iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

[danielsaan]

Hey folks

Some of you may know me from Serious sticks but I thought it might be fun to introduce myself here too. My name is Dan, I come from the UK. I have a fairly large Australia fixation and have just returned from nine months over there working and travelling around.

Besides my interest in Yidaki, I am interested in learning a little bit of basic anthropology as I am starting to see glaring holes in my education when i read things on this forum. There are enormous quantities of terms that are very new to me. I worked for the CDU in Darwin late last year and met a couple of nice anthropologists who work for SAIKs there. They suggested that I look at their Gupapuyngu text books, which I have done. Oh to have a Gupapuyngu friend to try sentences out on! Such is life. Still, its fun to have little bits at the bottom of my message sig, as I have at Serious sticks.

I am also interested in Redfern in Sydney, although it is becoming less easy to have any kind of involvement in anything to do with with on this side of the globe (I live in London at the moment). I walked through there one evening in the middle of when 'a something' was going on and had I been staying in Sydney longer I would have wanted to work there. I have met Jenny Munroe who is affiliated with the Redfern Community centre and its my fervent wish to go back there one day. I would also like to make that magic trip in to Arnhem Land that so many of you here have done. For the record, I nearly got there! I hope to walk around Yirrkala one day.

Enough of me. A pleasure to see friendly faces. I look forward to chatting to you and learning and sharing what I can.

Dan

[GGW]

Salut Daniel ,how nice to see you here .Tell me you travel a lot thats why your saying you live in London for the moment ? Wish you all the best

GGW

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[kdidj]

Welcome aboard Dan. See you on Friday I hope!

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[danielsaan]

Cheers all, good to be here!

Kyle, I can't go to Tapely. Boo! Events have got in the way in the last couple of days. Hey ho, next year with a bit of luck.

I hope all of you enjoy it though.

Dan

[kdidj]

Sorry to hear that Dan. It's the best event of the year! I'll be down in London soon so I'm sure we'll see each other in the next few months.

Kyle

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[danielsaan]

kdidj wrote:

Sorry to hear that Dan. It's the best event of the year! I'll be down in London soon so I'm sure we'll see each other in the next few months. Kyle

So I have been hearing! Hey ho! Next time! Maybe by then I have a couple of rhythms mapped out too!

Kyle, I hope you all have a great time.


Dan

[ididjaustralia]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the Forum and good to see you here. Make yourself at home... we don't bite here!

If you want to test out your Gupapuyngu, you're welcome to try it out here... I'm sure there are a handful of folk here who could help. Same with anthropological terms and stuff.

By the way, there are good resources on other Arnhem Land/Top End languages and dialects these days... Nunggubuyu, Anindilyakwa, Gunwok Bininy, etc. Yolngu Matha might be one of the easiest to get a grip on as the grammer is fairly straightforward so it is a good one to start with.

Cheers,

Guan

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[danielsaan]

ididjaustralia wrote:

Hi Dan, Welcome to the Forum and good to see you here. Make yourself at home... we don't bite here! If you want to test out your Gupapuyngu, you're welcome to try it out here... I'm sure there are a handful of folk here who could help. Same with anthropological terms and stuff. By the way, there are good resources on other Arnhem Land/Top End languages and dialects these days... Nunggubuyu, Anindilyakwa, Gunwok Bininy, etc. Yolngu Matha might be one of the easiest to get a grip on as the grammer is fairly straightforward so it is a good one to start with. Cheers, Guan

Thanks for the welcome Guan. I am very pleased to be here. I signed up for John Greatorex and Waymamba's stories, and so every so often get a taste of some Gupapuyngu! Tricky little language, but very beautiful in its own way. One day, I look forward to hearing it spoken.

Onwards and upwards!

Dan

[ididjaustralia]

danielsaan wrote:

Tricky little language, but very beautiful in its own way. One day, I look forward to hearing it spoken.

Now that's gotten me thinking... is it possible these days with all the technology around us to have some sort of video conferencing thing happening? Basically a way for all of us to 'meet' online where we can talk with each other all at the same time? We could do a language conference, a yirdaki conference, a mago conference... imagine all of us playing at the same time and what sort of music (or noise ) that would create!?!? Just a thought...

Guan

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[danielsaan]

ididjaustralia wrote:

danielsaan wrote: Tricky little language, but very beautiful in its own way. One day, I look forward to hearing it spoken. Now that's gotten me thinking... is it possible these days with all the technology around us to have some sort of video conferencing thing happening? Basically a way for all of us to 'meet' online where we can talk with each other all at the same time? We could do a language conference, a yirdaki conference, a mago conference... imagine all of us playing at the same time and what sort of music (or noise ) that would create!?!? Just a thought... Guan

That would be an enormous amount of fun Guan! I will have a trawl today and see if there is any multi user software to do that job. Although actually I think the new MSN messenger would handle multiple users.... I will have a look and let you know.

Dan

[danielsaan]

ididjaustralia wrote:

danielsaan wrote: Tricky little language, but very beautiful in its own way. One day, I look forward to hearing it spoken. Now that's gotten me thinking... is it possible these days with all the technology around us to have some sort of video conferencing thing happening? Basically a way for all of us to 'meet' online where we can talk with each other all at the same time? We could do a language conference, a yirdaki conference, a mago conference... imagine all of us playing at the same time and what sort of music (or noise ) that would create!?!? Just a thought... Guan

Guan,

As a thought: perhaps the forum could sign up for John Greatorex's Yolngu emails? It might be interesting for people to see some Gupapungyu if they haven't. There is a lot of Yolngu matha on Randy's site, but they may want more! I am suggesting this because there may be copyright issues regarding materials from the CDU, which maybe you can get around? Perhaps a Yolngu language thread to accomodate them too?

Might be fun!


Dan

[ididjaustralia]

danielsaan wrote:

As a thought: perhaps the forum could sign up for John Greatorex's Yolngu emails?

Hi Dan,

But what sort of emails are they and what purpose would they serve for subscribers to this Forum? If they are useful, why not?

danielsaan wrote:

Perhaps a Yolngu language thread to accomodate them too?

Do you mean a language section on this Forum? I'd be more inclined to do a general language thing rather than focus solely on Yolngu Matha. I know YM is appealing because of yidaki, Djalu, Yothu Yindi and the history of NE Arnhem Land. But there are so many other beautiful languages as well in Arnhem Land worthy of study, and some of these have very few speakers left and are in danger of extinction.

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[Yirrkala Arts]

A word of caution - Dan, I understand your enthusiasm and would have said something similar after my first trip here... I know that sounds condescending, but stick with me for a minute... I don't know much about the other groups Guan is looking more and more into these days, but for Yolngu, clan languages are collectively owned inheritences from the ancestral creators, not something to play around with, and not for other people to teach without proper channels and oversight. CDU's program was created with a committee of Yolngu educators and is still responsible to them. It has at least one Yolngu faculty member at all times. CDU is the only program of its kind because of its location and long connections to and collaborations with Yolngu. But even they sometimes have controversy. Non-Yolngu who have worked alongside Yolngu for decades have been accused of cultural theft by other Yolngu because of their involvement with teaching, and even simply having knowledge of, Yolngu languages.

Yolngu are of course individuals and some would encourage anyone to practice their languages in any context, but many would be extremely offended by the idea of non-Yolngu on an internet forum using their languages and particularly teaching each other without any proper consultation and oversight.

CDU does offer courses that you can enrol in long distance, which includes sending sound files back and forth, and of course the great CD ROM with hundreds of spoken sentences. There's growing interest in academia and government education funding bodies for e-lecturing and such, so there's actually a program underway to try and get Yolngu from homelands with satellite connections to be able to provide programs on the internet through CDU. This is something Yirrkala's new multimedia centre will be linked in with, and we might just provide opportunities like this on our own. We're not up and running yet (construction feels so close to completion now!), but working with artists to set up their own webpages with multimedia content is certainly high on the agenda after the official launch in August.

So there are currently plenty of opportunities to learn, and more to come as technology catches up in remote areas.

[danielsaan]

Yirrkala Arts wrote:

A word of caution - Dan, I understand your enthusiasm and would have said something similar after my first trip here... I know that sounds condescending, but stick with me for a minute... I don't know much about the other groups Guan is looking more and more into these days, but for Yolngu, clan languages are collectively owned inheritences from the ancestral creators, not something to play around with, and not for other people to teach without proper channels and oversight.

Hi Randy.

Point taken. I can't say I understand fully, but I don't want to be disrespectful to the rightful owners of the language. This will be one to discuss with my father (also an anthro) in the hope of trying to make sense of it. For the record, (directed at any Yolngu reading this thread), I did not intend any disrespect. I wanted people to be able to read Waymamba's stories and see some language written down, in the same way I do because I am signed up to an round-robin from her and John Greatorex.

Yirrkala Arts wrote:

CDU does offer courses that you can enrol in long distance

I fully intend to do that!

Thanks for spotting, Randy.

Dan


[/quote]

[Yirrkala Arts]

Hey Dan,
Let's see... how to explain a bit more... basically, language is just one of those elements that are specific to clans. It's a birthright just the same as songs, designs, land, sea, etc. There are those who would say the language should be treated the same as those other things. You wouldn't take Yolngu land, you wouldn't start copying and teaching Yolngu songs and designs (though some people would!). Language holds the same importance and is a crucial part of identity.

Again, what you get from CDU is through approved channels, in the spirit of education and cooperation, and the people they most want to teach are those who are or may someday going to be living and working with Yolngu, to address the issues of misunderstandings that go on every day between Yolngu and those who work with them. I'd know, I have plenty every day!

R