Mike Steketee: Aboriginal languages the remedy (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Mike Steketee: Aboriginal languages the remedy

14jul05
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/ 
0,5744,15920994%255E7583,00.html

RICHARD Trudgen is not surprised by this week's report to federal and  
state governments showing that, with a few exceptions, we are not  
making much progress on overcoming indigenous disadvantage.

  A steering committee run through the Productivity Commission found  
that, although there have been improvements in Aboriginal employment  
and education, there has been little change in many health indicators  
and crime and imprisonment rates have worsened. Five years ago, at the  
request of Aboriginal leaders in northeast Arnhem Land, where he has  
worked as a (white) community development officer for most of the past  
30 years, Trudgen wrote Why Warriors Lie Down and Die.

The book gave the indigenous perspective on the crisis facing the once  
proud, independent and economically self-sufficient Yolngu people of  
the area.

It helped solve the riddle of why nothing governments do seems to make  
much difference in Aboriginal communities. It highlighted the  
misunderstandings that arise from the cultural and communications gaps  
- or, more correctly, gulfs - between black and white Australians. He  
offered alternatives, based on dealing with people in their first  
language and giving them back control over their lives, which he argued  
could solve problems as diverse as poor health, inadequate housing and  
petrol sniffing.

So how is the situation now in Arnhem Land, I asked him this week.  
"It's worse," he replied. "It's like we never wrote the book and no one  
ever noticed it. The health indicators have all got worse. Many of the  
medical people who come here aren't even receiving adequate cultural  
awareness training any more."

Yet Trudgen retains a determined optimism. A radio service for Yolngu  
started last year, without government support, broadcasting in the  
local language and English. "We are on the edge of a massive  
breakthrough in communication," he says.

This week is National Diabetes Week and he estimates that the broadcast  
material is reaching about two-thirds of the 8000 Yolngu, with  
indications that it is making a big difference in knowledge of the  
disease. "People who don't have radios know nothing about diabetes," he  
says. "Some ask whether it is a cancer."

It is difficult for other Australians to appreciate the seriousness of  
what Trudgen describes as a two-way crisis in communication. People  
ignore advice to change their diets until it is explained to them,  
usually in their own language, what diabetes is and why giving up salt,  
sugar and cigarettes can overcome it.

Trudgen cites the case of a woman who was unable to explain to her  
doctor that she had splitting headaches, and was being examined instead  
for hookworm. A mother lost her five-year-old son to pneumonia after  
failing to give one of the drugs dispensed for him because she did not  
know what it would do. Because health clinics and their employees have  
no authority under traditional law, many men do not attend them.

What frustrates Trudgen is the attitude of governments and in  
particular bureaucracies. "People are rolling out the same old stupid  
programs for petrol sniffing and the rest," he says. He argues that  
people are mistaken in thinking that children sniff because they are  
bored, "so let's go and teach them how to play basketball".

Much more important is the virtual disappearance of bilingual  
education. "They learn almost nothing in school other than that they  
are incapable of learning," he says. "You may as well be teaching them  
in Japanese: they cannot process what is being taught. They feel bad  
about themselves and they sniff because they want to forget who they  
are."

Recreational programs introduced into the Ramingining community in the  
early 1980s made the problem worse. Organised by non-Aborigines, they  
alienated the children from elders and parents, while some became  
sniffers so they could join the programs.

Success came when children were educated about the effects of sniffing,  
including permanent brain damage, and elders were encouraged to revive  
a traditional ceremony that allowed them to give instruction to  
sniffers. Sniffing stopped in Ramingining and has never restarted, says  
Trudgen, although there are other problems with drug abuse. Trudgen  
shares with Aboriginal leaders such as Noel Pearson views on the  
destructive effects of welfare dependence. But he parts ways with  
Pearson and others who emphasise the use of English.

"I'm afraid you cannot force people to learn a language: you can only  
force them to lose a language, particularly academic concepts," he  
says. "That is why you end up with a lot of urban Aboriginal people who  
have no academic language capacity. You actually de-educate people."

Trudgen argues for the need to give back to the people control over  
their lives, and he believes the key to that is language. "Government  
will say it is ridiculous to say everyone who comes to our communities  
should learn the language," he says. "But to find a teacher or nursing  
sister, it costs government anywhere between $40,000 and $60,000, and  
sometimes they don't even last three months. It seems wise to pay them  
a little bit to learn the language and slow that merry-go-round of  
people coming in and out."

Trudgen's views find some resonance in this week's report from the  
Productivity Commission. "Indigenous language is fundamentally linked  
with indigenous culture and law and these are intrinsically linked with  
indigenous wellbeing," it says.

And it attributes the success of the governing council in Wadeye in the  
Northern Territory to the use of traditional structures that give it  
legitimacy.

Mike Steketee is The Australian's National affairs editor.
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