Mudburra, Wambaya, Walrmanpa & Warumungu Environment
readers recently completed
Mary-ruth from ALNF working with members of the Warlmanpa
Community
Small participant numbers are a key feature of the Cross
Culture Program
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Environment Series
Covers Eight Languages
Our Environment Reader Series has now been produced in
eight of our regions languages. These readers are an important step in
developing appealing resources by which people can begin to learn language
as they are not just a book but have an audio book file included.
In addition they provide a unique look at the differences
and similarities in languages that are from a similar geographical region.
We believe such a comparism across so many languages is quite unique.
Each of these eight lanaguages is alive and being spoken
in their respective communities. In some cases the number of speakers
may be small but these books and CD's help preserve these languages and
pass knowledge on for future generations. Narrow academic defintions
of what constitutes living languages may make our task more difficult,
but we will continue to make sure the lanagues of our region are available
for future genreations.
Body Parts Series Commenced
The first of the body parts series of books has been
completed in the Warumungu language with the final touches to Warlmanpa,
Wambaya and Mudburra near completion. These 45 page readers cover basic
body part words and is hoped they will be both useful for language learners
and for those who work in the medical profession who may need to learn
a few language words to better herlp communicate with their patients.
It is planned to produce these across all our viable
languages so the series could be upwards of 10 langauges. We see these
readers and their audio book files on CD as a major way of keeping the
languages preserved and living for future generations.
Warlmanpa First Language Literacy Development
In August we were able to continue work on the first
language literacy development project with our partners on this project
The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Mary-Ruth Mendel from
ALNF worked with members of the Warlmanpa Community to continue fine
tuning the Warlmanpa dictionary so as to get it prepared for publication
in the near future. In addition the group worked on recording the phoneme
structure of the words to further develop the resources needed to assist
the future teaching of the language through the process being developed
as part of the first language literacy project. This work is seen as
essential to enabling the systems that could see the teaching of Warlmanpa
in schools in the future.
Cross
Culture Course Gets Positive Review
The recent cross culture course held for employees from
Barkly Shire Council and Barkly Arts has recieved some very positive
reviews from particpants with many commenting that they wished it could
have been longer. We do offer a 2 day version of the course, but due
to time restraints few employers can release their staff for this time
period.
All participants recognised the need and worthwhile natutre
of the course to them in the day to day execution of their duties for
their employers.
The course size is kept intentionally small (12 maximum)
so as to promote healthy inteaction and discussion between particpants
and presenters. We wish not only that participants gain an insight into
our culture and how this may impact the wider society, but also we view
the ability for participants to ask about how aspects of traditional cultural
values will impact on their employees or client groups, as integral to
the course.
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