[RNLD List] Spinning a Better Yarn session with Clint Bracknell postponed (again!) to 12th October 2022

[Ruth Singer]

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Spinning a Better Yarn: Decolonising linguistics study group

Next session: Wednesday 12th October 2022 1pm (AEDT) 12 noon (AEST) Professor Clint Bracknell: Australian Aboriginal song language
Note: this session has been postponed twice! The Zoom links is as for the planned September session.

“Australian Aboriginal song language: So many questions, so little to work with” by Michael Walsh, Australian Aboriginal Studies, no.2, 2007, pp. 128–144

Discussion led by Professor Clint Bracknell, Noongar of south coast WA, Professor of Indigenous Languages (University of Queensland)

In his state-of-the-art review published fifteen years ago, Michael Walsh candidly discusses the limited and speculative nature of Aboriginal song analysis. Most Aboriginal songs themselves are short and esoteric in nature, and linguistic accounts of Aboriginal languages rarely include detailed information about songs and singing practices. More widely known songs often have multiple interpretations, and lesser-known songs can lack the contextual information required to understand much about them at all. Consequently, it is difficult to draw hard conclusions about songs and song language. Walsh concludes by raising questions about the roles and responsibilities of researchers:
“As one subjects ‘short but tricky’ song texts to finer and finer analysis there can be concern that one will end up killing the specimen on the dissecting table, and this inevitably leads into the tricky issue of traditional knowledge management (Marett et al. 2006; also Barwick et al. 2005). In particular some interpretations of song texts would only have been available to the most senior Aboriginal persons, as knowledge has been progressively delivered in a kind of drip-feed fashion over a lifetime. How is one to manage this inner core of knowledge?”
Bracknell will open a conversation on developments in Aboriginal song analysis since 2007, particularly on the increased involvement of Aboriginal researchers in this field.
Reading:
Walsh, Michael (2007). Australian Aboriginal song language: So many questions, so little to work with<https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdynamicsoflanguage.us11.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Dab40e6e405ba2e978356b0bae%26id%3Db23eeabd04%26e%3Dddd14225c3&data=05%7C01%7Ccale.johnstone%40anu.edu.au%7C87a56d56125f4827820308da960384b8%7Ce37d725cab5c46249ae5f0533e486437%7C0%7C0%7C637987239109894174%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NN7chBP231tZ1I8aHcrFrHAYILJz1AEZa1gCHNVq%2FT8%3D&reserved=0>. Australian Aboriginal Studies, no 2, 128-144

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