Hello, I am Philip in Canberra
I am a part time distance education student of the Indigenous Knowledges course a Charles Darwin University. So far I have concentrated on the Yolngu language units. The course intially focuses on the Gupapuyngu language, the one that has been the best documented. Later the course includes some study of other Yolngu languages.
This semester I working transcribing and annotating a videos that already has a translation. so far it is a long, slow, but interesting task.
To my delight I saw some videos on the ABC program The Chaser - Yes We Canberra.
This Chaser series focusses on the federal election on 21 August 2010. In 4 of the 5 episodes there are short sections, 45 to 75 seconds, of a group of Yolngu speakers sitting on the ground, discussing various mainstream topical issues:
Episode 2 - The debate between the party leaders
Episode 3 - Broadband
Episode 4 - Arts funding
Episode 5 - What has happened since the Government said sorry.
There is an English translation for each conversation. The translations on the clips are ok, though they don't pick up some of the nuances, for instance in Episode 2 the Yolngu people suggest that the party leader should have discussed more interesting topical issues, such as
- Lindsay Lohan (pronounced Lindsay Lokan in the clip - the US film star recently sent to jail for alcohol and drug problems)
- Master Chef
- Paul the Ocotopus
But the translation does not mention the suggested topic of Michael Bloomberg, the current New York, mayor who is often in mainstream news.
I would be interested to hear what you think of these clips.
You can find the full episodes here.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/yeswecanberra/video.htmThree of the Yolngu discussion clips are available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IKvNQLa2Gs&feature=related Broadband
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM_LgQHsBBk&feature=related Arts funding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mntr2rflvjs&feature=related The debate between party leaders
