Conference Sponsorship is sought!!

Ngalia Foundation

Wangka: Goldfields Aboriginal Languages

Project

Welcome to our third newsletter!!

The work on the recording and preservation of the Goldfields Aboriginal languages continues with many speakers working hard on the recording of their language.

The project is very proud to announce the first annual Goldfields Aboriginal Languages Awards!

People or organisations who have worked towards the preservation or use of Aboriginal languages, or who ensure that interpreting and translating is available for Aboriginal people, will be recognized under the Awards.

Nominations are open. For further information, see page 4 of this newsletter and get your nominations in!

To discuss a nomination, contact Sue or Kado.

State Aboriginal Languages Conference 2016

The next biennial WA and NT Aboriginal languages conference will be

hosted by the Goldfields Aboriginal Languages Project and held in Kalgoorlie.

Members attending the 2014 language conference voted for the Goldfields to host the conference. The conference will be held at the

Goldfields Arts Centre the 16th to 18th of June 2016. The final day of the conference is a Saturday to enable people who work to attend.

The conference is held to enable people working towards the recording,

preservation and use of WA’s 83 Aboriginal languages and many NT languages, to get together and share information, knowledge and skills.

Kado Muir and Sue Hanson have begun looking for sponsors for the 2016 conference. As little as $100 will greatly assist with the cost of holding the conference.

Potential sponsors, please contact Sue or Kado for a brochure on sponsorship opportunities.

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Goldfields Aboriginal Languages Project stall at the Kalgoorlie Arts Conference, November 2014

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Recent Activities Development of a Noel Blyth Collection

Reverend Noel Blyth is a missionary who lived and worked in the eastern Goldfields for many years. During this time, Noel learnt to speak the local language, a Western Desert dialect, and recorded a great deal of linguistic material. Noel is now in aged care and his family was unsure what to do with his records and material.

This type of linguistic records are very precious and valuable as they record the Aboriginal languages of the region during the first period of contact between Aboriginal and European people.

Sue Hanson has been working with the Blyth family to deposit the material at the State Library as a collection for future reference. Many thanks are due to Noel’s family for keeping safe and sharing such invaluable records.

To date, alphabet charts have been developed for Ngalia and

Kuwarra languages. Under development at present are the Tjupan, Kaalamaya and Cundeelee Wangka charts.

A syllables chart has also been produced for Ngalia. Under

production are charts for Kuwarra, Tjupan, Kaalamaya and Cundeelee Wangka. Each language group will decide if the charts

will be for sale to the general public. Further information will be in the next newsletter.

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Often when linguists work with language speakers, stories come to light about events that happened when

speakers were young. Some of these events are so significant that they deserve further attention and recording to preserve them.

During work with the Kaalamaya and Ngaju languages, stories kept arising about the terrible treatment of Aboriginal people during the early Goldfields days and in particular, during the development of the railway

and Golden Pipeline of the Goldfields Water Scheme.

Research to verify these stories and collect further information has resulted in a paper being written by Sue

Hanson to record the data. A small team has been assembled to explore the production of a documentary to record the Aboriginal story of the Goldfields Water Scheme and Golden Pipeline.

The Aboriginal Story of the Goldfields Water Scheme

Dr. Jean Butler from the State Library gladly accepts the first bunch of the Blyth material to begin the collection.

Alphabet and Syllables Charts

April 2015

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The Goldfields Languages under Study Language Round up

Goldfields Languages Display available for use A Goldfields Aboriginal languages display has been created and is available for libraries, schools and other groups to borrow and use for display purposes. The display is free to use and comes with brochures and information about the languages. Watch for the display in the Kalgoorlie Library during NAIDOC week. Bookings can me made by contacting Sue Hanson on susanhanson@y7mail.com

Tjupan language planning meeting with some speakers 2014

Kuwarra Work has continued on collecting words and sentences for the Kuwarra dictionary. An alphabet chart was produced and a syllables chart is under production. 1300 words are in the database. Tjupan Many more words were added to the Tjupan database so there are close to 2000 words now. The sketch grammar was revised and will be produced in June 2015. An alphabet chart is being produced and a body parts chart is under production. Ngaju Consultation continues with the Ngaju people about the work to be done with speakers. Sue Hanson has made a Ngaju database and there are close to 1000 words entered.

The language display at a Goldfields arts exhibition

April 2015

Cundeelee Wangka Dawn Hadfield has continued adding sentences to the CW database aiming for each word to have an example sentence. The database has close to 3000 words. We still aim to publish this dictionary in June 2015. Ngalia Work continues on collecting words and sentences for the Ngalia database. So far there are around 2500 words in the database. A Ngalia learning kit will be completed and printed by June 2015 and for sale to schools and educational groups who would like to learn the basics of this language. Kaalmaya The database of around 1000 words continues to be refined and words added. Sue hopes that more speakers will come forward to add words to the database and ensure the preservation of this language.

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Goldfields Aboriginal Languages Awards 2015

April 2015

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From Kado Muir Wutayi! Yuwa palunya tjuma nganya ngalipiniku tjar wangkaku. ‘Welcome! Yes how’s things, please enjoy this newsletter about our languages.’ In this edition we are happy to report on the many and varied activities we at the Goldfields Aboriginal Languages Project are engaged in. We are constantly amazed to find hidden gems like those of Reverend Blythe who is well known especially to our older members of our communities for his many years of missionary work. During those years he amassed a collection of documents and records that record the history of our region and our languages. We are happy to report that Yale is extending its contribution to our project with also working on the Ngalia language and we are happy to report that our other languages continue to deliver results. It’s still a tough environment for funding and we are constantly looking at ways in which we can bring more resources into our region to continue this very important work on languages. Stay tuned to this space as we explore more innovative and varied funding options. As you will read, we are proud to be hosting the 2016 State Aboriginal Languages Conference at the Goldfields Arts Centre on the 16th to 18th of June 2016. We want all of our language groups and those that are not yet resourced under our program to be given the opportunity to be showcased in this project. We ask that everyone please stay tuned and talk with us to find ways in which we can make this a successful event. Palunya! That’s it for now Ngula nyaku, see you later! Kado Muir, Chair Ngalia Foundation Ngalia Language

April 2015

Working on language recordings with Shirley Wonyabong

Goldfields Aboriginal Languages project calico bags now available $10 each

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Yale University, U.S. Language Collaboration Project

In order to record and preserve a language, linguists search through records at libraries, museums and private collections in order to find old material about the language. The old material is compared to current day language recordings to understand how the language has changed over time. In January 2015, linguist Sue Hanson visited Canberra to look for records of Kuwarra language at the AIATSIS library. References were found to the language in records believed to be from the 1920s or early 1930s. Other references were made about Kuwarra people in Laverton in the 1960s. This type of historical material is very valuable. Old station records, mission letters, administrative records etc. often record a word here and there. Anthropologist, Daisy Bates, recorded an Aboriginal word list in Coolgardie in 1907. This record is the earliest from the Goldfields region and has been invaluable to linguists working on the languages of the region. In 2013, Kado Muir and Sue Hanson met retired pastoralists who recalled words and phrases from their childhood days on stations 60 to 70 years ago. We’d love to hear from anyone who has such recollections or old records with language references or words.

In 2014, The Goldfields Language Project and Tjupan people very successfully collaborated with Yale University to undertake the writing of a basic Tjupan grammar. In 2015, another collaboration is being undertaken between the Project, Ngalia people and Yale University. This time the students at Yale, under guidance of A/Professor Claire Bowern, will be working on expansion of the Ngalia grammar. This kind of collaboration helps to stretch the few dollars we receive for the language work to ensure necessary documentation is undertaken as the linguistic students study the language as part of their course work and will expand the existing short sketch grammar. In turn, the linguistic students learn from working with a real language and assist with the Goldfields language preservation efforts.

Locating Records of Goldfields Languages

April 2015

Examples of old records from 1920 and 1934 located and used in the Goldfields language preservation work.

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Goldfields Languages Family Tree Aboriginal languages of Australia are of two types, Pama Nyungan (PN) and non-Pama Nyungan (NPN). The NPN type languages are spread across the top of the Kimberley and Northern Territory and the PM languages are spread across the rest of Australia. These types of languages are quite different from each other. The languages of the Goldfields are of the PN type. We have been studying these languages to determine which family of languages they belong to in order to make a language family tree. Below is a diagram of the language family tree for the region, as of April 2015. This language family tree may change as further work is done on the analysis of the languages. The Wati group of languages are all varieties of the Western Desert Language (WDL) and they may be distinct languages or dialects of each other. This has yet to be proved or disproved. Cundeelee Wangka is the name given to the variety of language that developed at Cundeelee Mission and which may be an Indigenous creole developed from four dialects of the Western Desert Language.

Goldfields Languages Family Tree 2015  

Wati            Western  Desert  Languages  (WDL)             Kuwarra               Mankulatjarra             Tjalkatjarra             Tjupan             Wangkatja             Cundeelee  Wangka             Ngalia    Ngaju-­‐Mirning             Ngaju/Ngajumaya               Mirning             Kalaaku               Kaalamaya    Nyungar/Noongar             Nyakinyaki             Wudjaarri    

April 2015

Using Your Language Everyone can help to pass on languages to the next generation. Use them at home, even if just a few words here and there. Support school language programmes or encourage your school to start a language programme. Listen to Elders telling stories in language and learn the story. Encourage traditional names to be used on signs and public notices. Support the Goldfields language project’s work and buy a copy of the dictionaries when they become

Contact www.wangka.org.au Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wangka/

Sue Hanson 044891 7437 susanhanson@y7mail.com PO Box 3149, Midland 6056

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Aboriginal Language Project

Linguist Sue Hanson and Ngalia Chairperson Kado Muir and Les Schultz of the Ngaju language group.

This map is a rough guide to the location of Goldfields languages and does not include all languages in the region. This map is a work in progress.