Lan­guage speak­ers from 10 dif­fer­ent Cen­tral Aus­tralian lan­guage speak­ing groups attend­ed a lan­guage forum this month to talk about new lan­guage cen­tre fund­ing from the Indige­nous Lan­guages and Arts Pro­gram. Sev­er­al events were also organ­ised around the forum to cel­e­brate local lan­guages, includ­ing a film night and pod­cast­ing workshop.

For the past six months, a small team of staff from Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) have been vis­it­ing com­mu­ni­ties and organ­i­sa­tions, and attend­ing events to record lan­guage speak­ers’ aspi­ra­tions for their lan­guages. The forum marked the end of this work, and a chance to cel­e­brate lan­guage and look to the future.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Per­tame Lan­guage Nest, talked about their method of lan­guage trans­mis­sion at the forum. Their mod­el is based on sim­i­lar mod­els used by Indige­nous groups in the US and involves an immer­sive nurs­ery where no Eng­lish is spoken. 

Saman­tha Arm­strong, who has been learn­ing Per­tame for the past five years and is a flu­ent Pit­jan­t­jat­jara lan­guage speak­er, said: ​“It’s not an easy job and we do have a lot of chal­lenges, but we over­come them and are met with a lot of rewards. Three of my grand­sons now speak Per­tame. They’re tak­ing it back home and using it every­where. They’re being raised in two local languages.”

Show­cas­ing Cen­tral Aus­tralian lan­guage films

The DKA team also organ­ised a film night, show­cas­ing sev­er­al short films and ani­ma­tions in dif­fer­ent lan­guages, includ­ing Per­tame, Kayte­tye and Matuthar­ra, lan­guages list­ed as crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered. Oth­er films were in Pintupi/​Luritja, Eastern/​Central Arrernte, West­ern Arrarn­ta, and oth­er Arandic languages.

On a stormy evening, those from the forum and the wider Alice Springs com­mu­ni­ty came to watch. It was a relaxed atmos­phere, atten­dees were treat­ed to a sausage siz­zle, and a door prize raf­fle of lan­guage books pub­lished by the Insti­tute for Abo­rig­i­nal Development.

Batch­e­lor Institute’s Angela Har­ri­son intro­duced a short ani­ma­tion, Ara Irran­tathar­ra, based on a tra­di­tion­al sto­ry of the red-tailed black cock­a­too, told by Matuthar­ra Elder, Reg­gie Ken­ny. It was com­plet­ed in late 2023 after an inter­gen­er­a­tional work­shop with ani­ma­tor Jonathon Daw. 

Oth­er short films screened included:

• Win­i­maku ara papa wiimat­jaraku, an ani­ma­tion of Anan­gu Artist Kun­ma­nara Mar­garet Nampitjin­pa Boko paint­ings, retold by her daugh­ter Ros­alyn Añu Bren­da Boko.
• Nev­er Stop Rid­ing by Iwan­t­ja Arts and three senior lead­ers and artists from the Indulka­na com­mu­ni­ty in Anan­gu, Pit­jan­t­jat­jara and Yankun­t­jat­jara lands in South Australia. 
• Big Cuz and Lit­tle J, an episode from 2023 called ​‘Pup­py’ spo­ken in Lurit­ja- Pintupi.
• Ani­ma­tions of adap­ta­tions of Tracks and Pee Wee Read­ers — The Lit­tle Pigeon, The Lit­tle Mouse and Day­time Night­time, from the Lay­ing Down New Tracks project through CALL played in Arrernte, Kayte­tye, and Anmatyerr.

Day two includ­ed a pod­cast­ing work­shop where sto­ries from lan­guage cham­pi­ons were record­ed about their lan­guage jour­neys and work with their lan­guages. These record­ings will be avail­able on Spo­ti­fy soon. The work­shop formed part of Batch­e­lor ​‘s Cen­tre for Aus­tralian Lan­guages and Lin­guis­tics’ (CALL) ​‘Let’s Talk Lan­guage’ month­ly morn­ing tea, which is open to attend on the first Wednes­day of every month. The next one will take place in on the first Wednes­day in February.

At the clos­ing Christ­mas lunch, Angela Har­ri­son, lin­guist from CALL lan­guage cen­tre, said: ​“We’ve had a won­der­ful cou­ple of days. There’s been so much ener­gy and so many great minds togeth­er think­ing about how to put this new mon­ey to the best use. I think some­thing real­ly big will come out of this. Here’s to you mob: lan­guage speak­ers, knowl­edge hold­ers. What you’re doing is won­der­ful and inspir­ing. What a rich sit­u­a­tion we have here in Cen­tral Australia.”

The events were organ­ised in part­ner­ship with Batch­e­lor Insti­tute, CAA­MA Radio, Alice Springs Town Coun­cil, Children’s Ground, and the NT Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion Alice Springs Lan­guage Cen­tre. The Treat Me Good Café pro­vid­ed excel­lent food for the forum, includ­ing a spec­tac­u­lar Christ­mas lunch. It is hoped the lan­guage forum and cel­e­bra­tion will become an annu­al event.