The Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Dr David Kemp has responded to concerns raised over the impact of the Department's National Indigenous Literacy, Numeracy and Attendance Strategy, which is due for release early this year.
WHILE we're all busy celebrating the passing of another century, it's interesting to think of the impact this one had on some vital aspects of our land and heritage.
To a central Australian rock carving the last century made no noticeable difference. To the waves of sand creeping over the middle of the continent it didn't mean a whisker. To the chiselled curves of the coastal rivers it was just another bundle of years, but to the languages of the land, which also had been kicking around undisturbed for hundreds of centuries, it was a stinker.
THE Queensland State Language body has been informed of a proposal by the Queensland Government to train facilitators to assist witnesses and defendants in the judicial system who have Aboriginal English as a first language. The Department of Justice and Attorney-General and the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat (QAILSS) have developed the Aboriginal English in the Courts Project after consultation with representatives from a range of relevant organisations.
They've been heard in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria as well as their home State of Western Australia, and now members of the band Jabu are negotiating to appear at the opening of the Sydney Olympics. The band, made up of family members Delson Stokes Snr, his sons Boyd and Delson Jnr with their cousin Anthony Maher include lively versions of Advance Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda, sung in Wangkatha, amongst the mix of country rock and desert rock music that makes up each show. Together now for eleven years, Jabu make time to visit schools, and take part in workshops encouraging young people to appreciate culture through music.
Band members from left Delson Stokes Snr, Anthony Maher, Delson Stokes Jnr and Boyd Stokes
Bachelor Institute student Marjorie Petrick, setting her own course.
In Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Arrernte woman Marjorie Petrick is breaking into a new field in indigenous language education, learning to read and write the Arrernte language in braille.
With support from the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics unit at Bachelor Institute, and access to a Mountbatten braille translating machine, Marjorie is now able to communicate in her mother's language, and is working confidently towards a career teaching others.
Palawa children from the Cape Barren Island Primary School
palawa kani mapali [ Tasmania ]
At least eight and maybe as many as sixteen languages were spoken on the island now known as Tasmania.
RIGHT: Emerenna and Warena Burgess, Freda Spotswood and Jack Spotswood McDonald, and Joshua Summers - palawa children from the Cape Barren Island Primary School spell out katina (beach) on the sand.
Lynne Spotswood, teacher's aide at the school, uses language with the children every day, usually in natural settings outdoors. In twelve months they have progressed from saying single words to writing full sentences and stories, singing their own songs and counting, all in palawa kani.
Lynne Spotswood was a Tasmanian Aboriginal delegate to the World Indigenous People's Conference in Hawaii in July 1999. She tells of how proud and emotional she was to hear palawa kani spoken there in a presentation given by another palawa delegate.
WELL it's nearly that time of year again! ATSIC will soon be advertising nationally, seeking submissions under the Language Access Initiatives Program for the 2000/01 and 2001/02 financial years.
Indigenous Australian Language Studies - North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns Campus
Certificate III. Information Sheet for 2000.
Students from the course on a field trip to Tennant Creek.
1. Who is the course designed for?
The Certificate III in Indigenous Australian Language Studies has been designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people who have an interest and commitment to keeping their traditional languages alive. Your language may still be widely spoken in your community or only spoken occasionally by a small number of people. It may even be the case that there are no fluent speakers of the language, but efforts have been made over recent years to reintroduce it back into the community through various language revival projects. You may have been employed to work on these projects or been involved in other ways.
ANY teacher will tell you that if you want people to learn quickly, you make the lesson fun.
Following this good advice, the language team from Birri-Gubba Wadja Bimbi Aboriginal Corporation in Townsville, now have people not only speaking the language, but yelling it at each other as they scramble to be the winner in the Birri-Gubba card game. The game is played along the lines of 'snap', only in this case, before a player can slam a hand down on a pile of cards, they have to first call the top card by its correct language name.
A RANGE of proposals drafted at the Indigenous Languages Forum in Perth in October, will be the subject of discussions and workshops at the FATSIL Policy Committee meeting in Canberra in January 2000. Delegates attending the meeting will be encouraged to consider input from all regions of their respective States and Territories, to give strong focus to the material being produced by the national Policy Committee. Here are a few more pictures from the Perth Forum.
