[RNLD] Gavan Breen made Officer of the Order of Australia

[Margaret Florey]

Dear RNLDers,

I'm thrilled to share the news that Gavan Breen has been made an Officer of
the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the Indigenous
community through the preservation of languages, to the development of
orthographies, and to education".

Our warmest congratulations go to Gavan as a very deserving recipient of
this honour! Gavan has dedicated his life to documenting and analysing
Australia's Indigenous languages. An ABC article today contains a very
typical photo of him with his reel-to-reel recorder working with a speaker.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-26/australia-day-honours-nt-awards-quotes/7112080

Over the years, many people across Australia have had the opportunity to
work with Gavan on his projects in linguistics and allied disciplines. In
recent years, RNLD staff enjoyed working with him on two projects.

In October 2012 and April 2013, Gavan went with DRIL trainers to Woorabinda
community in central Queensland to reconnect with people whose languages he
had recorded in the 60s and 70s. These were very moving trips for everyone.
Bidyara, Gungabula and Gangalu people in Woorie were excited to work with
Gavan, while Gavan was humbled to see his work being of use more than 40
years after he prepared the materials. He is still in contact with
community members, and continues to prepare new materials to support
language revitalisation.

In 2014, RNLD worked with Gavan to digitise his handwritten field notes for
51 languages across western Queensland, South Australia and the Northern
Territory and deposit the materials in the PARADISEC archive. You can read
more about that project here. http://www.rnld.org/BreenDonaldson

Our congratulations also go to *Sister Teresa Anne WARD*, of Wadeye, NT,
awarded "For service to Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory,
particularly as a linguist and educator" and The late *Emeritus Professor
Christopher CANDLIN*, Church Point, NSW awarded "For distinguished service
to higher education, particularly in the fields of linguistics and
communication research, and as an academic, teacher and mentor".

kind regards
Margaret
-- 
Dr Margaret Florey
DRIL Director
Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity

I am usually available in the office Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Fridays except when I am travelling to deliver DRIL training workshops
<http://t.co/xulmFjTlmt>

*Contact details*

ph: +61 (03) 9077-9500 (office)
mob: 0488 086 031
skype: RNLDorg

*Postal address*
Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity
Box 9
19-21 Argyle Place South
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia

*Street address*
Suite 3, Level 1
19-21 Argyle Place South
Carlton, Victoria 3053

www.rnld.org
ABN 24 215 634 040


*RNLD proudly supports the Racism.it stops with me campaign  *
itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au <http://t.co/xulmFjTlmt>@*ItStopsWithMe*
<https://twitter.com/ItStopsWithMe>

I pay my respects and acknowledgments to all Traditional Custodians on
whose land I live, work and travel through
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