Nyappara wardingi mpa?
What would be lost if Warlpiri disappeared in this century? There is a Warlpiri word, yirraru which means a deep sense of homesickness and melancholy. The Warlpiri language offers insights into a pre-industrial world view, a window onto another culture lost in the rest of mainstream Australia. As with any language , it represents another way of seeing the world, which makes it precious. Warlpiri’s survival is a matter of cultural diversity, just as important as ecological diversity. It is the accumulation of thousands of years of human ingenuity and resilience living in these desert landscapes. It is a heritage of human intelligence shaped by place, a language of the desert, with a richness and precision to describe the tasks of hunting and gathering. It is a language of community, offering concepts and expressions to capture the tightly knit interdependence required in this subsistence economy. Particular words describe the power of these relationships intertwined with place and community. For example jukurrpa is sometimes translated as ‘dreamtime’ or ‘dreaming’, but it conveys a much richer idea of a collective claim on a land, continually reinforced and lived out through the shared management of that land.
The strong connection to land and community means that people belong to places rather that places belong to people. It is an understanding of belonging which emphasized relationship, of responsibility as well as rights, and in return offers the security of a clear place in the world. Yapa (Warlpiri people) will often enquire ‘Where are you from?’ ‘Who are you related to?’ The identity of place and family matters most.
Warlpiri has a different sense of time, purpose and achievement.
Modern maps offer only a tiny glimpse of the relationship of yapa (Warlpiri people) to the landscape, which translates into a practice of dense naming; every rock, outcrop or patch of land is named.
So before you burst into paroxysms of praise (‘jeez that Frank has a way with words and deep insights’) I have a confession to make. The foregoing has been lifted almost word for word from Madeleine Bunting’s ‘Love of Country- A Hebridean Journey‘ (pages 222-225). My only contribution… replace Gaelic with Warlpiri, cianalas with yirraru, dúthchas with jukurrpa and the sea and islands with desert landscape.
Warumpi Band- My Island Home….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZEodxUx2ME
An Innis Aigh – gaelic traditional song – in Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCzUSJo5zqI 1:15 / 2:51
Blood Brothers – Jardiwarnpa clip 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfGaEZu03E
See ya’s
Frank