The FATSIL NEWSLETTER JUNE, 2002
THE FEDERATION OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER LANGUAGES CORPORATION
VOLUME 22
baake
Gunggari Country
From the photographic exhibition, Yung-a undee Gunggari Unyah Dhagul Yugambeh, which is about to go on show at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane for six weeks.
If you need some extra incentive to get along to the AGM and Language Forum this year, how about the fact that it's being held right in the heart of Sydney, with plenty of exciting places to head off to in your free time. Or maybe tack some extra time on to your trip and have a good look around.The Mercure Hotel, where the conference will be, is only a ten minute walk to the shops and Darling Harbour, so whether you want to spend up or just have a look at the great scenery you'll be in the thick of it.
Time to mark the calendar now for the FATSIL AGM and Indigenous Languages Forum, this year with a theme of: Our Languages - Our Rights. The dates for the meeting are the 30th September, to 2nd October 2002.Topics covered in this year's forum will include Indigenous Languages Policy Development for States and Territory;Translating and Interpreter Services; Community Project Developments; Languages and Broadcasting.
A new language centre to be incorporated into a $4.7 million heritage and cultural centre in Carnarvon WA, will provide a focal point for the work of five language groups within the area.
The Piyardi Yardi Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre will combine a traditional language centre with an art gallery, museum and exhibition space, conference facilities and meeting place for community members, as just some of the proposed functions of the development.
Munal — rock in Yugambeh, and baake — tree from the Gunggari language. An exhibition opening in July at the Queensland Museum will feature the Gunggari and Yugambeh languages of southern Queensland, with photographic images highlighting the link between country and language.
Last December, twenty students, of whom eighteen are indigenous, decided to spend two weeks learning about Australian Indigenous Languages. The compact South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) program was held at Nunkurarrin Yunti, and as part of their final assessment the students were asked to select a magazine and write a letter to the the editor, sharing their views on the value of Indigenous Languages.
There are over 40 traditional indigenous languages in the Kimberley Region and many Aboriginal people speak English as a second, third, or even fourth language. Aboriginal people who are able to deal with everyday matters in English may experience difficulties when faced with the `high' English or specific technical terminology employed by doctors, lawyers and police officers.
(a Letter from Scotland)
Roddy Maclean, a Gaelic journalist, broadcaster and writer, reports on how his language is struggling to survive against the onslaught of English in Scotland.
On the one hand,Scotland's Gaelic-speakers should feel, as they say in their own Celtic language,"misneachail" - in good heart - about the future of their tongue.With some sixty thousand speakers it has, after all, many more than any native Australian language.
Marisa Harris from AIATSIS presenting information at the FATSIL National Forum
Since our last update nearly a year ago,AIATSIS has completed a considerable amount of work on its large collection of language recordings as part of our ATSIC grant 'Preserving Endangered Language Heritage'. Many thanks to those of you who have contacted us to inform us of your language work and for the many requests for copies of tapes we have received (and your patience in obtaining these copies).
The initiative was announced recently in a joint statement from Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and the State Minister for Education Anna Bligh.
More than 19 Queensland Secondary schools are offering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies for the first time to Year 11 and 12 students this year.
The Dictionary of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria and its CD-Rom companion, Database of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria are the products of three years work by historical geographers Dr. Ian D. Clark and Toby Heydon, representing a seminal and comprehensive process of collaboration with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal historians, researchers and linguists.
"We were unhappy with the article We know that there are lots of problems in Cape York Communities but in our class the kids come to school and work hard.
