ELL: Scotsman article re BBC Radio 4 series

[Emily McEwan-Fujita]

This article from the Scotsman newspaper website was posted to the Gaelic
News list. (Apologies for cross-posting to Gaelic News list members on the
ELL.)

Emily McEwan-Fujita

>When these two sisters die, a whole language will die with them
>http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/opinion.cfm?id=1073282002
>Gavin Esler. The Scotsman. 27th September, 2002.
>
>WHAT follows is about wombats. How to catch and cook them, to be more
>precise. It contains probably every piece of information you will ever want
>to hear on the subject of hairy-nosed wombats.
>
>They live across vast swathes of the Australian Outback and the man who
>instructed me how to shoot them is an aborigine called Warren from the
>Wirrungu people of South Australia.
>
>Where Warren lives is two hours from the nearest small town, miles from
>anywhere. I have been in Australia for a Radio 4 series, produced in
>Glasgow, about disappearing languages. There are currently about 6,000
>languages around the world and 3,000 are thought to be about to die out
>within the next 50 years. Wirrungu is one of these. It is spoken by just two
>people, elderly aboriginal sisters called Gladys and Doreen Miller. When
>they die, so does the language.
>
>I had spent much of the day with Gladys and Doreen, talking to them about
>what the loss of their native language and culture will mean and whether it
>is inevitable that English will sweep the world. Their extended family
>decided to invite me for dinner, and we drove even further out into the
>bush, where they had prepared a fire and a pit.
>
>In the pit were nine kangaroo tails gently baking in the hot embers. While
>waiting for the kangaroo tails to cook, I started to wander off into the
>bush, and Warren came after me. I think he feared I might get lost, but I
>was drawn to huge holes in the red earth, some as big as a metre across.
>
>"Wombats," Warren said. I looked down the holes, but could see nothing.
>Hairy-nosed wombats are about the size of a spaniel, though they look like
>giant guinea-pigs. "Very tasty," Warren told me.
>
>I was slowly getting used to what aborigines call "Bush Tucker" - any of the
>food they can eat from the wild. I had been instructed how to lick the
>underside of leaves for the sweet casts left behind by a type of fly, but
>was dreading the prospect of witchetty grubs, a kind of fat maggot that
>aborigines love.
>
>Warren was explaining to me how they roast wombats in the fire, rather like
>the kangaroo tails, and he promised to show me how he shot them.
>
>We climbed into his pick-up truck and headed even further into the Outback.
>He found another clump of wombat holes almost big enough for a small man to
>climb into. Warren said aborigines nowadays put a mirror into the wombat
>hole and use it to look around to see where the wombat is sleeping, then
>they put their shotgun or rifle inside and shoot it.
>
>I noticed he had a rifle on the side of his truck, and for a moment I
>thought he was going to give me a demonstration. Warren laughed. "We don't
>shoot them at this time of year," he said. "They are too thin. Not much to
>eat. All bones. We leave it till they are fat after the rains."
>
>The kangaroo tails turned out to be a real local delicacy. Kangaroos steaks
>taste like the best venison, and are sold to top-class Australian
>restaurants, but the tails are not liked by white people and remain mostly
>an aborigine treat.
>
>Each tail is broken in a couple of places to stop them bending out of the
>fire. There is a long fatty strip down the back of each one, a lot of bone
>and a little bit of very gamey meat.
>
>I was handed my tail after one of the women doing the cooking brushed off
>the ashes with a few twigs. I peeled back the skin and - well, it wasn't
>bad. I wouldn't eat it every night, but it was quite tasty.
>
>The only problem was that the fat stuck to my hands as if fused by a
>chemical bond. I drove two hours out of the Outback towards my hotel,
>sticking to the steering wheel of my Toyota Landcruiser as if with
>superglue.
>
>The Wirrungu language will be dead within a few years, and the traditional
>way of life of the aborigines has already had to adapt to white farmers,
>sheep in the Outback and the English language.
>
>But even those of us who have no intention of eating kangaroo tails or
>speaking Wirrungu must recognise that when this way of life goes, all the
>world will be the poorer.
>
>Lost for Words is on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays at 11 am.
>
>Gavin Esler is a presenter on BBC News24.
>
>
>
>========================================
>If you have news of Gaelic events, courses or campaigns in
>your area,  and you'd like to share it, contact; David Wilson
>[Gaelic-News Listowner] at; djj.wilson at virgin.net  =====
>==== http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gaelic-News/ =====
>========================================


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