Paper & Talk 2023
The Living Languages team, in partnership with AIATSIS, had the pleasure to offer another Paper & Talk workshop in October!
We brought people from 7 language groups to Canberra to search and retrieve their language materials from the archives at AIATSIS and National Library Australia. The groups also received training to help them to interpret those materials and use them in their language work. It was a massive two weeks for Mob to search the archives, followed by a very special on-Country trip with our Ngunnawal hosts.
The groups shared their experiences from the workshop, and projects they worked on during the fortnight. Our trainers were overwhelmed by some of the resources the groups developed in just 2 weeks, including electronic language teaching resources, a family tree with newly discovered kin terms, a personal introduction in language, storybooks, songs and a skit in language, and even a language learning app! Some of the groups have also built on their grammatical information, with one group developing a comparative database of words and spellings in their language, one working on the start of a learner’s guide, and one the beginnings of a sketch grammar.
This workshop could not have been what it was without the courage, resilience, compassion and kindness of every single participant. Archival work involves searching scraps, or sometimes mountains, of materials to find a needle in a haystack… the search might come up with nothing, or it might come up with a treasure trove of information… but that information is on Mob’s language and culture, written through the eyes of a coloniser. It can be frustrating, infuriating, devastating and traumatic work, but is so important for the surviving and thriving of culture. Our trainers stood in awe of this amazing group of people who do this work, so the next generation doesn’t have to, and they are so grateful to have walked beside them for 2 short weeks.
A huge thank you to Living Languages trainers Amy and Mandy, who have done so much preparation in the lead up and held the space during some really difficult work with such compassion and respect, guest trainer Sharon Edgar-Jones, who shared her extensive and personal experience working with historical manuscripts, and Linguist Partners from around the country, who volunteered two weeks of their time to support the workshop.
Special thanks to our partner, AIATSIS, whose beautiful staff went above and beyond to provide Community Researchers with what they needed, and ensured everyone got the most out of the workshop.
Our team can’t wait to do it all again soon!
