iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Learning an Aboriginal Language is part of a 4 book series entitled The Aboriginal Australian in North Eastern Arnhem Land, published by the Curriculum Development Centre in Canberra in the early 1980s. The series, and the idea behind it, is ground-breaking for its attempt to introduce Aboriginal language and culture into mainstream non-Indigenous education pathways.

Learning an Aboriginal Language is 180 pages in total and comprises of 40 lessons. It focusses on Gupapuyngu and begins with speech sounds, numbers and sign language as introductory material. The lessons themselves are straightforward and easy to understand. I would say this is possibly late primary school standard. Lesson 1 goes something like this: Dhuwala gapu (this is water), Dhuwala gara (this is a spear), dhuwala dharpa (this is a stick) etc.

Each lesson builds on the previous. So Lesson 3 begins with Dhuwala yindi dharpa (this is a big stick) etc.

By Lesson 24, you'll be learning phrases like Limurru dja:l yutawa mapu'wa (we want fresh eggs) etc.

There are plenty of diagrams, photos, tasks, revisions, and tests in the book to keep the lessons interesting.

The other books in the series are equally informative: Exploring Aboriginal Kinship, Introducing Aboriginal Australians, and Discovering Aboriginal Culture. Material found in the book has been drawn from the communities of Milingimbi, Galiwin'ku and Yirrkala. The late George Rr*rr*mb*, along with a handful of other Yolngu individuals, is credited with contributing to and reviewing the books.

All 4 books are very rare though you might have success in finding them in good libraries. I've got a handful of complete sets of the books if anyone might be interested.

Hi Guan,

Is there any CD/tapes or some other media accompanying this set? Or are there others you can recommend which might help with the pronunciation as well?

Cheers

Mahir

Hey Mahir:

You want to look here: http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/yolngustudi ... .htm#books

Hi
sorry for the very late answer Jason regarding this
But I happened to discover ARDS quite a while ago (http://www.ards.com.au/default.html) and there you have lots of different books some of which I purchased and have been studying. I can strongly recommend the following

Gupapuyngu Conversational Course Set 1+2 (Book + Tapes)
Grammar Lessons in Gupapuyngu
by Beulah Lowe. Although tapes are not so handy anymore, I found these very very useful. Also, from time to time I listen to the radio on ARDS where you can hear Richard Trudgen translating or commenting on may different issues with Yolngu .
very useful too to get familiar with the language and to understand the problems Yolngu suffer from.

Thank you mahir for the website link.

Can you tell us more about the books you have (number of pages, lessons...)?
The cassettes are magnetic audio cassettes, right?

Hi Anthony,

A book consists of about 60 pages with 12-13 units. Each unit gives you some vocabulary, pronunciation and their use in the sentence. Pretty nicely structured and clearly explained.

tapes are indeed audio cassettes, that's right. Yet the recording is very good too,

Cheers
M

Hi mister M,

Did you try the book learning an aboriginal language presented in this topic? If yes do you think the two books Gupapuyngu Conversational Course Set 1+2 give some useful complementary informations?
Regards

Hi Anthony,
I could not try any other grammar books before
yet I am pleased with those, as I suggested before,

cheers

Mahir

There used to be a great video accompanying the kinship text. Unfortunately I don't have a copy.