program. I was trying to tell them that here at Kalkarindji it's a similar situation to Numbulwar which has had the fortune of a well-funded program for decades now while Kalkarindji seems to have missed out. Numbulwar is a two-way school, you see. Oops, I mentioned the T-word which caused a bit of a reaction and I had to backpeddle and explain my point another way! Just lucky I didn't mention the 'B'-word!!

Also curious to note is that I was discouraged away from anything that might involve developing Gurindji literacy activities in the classroom... It seemed to be cloaked in pedagogical reasoning (e.g. oral language learning is better, using video is a great tool), but I have an inkling that there is a certain 4-Hours of English policy in the back of people's minds causing an 'oh-no, we can't have concerted efforts at quality teaching of an Indigenous language, including literacy and all!'...

... or maybe it's just that the timetable is so bloody full that, yet again, there's just no time for language and culture programs.

... if only imminent language death was motivation for drastic action, but no... doesn't seem that way. :-(

... at least I get to work with some deadly language workers again tomorrow!

PS. I had a pesky political thought today... there's a small stream of linguists that have/do come and go through Kalkarindji. Maybe we need to all come together at the same time here in Kalkarindji for a week to create a critical mass of Kartiya that are more interested in maintaining Gurindji traditions than replacing them. (A mini on-site Gurindji language forum... get the McNair's here and everything!) Wouldn't that be fun!

Stoopid Hendo

So every schoolkid in Australia had their English literacy tested and of course NT did pretty crap - to be expected really given how many ESL kids we have (who go 'untreated' in the classroom, i.e. no ESL methodologies employed) and how thin resources get spread. Our Chief Minister Paul Henderson said something rather disturbing about it (as reported on ABC news website):

Henderson talks up NT education results

The Northern Territory Education Minister, Paul Henderson, says national testing results represent a small step forward in the performance of NT students, and shine a light on areas that need improvement.

The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN, results show the Northern Territory has performed the worst of all Australia's jurisdictions.

But Mr Henderson, who is also the Chief Minister, says he sees encouraging signs of improvement in the Territory compared with last year's results.

He says it is not necessarily appropriate to draw a direct comparison with other states and territories.

"There have been slight improvements this year, but they have been improvements.

"To compare the performance of the Territory as a whole - with 33 per cent of our students Indigenous and 80 per cent of those students in very remote schools - with the performance of urban Sydney is somewhat anomalous."

------

Um, excuse me can we just look at that last bit again...

"To compare the performance of the Territory as a whole - with 33 per cent of our students Indigenous and 80 per cent of those students in very remote schools - with the performance of urban Sydney is somewhat anomalous."

Is he saying the NT does bad on these tests because one third of our students are Indigenous????? WTF!

A lovely post

wheee! that's my joyful noise after reading Jane's lovely post...

Another video - this time in Yolŋu Matha - rather powerful

Hey I came across another video chock-full of language. This time it's Yolŋu Matha and it's not a language learning video. It's a powerful message from an Arnhem Land homeland, from someone clearly and rightfully disturbed by the latest government policy that leans towards developing big communities (already often barely functional) and against homelands/outstations (often places where family groups live peacefully, happily and healthily while maintaining language and cultural traditions). It's worth a viewing. Here's the message from the mob that posted the video:

Created in response to the Northern Territory and Federal Government's continued attempts to close down Indigenous Homeland communities.

Yolngu and other Indigenous people have been living on their Homelands since before Settlement. Since missionary days they have asserted their desire to remain on their own traditional country. Most people thought this right was enshrined in the Land Rights Act (NT).

However, current and recent Government policies have been effectively coercing Yolngu and other Indigenous people off their country. These measures include rolling back basic services to Homelands, and closing schools while simultaneously linking school attendance to parental social service payments.

Ngapartji Ngapartji and online language lessons

While in Alice I was lucky enough to visit the Ngapartji Ngapartji office and meet a couple of the people involved in it. Just one of the things they are doing is making nice little language lessons. This one was availalble online. The language is Pitjantjatjara. (I'm assuming!!)

Docker River Language Lesson from alex kelly on Vimeo.

Neat huh?

nga-rlindiyi na-mbarnduwa-yurr

(Marra - I'm going to Mparntwe (Alice Springs))

I'm off to Alice tomorrow for another week of teaching. It'll be freezing!! Yikes.

I like Alice though. I love that you hear people talking language all the time, everywhere, unselfconsciously. Because I've worked on very endangered languages for so long, my instinct is to stick a recording device in front of their face before valuable data gets lost into the ether, but then I realise that there's no need to do that with languages that are still viable. (viable, yet still virtually ignored by wider society).

Even though I'm enjoying my work, I've been missing Ngukurr and working out bush in general more and more lately. I think I'm over the burnout I was feeling two years ago and now I'm just feeling rather displaced from knowing how communities work and remembering what's important to people living in communities. I've become another whitefella who flies in and out (so-to-speak), hoping that what I do has some impact, but really not knowing if that's the case. What's worse, is that I think I've forgotten *how* to work out bush. I'm too comfy watching Austar and playing sport twice a week and sleeping in our new king size bed and cruising around Katherine on a scooter - I've forgotten that I can actually give all this up and reap alternative benefits by spending time in communities with some of the wonderful people that live there.

I think in the mid-semester break, I might try and do a bit of a tour of the region for two weeks - catching up with students in a low-pressure environment and hopefully getting a few more people interested in doing language courses. :-)

Oh, and a functioning language centre to support my students would be a big help too.