Fwd: First Australians

[Aidan Wilson]

There was also an SBS World News report about thiis documentatry series, 
and it ventured into the state of indigenous languages in Australia. As 
part of it, I was interviewed about a mobile phone dictionary that James 
McElvenny and I have been developing throughout the year. You can see it 
on Youtube:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQt3mQ7-N8

-Aidan

Eugenie Collyer wrote:

>>
>> *The landmark documentary series First Australians tells a very 
>> different story of our nation. By Sacha Molitorisz.*
>> ''BEFORE the Dreaming, the Australian continent was a flat, 
>> featureless place, devoid of life," says a woman's ethereal voice, 
>> over shots of red desert and rugged coastline. "Then giant beings 
>> came down from the sky, came from across the sea and emerged from 
>> within the Earth. With their arrival the Dreaming began and life was 
>> born... (and) in everything they touched they left their essence, 
>> making the lands sacred to those who honour the Dreaming - the first 
>> Australians."
>> So begins one of the most significant documentary series in the 
>> history of Australian television. For the first time, the story of 
>> Aboriginal Australia has been condensed into a coherent narrative 
>> that begins with the mythological birth of humanity on this continent 
>> - the Dreaming that historian Inga Clendinnen calls "that web of 
>> stories which holds this great recalcitrant continent within the net 
>> of human intelligence" - and ends in the aftermath of Eddie Mabo's 
>> landmark native title victory. In seven episodes, it's a series that 
>> explores, in the words of award-winning filmmaker Rachel Perkins, 
>> what happens when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun 
>> by the world's greatest empire....
>>
>> _http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/the-story-of-black-australia/2008/10/08/1223145363254.html_
>
> Eugenie Collyer
> Town Linguist
> Diwurruwurru-Jaru Aboriginal Corporation
> (Katherine Regional Aboriginal Language Centre)
> PO Box 871, Katherine 0851
> Ph: (08) 89711233
> Fax: (08) 8971 0561
>
>
>