New Report on Indigenous Language in Schools

I'm a little short on time (and head-space for proper critical analysis and commentary) at the moment, but I'm still keen to post on the many goings-on in the world of Australian Indigenous languages, and policy relating to them.

So with that as pre-cursory statement, I present the following text copied from Julia Gillard's media release (I haven't read the report yet, but you can download it here):

The Minister for Education, the Hon Julia Gillard, today released the Indigenous Language Programs in Australian Schools — A Way Forward report.

The report was prepared by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), funded by the Australian Government’s School Languages Program.

The report provides a snapshot of the current situation of Indigenous language education in schools across Australia.

Over 16 000 Indigenous students and 13 000 non-Indigenous students located in 260 Australian schools are involved in an Indigenous language program.

The report reveals that over 80 different Indigenous languages are taught in schools throughout Australia.

The report found that learning an Indigenous language can enhance a range of social and academic outcomes for all students.

The Australian Government is committed to supporting languages education in Australian schools. The School Languages Program provides funding of $112 million from 2005 to 2008 to support the learning of all languages, including Indigenous languages.

The Australian Government has also committed $540 million to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes and close the gap in educational attainment for Indigenous Australians.

The Government firmly believes that all Australian students need to be proficient in English to be able to full participate in the world of work and further study.

This is what it's all about

Tonight I met a woman from Adelaide, whose mother was taken away/stolen from the communities where I work. Her mother is Dalabon. I was excited to make the connection, as I think she was too.

I was also all too aware that having a whitefella tell you that they're completing a PhD on the language you never got a chance to learn was likely pretty alienating. I'm hoping to meet up with her again on Thursday night at the closing night concert, and hear more from her about her story/ies, and to see what I can offer.

AWAYE! weighs in to the Bilingual debate

The Radio National Aboriginal arts and culture program AWAYE! most recently did a feature show on the bilingual education issue in the NT. They also took in a wider view of indigenous language maintenance and revitalisation around the country.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the program yet in full, but have downloaded it for closer scrutiny in the near future. So, this post is a heads-up on what promises to be a fairly close look at the situation.

WIPCE on the radio

On tomorrow's breakfast program, 3CR will be broadcasting interviews with two deadly women from Barunga (Marie Brennan) and Beswick (Miliwanga Sandy), who are attending WIPCE. If you're in Melbourne, it's 855AM, otherwise stream it from their website. No podcasts, only live.

WIPCE invitation

The World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Education is on in Melbourne at the moment. I went to the opening festival on Sunday at the Aborigines Advancement League and was duly swept up in the excitement and emotion of such a large gathering of proud indigenous people from all over the world.

It's extra special for me too, cos some of the people I work with from up north are visiting Melbourne to attend the conference. So we've been doing all the tourist things like going to the Queen Victoria Market (good: the food! bad: seeing all the 'Made in China' Aboriginal souvenirs), visiting my family, going up the Eureka Tower. It's great to be able to play host in return for once!

Being at the opening festival was also an amazing lesson in indigenous solidarity: getting commentary from my co-collaborators on their thoughts about all the various performances we witnessed from Māori, Hawai'ians, Canadian First Nations peoples, Ainu, Thursday Islanders, and Saami.

I'm not attending the actual conference, but am planning to attend the closing night this Thursday at the Tennis Centre. It's open to the public and is very affordable at $15. Big names like Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and Kev Carmody are performing, as well as traditional performances by the delegates. They blew me away on Sunday at the opening festival. Tix are available from Ticketek, and are not allocated seating. Hope to see you there!!

More news on the film The Linguists

I received the email from Ironbound Films, the production company behind The Linguists. The educational DVD looks like an exciting package, but it's $US300. Gulp.

[Update: in response to an email querying the price I got the following reply, "We do imagine releasing a consumer priced DVD in the future."]

* THE LINGUISTS educational DVD now available
* THE LINGUISTS screens worldwide
* President Bush views Ironbound video aboard the Intrepid
* Ironbound in production on two new feature hits

* * *

* THE LINGUISTS educational DVD now available

Universities, high schools, libraries, cultural centers: the educational DVD of Ironbound Films’ Sundance hit THE LINGUISTS is now available for purchase. Includes 30 minutes of DVD extras and discussion guide. DVDs will not ship until December 23, but preorder now to avoid the holiday rush: http://www.thelinguists.com/dvd.

* THE LINGUISTS screens worldwide

On Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 10 PM, THE LINGUISTS will air nationally on PBS (check local listings).

February 21 has been sanctioned by the UN “International Mother Language Day.” Refresh http://www.thelinguists.com/screenings.html as momentum builds to screen THE LINGUISTS worldwide. Stop by to see it this Sunday, December 7, at 3 PM, at the Peekskill Paramount Theater as part of Free Arts Day; or hop a flight to be part of its upcoming premiere in Mumbai, Paris, or Kathmandu.

If you can’t attend a screening, Google one. THE LINGUISTS was only the fifth film in the Filmmakers@Google series at Google HQ in Mountain View, CA. Watch 34 minutes of Q&A at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxI1MP3H92M.

* President Bush views Ironbound video aboard the Intrepid

President George W. Bush reopened the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in a ceremony this Veterans Day. He toured past Ironbound’s 50-foot video wall “that makes you feel like you are at sea” and saw our short documentary about takeoff and landing. Mission accomplished! Check out http://wcbstv.com/topstories/intrepid.world.war.2.859600.html to see video of our video.

* Ironbound in production on two new feature hits

In our usual globetrotting, Ironbound returns from a Kenya shoot for “The New Recruits,” a documentary about social entrepreneurship funded by PBS through a grant from the Skoll Foundation; and now departs for exotic New Jersey, where we have secured exclusive access to “The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” not seen by the public in 20 years. Fasten your seatbelts for this yet-to-be titled blockbuster on the pioneer of trash TV.

For more information contact:

Ironbound Films, Inc.
PO Box 441
Garrison, NY 10524
T: 845.424.3700
F: 845.424.3753
http://www.ironboundfilms.com
http://www.thelinguists.com

More on the Intervention

Background Briefing on Radio National played a story on the Intervention this week. I heard most of it, and found it a *little* one-sided: all about how inconvenient the Intervention is, and not so much about some of the positive changes.

It seemed to parallel the ABC TV's recent show quite a lot, given that it was also recorded in the same communitites, with largely the same people, some of whom were related to the young man who recently shot himself near Bulman.

You win some, you lose some

News today that meh will be added to the 30th anniversary edition of the Collins Dictionary. It will be defined as "an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring" and is attributed to Bart and Lisa Simpson (of The Simpsons).

The following may be old news to some (admittedly I heard of it a little while ago, but only found a good link today), but better late than never. Which is very appropriate, actually: The Collins Dictionary is trying to revive endangered English words, which are threatened with being culled from the next edition of the dictionary. A sample of words, taken from the Age article:

abstergent: cleansing or scouring;
agrestic: rural, rustic, unpolished, uncouth;
apodeictic: unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration;
caducity: perishableness, senility;
calignosity: dimness, darkness;
embrangle: to confuse or entangle;
exuviate: to shed (a skin or similar outer covering);
fatidical: prophetic;
griseous: streaked or mixed with grey;
somewhat grey;
malison: a curse;
mansuetude: gentleness, mildness;
niddering: cowardly;
nitid: bright, glistening;
olid: foul-smelling;
oppugnant: combative, antagonistic or contrary;
periapt: a charm or amulet;
recrement: waste matter; refuse; dross;
roborant: tending to fortify or increase strength;
vaticinate: to foretell; prophecy;
vilipend: to treat or regard with contempt.

Funnily (and fore-bodingly) enough, each of these words comes up as a 'spelling mistake' in my browser as I compose this!

The Collins people have started a campaign to increase the use of these words, so as to justify not giving them the heave-ho come editing time. Apparently celebrities have been engaged to 'adopt' a word, and start using it as much as possible, so it might catch on. Like fetch in Mean Girls, perhaps...

The Intervention: doco on ABC

Tomorrow night at 9:30pm, the ABC is screening The Intervention, a doco about the Intervention in the Katherine region.

I know several of the people who feature in this, and remember when it was being shot - as I was in the region at the time. I'm waiting with baited breath to see it.

Cultural maintenance in new media

John Bradley and Amanda Kearney (at Monash University's Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies) have been working for some time on developing an animation of a traditional Yanyuwa song, which recounts the journey of a tiger shark to Yanyuwa country.

The animation looks great - it was previewed on an Australian Story episode (earlier this year?) about Bradley and his work at Booroloola. Here is a link to an article about the animation project, and you can follow a link from there to a videoed interview with Bradley and Kearney, which also previews snippets of the animation. The article and the video both include some discussion about the adoption of modern technology in cultural maintenance, and some issues which emerged in doing so - to do with access, and literacy in new media.