If you need any confirmation that the work being done to promote Indigenous languages is beginning to have a significant effect, look no further than the lead article in this issue.
Last years display at the Penrith City Library attracted strong community interest.
Artworks, audio-visuals and current Aboriginal issues combine to make a dynamic presentation for this year's HSC Aboriginal Studies Project Display, being promoted by the NSW Aboriginal Studies unit of the Dept.of Education and Training.
PLANS by the NSW Government to introduce the dual naming of landmarks and geographical features throughout the State, have been welcomed by FATSIL, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the ATSIC State Advisory Committee.
The initiative announced recently by the New South Wales Minister for Information Technology, Kim Yeadon, will see dual names applied to geographical features and landmarks, after consultation with Aboriginal community representatives. No changes will be made to the names of suburbs, towns or streets.
The Sixth Biennial Australian Linguistics Institute, to be held 8th-12th and 15th-19th July 2002, at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia provides an outstanding opportunity for linguists, applied linguists and language teachers to expand and develop professionally and for undergraduate and postgraduate students to extend their skills training and their knowledge bases.
Students from the Docker River School interpretation of Janis Joplin's 'Me and Bobby McGee', which is now used in the Pitjantjatjara program at Alice Springs High.
Exciting times are ahead for the staff at AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies), with the official opening in September of their new premises on Acton Peninsula in Canberra. A strong focus of the work of the Institute has been the support it offers for language work, and in this area, AIATSIS is preparing to meet rapidly increasing demand. Principal Russell Taylor, spoke to the Voice of the Land about the role of AIATSIS in promoting and supporting language projects.
AIATSIS has the world's largest collection of computer- based information on Australia's Indigenous languages in ASEDA (Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive). ASEDA's function is to collect and look after the computer-based information for the long term, and also to supply it to communities and others.The Archives section holds sound recordings of languages and the Library has many books and unpublished documents.AIATSIS has a Research Fellow in Language and Society ( Dr Patrick McConvell) who is involved in projects in this area.
My name is Lynne Dent. I am in the position of Koorie Early Childhood Field Officer at the Department of Human Services,Traralgon Branch.This covers kindergartens from the border near Mallacoota down to Phillip Island.
Warrabarna Kaurna! Reclaiming an Australian Language is a longitudinal study of the reclamation of the Kaurna Language, where Kaurna people are working in collaboration with linguists and educators.The book takes an ecological perspective to trace the history of Kaurna, drawing on all known sources (mostly from the period 1836-1858), and all known emerging uses in the modern period (1989-1997).
The FATSIL National Indigenous Languages Contacts Directory is being updated. Be sure to contact the office and let us know of any new inclusions or changes to the old entries that need to be made.
Australia Council
The new 2001 Handbook Support for the Arts is now available.
Ph. 02 9215 9000
Toll free 1800 216 912 or
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www.ozco.gov.au
The theme of the FATSIL Language Forum and AGM for 2001 is to assist 'Stolen Generations' persons access the language of their country.
This theme will be developed through a number of panel discussions and workshops dealing with issues vital to the development and expansion of the National Indigenous Language Programs.
Ngurra — Back home by Wyvern Jackson, an emerging artist from the East Kalgoorlie Primary School.
Wangkatha students from the East Kalgoorlie Primary School in WA are proud as punch of the 2001 calendar they worked together to create. The eighteen colourful paintings reproduced on the calendar reflect the stunning landscape of the area, as well as the integration of both the traditional and contemporary lifestyles. Language and cultural project workers in the Goldfields area are accustomed to seeking support for their projects from local mining companies. The publication of the calendar was proudly supported by Heron Resources, the Rotary Club of Hannans-Kalgoorlie, and the family, friends and community of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Each language is like a soaring cathedral: a thing of beauty, the product of immense creative effort, filled with rich tapestries of knowledge.
Comparing disparate languages reveals clues to the fundamental building blocks of human thought, as well as echoes of what scientists call our "deep history" - the vast, prehistoric movements of peoples across continents and the relation of one tribe to another.
