Paper & Talk Workshop at AIATSIS, Canberra Sep 2019
Over the first two weeks in September, we worked with representatives from five language groups who gathered at AIATSIS, in Canberra, to explore the archives, research historical records and repatriate important material back to their communities.
Inspired by the US Breath of Life Institute - which was in turn inspired by the original Paper and Talk, run by Nick Thieberger in 1993 at AIATSIS - our workshop was the result of a collaboration between Living Languages and AIATSIS. It was an incredibly powerful and significant project: 15 Community Researchers from the Yorta Yorta (Vic/NSW), Wergaia (Vic), Anaiwan (NSW), Wakka Wakka (Qld) and Ngunnawal (ACT/NSW) languages delved deep into archives at AIATSIS, the National Library of Australia and other institutions, discovering and reconnecting with family histories, cultural information and descriptions of their languages.
They were joined in their work by linguistic partners and trainers/presenters, who shared skills in working with archives and understanding linguistic methods and terminology. A big thanks to everyone who helped make it such a special two weeks.
At the end of the fortnight, each group presented their research findings and reflected on their experience. The rest of us were blown away! From seeing language teaching resources (including an app!) developed during the workshop, hearing about the exciting discoveries of new (old!) word lists and future language plans, to being invited to consider the ongoing impacts of colonisation - and what decolonising language work means - it was truly humbling and inspiring to see what the Community Researchers were taking away.
As AIATSIS stands on Ngunnawal country, it was a particular honour to be welcomed so warmly by Ngunnawal researchers, who also took us for a special on-country trip and closed the workshop on the final day with a moving smoking and water ceremony.
We’re really excited to keep in touch with the new friends we made and see what incredible things they do next in their language journeys.
This was a pilot project, but we hope there will be many more to come! Special thanks to ILA and the Yitpi Foundation for funding this project, Monash University and of course our project partners at AIATSIS for helping us pull this incredible thing together.
Check out some of the media coverage.
