- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
This week I attended an Aboriginal Language Awareness Talk programmed by the Fitzroy Library for Indigenous Literacy Day. Booking for this event was handled through an online form and it automatically made an event in my Google calendar. I had never visited the Fitzroy Library before but the talk was easy to locate, and an announcement was made over the loudspeaker to invite everyone in the library to attend. The talk was given by Mandy Nicholson, a Wurundjeri woman and Project Officer at the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.
There are 38 different Indigenous languages in Victoria, however there are no fluent speakers of any Victorian Indigenous language. These languages have been resurrected as Nicholson stated Language was forcibly stopped and lucky we’ve got enough records that we can bring back our languages. A woman from another language group, who actually learnt her ancestral language from a translated bible, taught Nicholson the grammar for the Woi wurrung language of the Wurundjeri People.
As Neelie Kroes describes, over time the social implications of exclusion from the digital world will become progressively worse. Through a combination of geographic isolation and poor educational achievement, Indigenous Australians are one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australian society. Those already at risk of isolation and exclusion are also the most at risk of the digital divide. In addition Eady, Herrington and Jones demonstrate how Indigenous perspectives on literacy encompass broader perspectives which include the objective of striving to maintain cultural identity, preserving language and achieving self-determination. Mandy Nicholson clearly demonstrated how language can be used to understand the culture and relationships of the people who speak it. The words in the language connect many layers of cultural meaning including Dreamings, spirituality and ceremony, history, knowledge about land management and sustainable living.
During the talk Nicholson stated “our language is an oral language” and the language has to be spoken and heard to be learnt. The audience of around 40 people quickly worked this out as Nicholson taught us how to say different things in a highly interactive presentation that involved singing and drawing. This technique of information creation that is socially produced via social relationships has been used in the Woi wurrung Language Program at Thornbury Primary School. This learning behaviour is participatory, collaborative, distributed and less dominated by experts. We have the ability to take content and freely use and adapt it as the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages have created a series of free Woi wurrung digital storybooks narrated by school children. Using technology such as ebooks and apps, they meet the needs of their learners while implementing learning activities that build on both cultural and learner strengths… visual literacies, oral memory and spatial relations. As a result of this talk I believe better digital literacy is intertwined with increased literacy in Indigenous oral culture and languages and especially recognising the interdependency between groups and individuals in the information literacy experience. Programs such as the talk I attended at the Fitzroy Library involving groups like the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, demonstrate the potential for the revival of Indigenous oral culture and history and intertwined with this, increased digital literacy. -
This is a wondeful post Ruth, very thoughtful and filled with insight into a subject that seems to receive little attention, at least here in Queensland. Supporting and celebrating indigenous culture can only enrich all Australians but using digital literacy to support and promote oral/spoken languages is such an interesting idea. What a great way to bring 21st century technology together with ancient cultures – language is so central to identity, so bringing back languages that were all but dead is an inspiring story. I spent the last 20 years living in Vanuatu where there were 112 separate languages in a population of only 300,000 people – almost all of them are still largely only oral/spoken. There is a a small but dedicated group of people at the University of the South Paific Languages unit in Port Vila who are working to save these languages from extinction. With your permission I would like to send them your reflection, with its links, as I’m sure it would be of interest. Would this be OK?
-
-
Hi Ruth, I enjoyed reading your post. It sounds like it was a wonderful program. I particularly like what you said about digital literacy being intertwined with increased literacy in Indigenous oral culture. I think that is a very important point to make because not all traditions are based on the written word.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.