In this dispatch (of 25 November 2013) our correspondent discusses the importance of language and some difficulties that arise from differing values.

Selamat pagi teman-teman saya,

Since 1788 there has been a huge Communication Gap between the First Australians and the new arrivals.  The Gap that the assimilationists have defined and are determined to close pales into insignificance when compared to the massive Communication Breakdown….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5PvAi8PTsI between ‘white’ and ‘black’ Australia.

In July 2012, Chris Graham wrote an article in Tracker Magazine.  The article contrasted Liam Jurrah the AFL footballer and Liam Jurrah Jungarrayi the Warlpiri man.  A quote from the article:

“When you strip it all back – when you take out all the politics and the history – one of the main problems between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is a massive Gap in Understanding”

….people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening….and no one dared disturb the sound of silence…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a0hdxnw24g

Brett told whoever cared to listen that he felt greatly honoured for having been ‘given’ an Aboriginal name: ‘Mangarri’.

‘Mangarri’ is what Warlpiri people call Bread.

Wendy Baarda was sometime jokingly referred to as Mrs. Jara by her pupils.

‘Jara’ is what Warlpiri people call Butter.

A white lady was part of an ‘initiative’ to convert Aboriginal language school books into ‘talking books’ as an aid to teaching literacy to those children whose mother tongue is an Aboriginal language.

Like European languages, Aboriginal languages encompass regional dialects that can vary significantly in pronunciation and vocabulary.  This lady took a bundle of books written in a southern dialect to a place where a northern dialect was spoken.  She got some local ladies to read the books into a recording device.  An observer noticed that the words being recorded weren’t the same as those in the written text.  When the observer pointed this disparity out to the lady making the recordings, the rebuttal was “No, this is how the ladies want it” “This is how they pronounce it”

Very clever that, a talking book, ‘talking’ in another dialect!  That surely will help Aboriginal children learn to read!

In fact the Aboriginal ladies got it right.  Making writing meaningful is the first step in attaining literacy, word recognition and matching sounds to the writing comes next.  If the sounds, words (such as from another dialect or language) and/or text are meaningless to a child, the chances of that child learning to read are slim indeed.  Something the NT Dept. of Education, with its English literacy first policy, hasn’t picked up yet.

From Dr.Seuss’  DID I EVER TELL YOU HOW LUCKY YOU ARE ?:

And how fortunate _you’re_ not Professor de Breeze
who has spent the past thirty-two years, if you please,
trying to teach Irish ducks how to read Jivvanese.

A quote from the 1998 Wentworth Lecture by Dr. Raymattja Marika :
“We believe that our children have a right to know and understand their own cultural beliefs within the model bilingual program.  Learning literacy in the children’s first language takes precedence in the first primary schooling years from Transition to Level 3.  The focus of the English learning during this period is very much an oral one, helping the children to become a confident speaker of English before they have to grapple with English literacy and concepts.  Once children have mastered literacy skills in their first language they can then transfer them to English literacy.”

……teach your children well…. And feed them on your dreams…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq6rusc_EjM

Note: nothing about “learning their own language”; they already know it when they enter school.  A common misunderstanding regarding “bilingual education” in the case of those places fortunate enough to retain their Aboriginal languages is that it is about teaching two languages, rather than about teaching children to be literate and numerate and to think and to be inspired to learn.

A white schoolteacher had lost her little boy.  She searched everywhere in the school yard.  “Yes” she was told outside a class room “your boy was here, probably looking for you”.  “How do you know?  “Look, here are his footprints”  “Oh, is that what my boy’s footprints look like!”  “Fancy not knowing your own son’s footprints!”  the incredulous Warlpiri teachers remarked.

At a meeting held in English,  Nungarrayi got up and made an impassioned speech from the heart.  What she wanted was for her children and grandchildren to grow up as confident literate Warlpiri people who retained their language whilst having competence in English, who retained their Warlpiri identity and values in relation to family and land and so on…
As told to me, when Nungarrayi sat down, the meeting went on where it had left off in English ‘management speak’.  It was as if Nungarrayi didn’t exist.

….such are promises. All lies and jests. Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vZ__-uJCQ

A white teacher was given the task to give ‘Luritja lessons’ to school children.  She was of the opinion that learning the language should not be too difficult.  After all, she thought, these are 40,000 year old simple languages.

…. And here a song in Luritja… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1baOxLwccB8 (if this song had been recently recorded, there is a good chance the musicians would have gone straight back to gaol, for traffic offences!)

So there she was in a class “teaching” their own language to some pupils.  As she told it, for no apparent reason the children kept slapping her.  “I think they have some behaviour problems”  she said.

I wonder why they were slapping her?  Maybe they got the idea from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJQp-q1Y1s

Team teaching:  A boy who owned a shiny new bicycle (a long time ago when there were very few bicycles in Yuendumu) was allowed to keep his bike in the class room.  Another non school attending boy, a close relative of the bike owner, came into the class to ask to borrow the bike, seeing as it wasn’t being used.  A conversation took place in Warlpiri amongst the children and the Aboriginal teacher.  The Warlpiri teacher then gave permission to the boy to lend his bike.  The white teacher that hadn’t understood a word that transpired then put a stop to all of this, and was much enraged by the impertinence of the school wagging child to come in and ask for the bike.  The bike stayed put.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CTPLUcQAjk

Have a think about this vignette….. It illustrates so much that is different about ‘western culture’ to the culture of often confused Warlpiri people.  Chris Graham’s Gap in Understanding.  Attitudes to possessions, family obligations, school attendance (for its own sake), discipline, reward and punishment. But foremost, who is in charge.

More team teaching:  A Warlpiri teacher told the class in Warlpiri to go and sit on the floor mats.  The white teacher then told the kids in English to go and sit at their desks.  Both teachers then chastised those children sitting on the mats.

Terima kasih untuk memperhatikan

Hamba Frank

dan sekarang lagu yang bagus untuk kepentingan diri sendiri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR7HKOP55AQ