Communication barriers thwart the intervention (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

Communication barriers thwart the intervention

By Claire Smith
Posted Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:19am AEDT
Updated Wed Apr 2, 2008 11:16am AEDT

I was at the Aboriginal communities of Manyallaluk and Barunga when members of
the intervention task force came to visit.

Major General Dave Chalmers and Dr Sue Gordon addressed the communities. They
said they wanted to find out what people needed, and to communicate with them,
not speak at them. They were pleasant and courteous.

It was only when they moved on that a serious problem emerged. Many people had
not understood what they were saying.

Aboriginal people in these communities speak Kriol as a first language, and
English as a second language, used only when speaking to non-Aboriginal people.
These are multi-lingual and socially sophisticated communities, and some old
people speak several Aboriginal languages, as well as Kriol. For them, English
is a third, fourth or fifth language.

No wonder they could not understand Chalmers or Gordon.

Full article access below:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/31/2203215.htm