Newsletter December 2014
Welcome to the third newsletter of the Research Unit for Indigenous Language. This newsletter is published twice-yearly and contains details of the research activities, latest news and other achievements of the Research Unit.
Public lecture and book launch: Drawn from the Ground: Sound, sign and inscription in Central Australian sand stories
On 16 September 2014 a public lecture was delivered by Dr Jenny Green (ARC Research Fellow in RUIL) at The University of Melbourne. It was held in conjunction with the book launch and reception for Dr Green's recently published book Drawn from the Ground: Sound, sign and inscription in Central Australian sand stories. We were thrilled to have Rachel Perkins, founder of Blackfella Films, with us to officially launch Dr Green's ground breaking publication. Generous funding support was provided by a University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts Engagement and Advancement grant.
Code-mixing in Maningrida
Jill Vaughan spent time in Maningrida, Arnhem Land, in May and October this year to begin work on a sociolinguistic project investigating code-mixing in this highly multilingual community. Along with Batchelor Institute linguist Margaret Carew, Jill recorded multilingual interactions in public domains (eg at the footy grand final) as well as narratives from speakers of a number of local languages (Ndjébbana, Burarra/ Gun-nartpa, Djinang, Djambarrpuyngu, Kune and Na-kara). Data collection for this project will begin in earnest in 2015. Continue reading...