Today’s dispatch is ‘Interpretation’. Originally dispatched on 3 June 2016
Ngurrju-nya?
In 1994 IAD Press published ‘Aboriginal Languages in Education’
Nangala Baarda contributed a ten page article to this compendium titled: ‘The impact of the bilingual program at Yuendumu, 1974 to 1993’
Nangala didn’t shy away from mentioning some of the problems faced by the school in delivering education to Warlpiri children, but overall presented a very positive scenario, because it was. Under the sub-title ‘Benefits of the bilingual program’ there is this: “…The status of the Warlpiri language has improved greatly in the community, in the eyes of both white people and Warlpiri people. It is not ignored or put down by anyone. Lots of meetings are conducted in Warlpiri these days, with the decisions being related to the white people afterwards. And the language has gained in respect, so have the people. The bilingual program, together with the much less racist treatment of Aboriginal people, seems to be producing young people who are more sure of their identity and more satisfied with it…”
Back then meetings were well attended. A long period of not being listened to and gradually increasing control by what are effectively foreigners (non-Warlpiri people) has resulted in ‘meeting fatigue’ and mostly poor attendance at meetings. In recent times I’ve witnessed authority figures (politicians, bureaucrats, welfare officers, police etc.) speak to Warlpiri people in a patronising authoritative way. I’ve even seen groups of Warlpiri people being admonished and lambasted by such as the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, who should know better. Needless to say all of this ethnocentric lack of respect is delivered in English.
I recall Jampijimpa Robertson (who sadly is no longer with us) and Jakamarra Nelson acting as interpreters at meetings. It was then that the difference between translation and interpretation was driven home to me. I had learned enough Warlpiri to realize that the English words spoken by say a political candidate, didn’t match the Warlpiri words being rendered by Jakamarra or Jampijimpa. When every now and then I would grasp a snippet of Warlpiri meaning I’d find that it was identical to the English meaning.
By way of illustration of what I’m talking about, the Spanish expression ‘tomarle el pelo’ (taking one’s hair) is identical in meaning to the English ‘pulling one’s leg’.
I could only marvel at Jampijimpa and Jakamarra’s linguistic agility.
I had always admired those people who do simultaneous interpretation at the U.N. In 2011 I attended the IX International Rangeland Congress in Rosario (Argentina). Why I would bother to go, is another story. The papers were presented in English or Spanish so I got to put on a pair of headphones and listen to those Babel-fish people. Like the film sub-titles on television, the interpretation ranged from excellent pure genius to rather piss poor. It has made me wonder how many manmade disasters (colloquially known as fuck-ups) are the result of misinterpretations.
In the last Dispatch I was guilty of ambiguity. When I said that I would make an exception and judge Kieran Finnane’s Book ‘TROUBLE: on trial in Central Australia’ by its cover and then juxtaposed the ‘glass midden’ with …the ethnocentric assimilationist interventionists see only broken glass…. I left out that I thought the description of scattered broken glass as a ‘glass midden’ was very clever and evocative. As a result of this omission some would have misinterpreted and understood that I disapproved of the book. Quite the opposite, I think it is a must read for anyone interested in the complexity of Central Australian societies and the manmade disaster that is the NT justice system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuzFQTpjDE …..Trouble in mind- Lightnin’Hopkins.
So when a Dispatch written in English (a language in which I consider myself reasonably competent) for a predominantly English speaking audience is open to misinterpretation, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize what Warlpiri people are up against when they apply an entirely different weltanschauung (world view) to expressing themselves in English.
When the Intervention rolled into Yuendumu in 2007 on the coattails of a politically opportunist stigmatising propaganda barrage (our very own ‘Children Overboard’ and ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ scenario) a public meeting was called. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLbHihaXvyo The entirely English language meeting consisted mainly of the community being lectured on a new tougher paradigm which would deal with everything which they alleged was wrong with our community. It was all a bit much for Jungarrayi Sims- he got up and forcefully told the occupation forces : “You should go after the perpetrators, the perpetrators are who you should go after”. We all knew exactly what Jungarrayi meant and agreed with him.
He’d left out…. Why don’t you all piss off, leave us alone and instead go after the alleged paedophile rings somewhere else, because you won’t find any here….
The authorities interpreted Jungarrayi’s call to “go after the perpetrators” as an endorsement of their policies.
…..Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIBB0QjkQU …The boxer- Simon and Garfunkel
Ngaka-nanyarra nyanyi
Jungarrayi Baarda
The sun gonna shine…..
Chippie Hill, Louis Armstrong – Trouble in Mind (1926)… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C42fstnucac
Aretha FRANKLIN – “Trouble In Mind [Live]” (1965)….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEWCLL5eR2s