Culture is an amazing thing. You have to consider it a very special thing that you have, a special value. If you want to put it in simple terms - it’s like love. It doesn’t matter who you are. It is important, it is valuable, is a part of us. Culture is like that. But culture doesn’t have any value whatsoever if you don’t share it.
The same can be said about language. It needs to be shared. You can’t lock up something special that belongs to all of us. We, who may be the last speakers, need to share the special things about our languages.
Jack Buckskin, member of the Taikurtinna dance group at the opening of the LINGAD conference
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strengthening languages
Indigenous Language workers from all over Australia travelled to Kaurna country (Adelaide) LINGAD 07, to explore and express their experiences of preserving and invigorating Indigenous languages. Traditional owner, Kauwanu (Uncle) Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien, welcomed delegates to country, ‘Marni ninna budni womma tarndanyanna: Kaurna Yerta’ ‘Welcome to the Adelaide Plains: Kaurna Country’, at the opening address on Tuesday the 25th of September. Then things got busy. Thirty-five presentations, four keynote addresses, six plenary sessions, a hypothetical and a three-course conference dinner followed.
The Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages (FATSIL) recently launched its new website, www.fatsil.org.au. It contains all kinds of information about FATSIL and Indigenous language development, and a forum section where you can submit comments about suggestions about FATSIL activities and directions.
If you’re be passing through the coastal NSW town of Nambucca Heads on a Tuesday morning, and you are very quiet, you might hear singing voices of the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Cooperative Elders choir, drifting through the trees. They’re a special group because they are singing in Gumbaynggirr, the Indigenous language of that country, and the atmosphere is great.
From left: Lindsay Billy, Leileni Woosup, Rev. Mary Eseli, Lui Namoa, Maudai Bowie
This is where we learn Anghamuthi with Ama Mary. On Tuesday mornings we sing songs, make stories, draw, and practice words. Everyone in Injinoo speaks Creole, so we say the Creole, English and Anghamuthi words. ‘Watee’ means Dugong, a special animal for everyone here in Injinoo.
Can a language truly survive unless it can adequately convey its immediate world and the feeling of those living in its context? Can it travel without its full swag of voices? For people on the move, it’s the jokes, poems and songs that evoke all that the language can carry and keep it resonant anywhere. Its constant, vital use maintains the community that moved with it.
When Father Elemo Tapim and his gangs of Eastern Torres Strait Islanders began work constructing the massive Queensland and Western Australian inland rail system, they documented every mile in a remarkable collection of songs in the Meriam language. The songs were contemporary folk songs in their time and made sure the Eastern Torres Strait Island languages arrived on the mainland strong, and more
importantly, vital.
This story has been written with the support of the Young Indigenous Writers Initiative, a mentoring program run by FATSIL that helps young Indigenous writers to develop their writing skills and get their work published. The aim of the program is to foster and promote the new generation of Indigenous writers in Australia. Irene (Kindau) Salee, from Injinoo, a community on the tip of Cape York, is our Young Indigenous Writers Initiative participant and Voice of the Land contributor for this issue.
