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The Forum > Article Comments > Raising an Aboriginal language from the dead > Comments

Raising an Aboriginal language from the dead : Comments

By Malcolm King, published 15/9/2008

The resurrection of the Kaurna language is astonishing because it flies in the face of a global trend of language death and diminishment.

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I guess if these people learn this language as a second language, no harm done, if they learn english fluently as well. If they are going to learn two languages than possibly they should consider the benfits of learning one that may be helpful in the world stage as it may help that person's understanding of the world through an outside culture, as well as english.

The problem may come about if these dead languages, that are spoken by so few people at huge cost of resources in society are only kept as a sort of living museum.

If you want to help people in this day and age, then you really need, in my opinion, to provide a means of gaining further education and above all, information. So if you don't speak a language that has internet resources - you're outside modern society and at a massive disadvantage, regardless of how good it makes you feel.

As an academic exercise, great stuff if you can get funding for the sheer fundamental nature of what you're doing, though what we're going to do with the collections of all these dead languages you speak of I have no idea. What do you do with all the information on dead languages, particularly all those that had no written form? As a means to helping people in society not a chance.

The debate rages in New Zealand, and they have the same arguments, to learn the local language, and they have the big advantage of only wanting to learn one Maori language for the entire country or learn foreign languages as well as english. Some very inflamed passions over there about this.
Posted by rpg, Monday, 15 September 2008 11:53:55 AM
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Interesting contrast between language diversity and ecological diversity. Me thinks both are important. A monoglot would diminish us all. Was it in Blade Runner where the locals spoke a patios of Chinese and French?

I think the real benefits of resurrecting an Aboriginal language may be found in what medicinal cures they might have had 300 or 400 years ago, but lost today.
Posted by Cheryl, Monday, 15 September 2008 4:49:02 PM
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The greatest contributors to preserving indigenous and tribal languages are without doubt Christian missionaries.

The command of Christ to share the Gospel among all nations and His love, drives us to reach them.. understand their cultures, learn their languages.. reduce it to writing.. teach them literacy... ALL that before we can communicate the Christian message.. so if they say 'no'...they still benefit from all that work.

Christian missionary groups like Summer Institute of Linguistics/Wycliff Bible Translators/New Tribes Mission..and many independant missionaries give their LIVES just to give indigenous tribes their own language and preserve it.

Hudson Southwell produced a Kayan language dictionary.. (Sarawak)
Alan and Madge Belcher spent decades translating the New Testament into Lun Bawang... many others spent years and years translating into other indigenous languages. There is even a PENAN Bible. (new Testament) how much does the Malaysian government care about these pesky jungle nomads who wander around among the valuable timber and getting in the way?.. very little.

DUSUN BIBLE. (sabah)
After a word of welcome by Joel Ng, General Secretary of the Bible Society Malaysia, hymns and choruses in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Dusun were sung. Among those present were Rev Datuk Dr Thu En Yu, Principal of Sabah Theological Seminary (STS), Pastor Datuk Arun Selutan of SIB Sabah, Rev Dr David Burfield of STS, Pastor Judy Berinai and Canon Sylvia Jeanes of the Anglican Church.
The scripture reading for the day - read by Puan Stemmah Sariau in Bahasa Dusun and Pastor Richard Samporoh in Bahasa Malaysia - was taken from Matthew 7:24-27:

Comment.
I know and have worked with most of the people mentioned in the last 2 paragraphs.. a great privilege indeed. How great is our God!
Posted by Polycarp, Monday, 15 September 2008 9:03:39 PM
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My vague recollection of the topic from a News week article some years ago is that there are about 3000 native aboriginal languages in Australia, and at least one dies (no longer spoken as a first language) a week.

With English being the defacto language of business, preserving even one language is an uphill battle. While I applaud the effort to revive the Kaurna language, I need to ask what is happenning to the other living languages?

The body of the Kaurna language cannot be revived with a dictionary of 2000 words as the richness, idioms and context are lost, and it is like trying to revive a skeleton when the meat has gone.

My argument would be that it is not possible to preserve all the languages, and that effort should be focused on those with substantive following.

While this is an emotive issue and practicalities are often unwelcome, I would vote for saving what you can before all native languages have faded to a handful of dictionaries in university libraries.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 8:45:07 AM
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A language to an indigenous people is more than some living museum it is a symbol, a means of which to access their cultural identity. Who they are, their place in the universe, a way of life, an identity that is theirs. Not one that a conquering forces has imposed, but theirs. What price is your cultural identity?

It seems to some responders that they consider their cultures and religion very highly and I guess that is as it should be. But and it is a big but instead of exuding the arrogance of the conquering race we would be wise to learn from all cultures, as each has something unique to say.

Cheryl your reasoning has some merit. While in Adelaide I was peripherally involved with the creation of video on the migration/food cycle of the local tribes from the sand dunes of West Beach to the hills. I was attempting to arrange a video on a ‘cultural journey’ (their myths and their REASONS) sadly the Whiteman effect obstructed the project and I run out of time.

My growing up amongst two tribes in PNG and being regarded as just another child (a mouth that needed occasional feeding, a backside that needed the occasional kicking and a mind that need training) gave me an insight into different worlds, different ways of seeing and thinking. One of the languages I could make my self understood in (mostly forgotten now) is now threatened. When it goes, so will a whole understanding of nature, authority structure, unique society…the glue that gave a whole people their universe.

Noble Savage is a grossly arrogant misinterpretation and RELIGIOUS missionaries are little more than agents of cultural ignorance and genocide.
I can not express strongly enough the damage that waves of these supercilious people have done. Backed of course by the amoral entrepreneur seeking to exploit.

Historically for every good colonialist(including religious missionary there were 100’s of bad)

Resurrecting this ‘dead’ language misses the point it’s giving new life to a whole culture from which we may all learn IF WE CHOSE TO.
Posted by examinator, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 9:14:23 AM
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Not sure I agree with you Polycarp. Don't you think The Church were part of the problem? True, the missionaries in the story were good as they were interested in preserving the language, but more often than not, the stick was used to compel Aboriginals to learn English and forget their native tongue.

The fact that the Kaurna have regenerated their language through their own agency is quite a feat.
Posted by Cheryl, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 10:03:12 AM
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Porkycarp: << The greatest contributors to preserving indigenous and tribal languages are without doubt Christian missionaries.

(...)

Christian missionary groups like Summer Institute of Linguistics/Wycliff Bible Translators/New Tribes Mission..and many independant missionaries give their LIVES just to give indigenous tribes their own language and preserve it. >>

Cheryl's correct. Many Aboriginal languages were deliberately suppressed by earlier missionaries who used to punish Aboriginal children for speaking their own languages at mission schools etc.

As for the more contemporary blundering idiots that Porky describes, I have seen them in action in PNG, where their project of translating the Bible into indigenous languages goes hand in hand with actively detroying the cultures of the peoples whom they are trying to convert.

Once upon a time missionaries used to do useful things besides blathering about their god, like run medical aid posts etc. Now it's all 'bible colleges', more often than not of the apocalyptic millenarian kind.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 10:53:23 AM
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CJMorgan,

I remember prior to PNG independence two clans each in opposing missionary posts one catholic the other 7 day came to actual tribal war. People were killed....why? they were both accusing the other of worshiping the wrong god because of the different days of worship and the incompetence of the priests/pastors trying to stake their denominational claims. 68 men finished up in the jail run by dad.
Even the health clinics came with a sermon and bribes.

The "cargo" cults etc were devistating to them in more ways than one. Even as a liklik mongey (little boy) I could see this was wrong.
Now in many tribes the 'big man' is so because of owning a gun and enFORCES his will where as once moral authority based on elder tok tok (conference)would have been enough. That's Christian progress for you.
Posted by examinator, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 2:12:20 PM
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Hi Cheryl... I like the way you postured your post... you raised as a question rather than beating me with a chunk of 2 x 4 :)

You are totally correct in some cases. This is why it is impossible to speak of 'The Church' in a broad homogenous manner. It has many manifestations.. some good..some bad.. some Biblical some Human/traditional/political.

I cannot vouch for the 'stick' being used in relation to English but I would not doubt that it happened in some misguided attempts at 'civilizing' the Aborigines.

Ever since 1900ish the evangelical protestant missions movement gained huge momentum. It is this which has taken the initiatives more in areas of translation, literacy and reaching otherwise unreached tribes.

One such mission.. New Tribes Mission has that goal as it's primary focus. Many have died in the process.. (killed by tribes people)
http://www.ntm.org/about/

Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian all died for the cause of Christ.

What kind of people are these?

[Roger Youderian came off a Montana ranch. An airborn ranger who was at the battle of the Bulge,]

All were aware of the danger. As Jim Elliot said to his Betty: “If that’s the way God wants it to be, I’m ready to die for the salvation of the Aucas.” (and he did)

A girl, Dayuma, an escapee from Waorani territory who helped Rachel Saint learn Waorani, had entrusted herself to the Lord Jesus Christ. To her amazed relatives she returned to their village safe. They assumed she had been cannibalized by the strangers. She explained that the missionaries had come peaceably.

Nine years later, the first copies of the Gospel of Mark in Waorani were dedicated at “God’s Speaking House.” Kimo prayed, “Father God, You are alive. This is Your day and all of us have come to worship You. They brought us copies of Your Carving, enough for everybody. We accept it, saying, ‘This is the truth.’ We want all of your carving.”
Posted by Polycarp, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 6:35:21 AM
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Christians took whole aboriginal nations and forced them onto reserves and reservations, destroyed their culture and traditions and orchestrated the ongoing tragedy of the stolen generations. Yeah great historical impact that!
The most agonising issue of course is the lack of any purely Australian language being taught. If we can teach, say for the NSW HSC, some 15 European lanuages, a similar number from Asia and dead languages like Latin and Ancient Greek, why can't we implement an Aboriginal language syllabus, why isn't it encouraged? why isn't it funded? But of couse they're black aren't they.
Posted by sillyfilly, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 2:22:04 PM
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Yes, I agree. Latin? Ancient Greek? Get bent. I think it would be excellent to learn an Aboriginal language. Not 'excellent' like the 'soft-centre left' think it's excellent, but a good in itself because that would give you a unique entree in to their culture. To learn a language you've got to have some idea of their cultural norms. It'd be a challenge for us whites.

We're going to do another round of the Culture Wars yet the Kaurna people (in SA?) just get on with it. It seems that we get humbugged on the non-important stuff while some Aboriginal people are doing it for themselves. That's the way to go.
Posted by Cheryl, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 4:14:06 PM
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