Contact us at topendlingcircle@gmail.com if you’d like to present at a future meeting.

Previous meetings

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Monday 13th November 2023

Awni Etaywe, “Analysing identity in violent extremist discourse through systemic functional linguistics: An appraisal analysis”

Abstract: Identity attacks are prevalent in terrorist threatening communication. That said, little is known about how extremists use language to perform identity attacks. Contributing to the mechanisms used for interrogating offenders’ performance of identity attacks and understanding clues to offensive language and precursors of violence, this paper explores the primary victims as well as the aspects of victims’ identities that are attacked in the violent extremist discourse of the far-rightist Brenton Tarrant, and two jihadists – Boko Haram leader, Abu Bakr Shekau, and former ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi. The seminar will focus on evaluative couplings (i.e. attitude + attitudinal target or ideation) as the unit of analysis. The evaluative coupling approach to identities in terrorist discourse (e.g. Etaywe & Zappavigna, 2021, 2023) is grounded in the Appraisal framework (Martin & White, 2005) which enables a systematic description of the pattern of the extremists’ attributing of particular values to their victims. To generate a list of repeated, attitudinally loaded lemmas, AntConc (a corpus analysis tool) is used, and the lemmas are examined for their evaluative load in their concordance lines. This concordance-line examination also allows us to identify what or who is being evaluated or attacked (i.e. attitudinal targets). To systematically describe the categories of attitudinal targets, they are categorised based on (van Leeuwen, 2008): functionalisation (i.e. in terms of an activity social actors do, e.g. government, immigrants); and identification (in terms of what social actors are, e.g. White, men, brothers). Then, the victims’ attacked aspects of identity are described (Tracy & Robles, 2002): personal (e.g. scum), relational (e.g. enemy), interactional (e.g. tyrant), and master aspects (e.g. apostate). These evaluative lemmas and attitudinal targets are taken as ‘evaluative textbites’ that move us closer to the ‘extremist appraisal signature’ (Etaywe, 2023), and serve as a diagnostic for characterising the performative nature of identity attacks.

Speaker: Awni Etaywe is a linguistics lecturer and forensic linguistics researcher in terrorism, incitement to hatred and violence, and digital deviance. He is also interested in the semiotics of compassion in digital activist discourse. His actionable insights feature in various public media, publications and esteemed journals, such as Language in Society (Cambridge) and Routledge International Handbook of Online Deviance.

Rebecca Amery & Julie Gungunbuy Wunungmurra, “Collaborative development of aided Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems for Yolŋu living with Machado-Joseph disease”

Abstract:Rebecca and Julie will share about their research process and findings related to developing alternative communication systems for Yolŋu first language speakers living with MJD, a progressive genetic disease, which impacts people’s ability to speak. Julie will share her Yolŋu family’s experiences of living with MJD across the Top End, and its impact on communication and participation. Rebecca will present some theory from the field of speech pathology related to multi-modal communication and development of communication systems in languages other than English. Together they will raise key cultural and linguistic considerations for First Nations families, speech pathologists and linguists’ collaborating in the Top End.

Speakers: Julie Gungunbuy Wunungmurra is a Dalwaŋu woman, from Galiwin’ku community. Julie is a senior Yolŋu cultural advisor at the MJD Foundation, where she has worked since 2011. Julie is the primary contact and support person for Yolŋu clients with MJD and their families in Darwin, Galiwin’ku and Yirrkala. Julie provides support to MJD Foundation community services, research and education programs and projects, providing cultural advice and support, as well as translation and interpreting for research, medical and genetic concepts. She has been the primary Yolŋu researcher for the MJD Communication research project and has also been involved in genetics and sleep research with the MJD Foundation.

Rebecca Amery is a lecturer and clinical education coordinator in speech pathology at Charles Darwin University. She completed her PhD in 2023, involving collaborative development of aided augmentative and alternative (AAC) systems with Yolŋu families living with Machado-Joseph disease. She also has a Graduate Certificate in Yolŋu Studies from Charles Darwin University and a Bachelor of Speech Pathology from the University of Newcastle. Rebecca has experience working as a speech pathologist across the lifespan with people living with complex communication needs in Melbourne and across the Northern Territory, as well as in Vietnam and Indonesia. She has clinical and research interests in collaborative, intercultural and culturally responsive speech pathology, communication access, and augmentative and alternative communication.

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Monday 31st May 2023

David Felipe Guerrero-Beltran (Université Paris-Cité / University of Melbourne), “Conjugational classes and tense ‘underspecification’ in Gu-jingaliya (Maningrida, Northern Australia)”

Abstract: Like many other non-Pama-Nyungan languages, Gu-jingaliya verbs form several conjugational classes according to the suffixes they chose to express tense and modality. In most cases, verb conjugational classes present a morphological distinction between present and past tense. Nevertheless, verbs in one conjugational class use the non-future suffix ‑nga­ to express both. When a verb from this conjugational class function as the head of a syntactic construction, its morphological information is not specific enough to contrast between past and non-past events. However, the language has several contextual mechanisms to disambiguate the temporal reference of the event in these cases.  In this talk, I will present an overview of the Gu-jingaliya verbal conjugational classes and describe the distributional characteristics of the verbs from the tense underspecified nga conjugational class. The analysis will focus on the role of event structure and lexical aspect in the past and non-past interpretation of morphologically underspecified verbs.

Speaker: David Felipe Guerrero-Beltran is a Doctoral Fellow at the Université Paris-Cité and the University of Melbourne. His work focuses on the documentation and grammatical analysis of Amazonian and Australian languages from both typological and formal approaches. He has worked with the Carijona people, an indigenous group from Northwest Amazonia (Colombia), on documenting and describing their native language. His doctoral project focuses on the expression of tense, aspect, and modality in Gu-jingaliya (Burarra/Gun-nartpa), a non-Pama-Nyungan language from the Arnhem Land (NT, Australia).

 

Eleanor Yacopetti (Monash University), “The Kune spatial repertoire: preliminary findings”

Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce the Kune Language, Landscape and Culture project, and how it contributes to the larger ‘OzSpace’ project (http://ozspace.org/). Early research has demonstrated that the way people talk about space correlates with how they perceive and behave in space (Levinson 2003). However, evidence from recent studies has revealed that the nature of this relationship is more complex than previously imagined. For example, sociocultural patterns of interaction with the environment can covary with spatial language and cognition (Palmer et al. 2017; Palmer et al. 2022). Emergent details about Australian spatial systems have also prompted a reconsideration of the spatial typology of these languages (Palmer et al. 2021). The OzSpace project represents the first Australia-wide survey of space in language and cognition, aiming not only to understand trends of spatial reference across the continent, but also to re-examine the relationship between language, landscape, spatial cognition, and culture.

The Kune project considers the role of environmental and sociocultural factors in constructing spatial language in Kune (an eastern variety of Bininj Kunwok). Preliminary grammatical analysis (building on Evans 2003; Cialone 2019) reveals that Kune speakers have at their disposal, a large range of systems to talk about space. I will illustrate some of these interesting features, including how contact-influenced features such as Kriol/English forms are integrated in Kune. I will also discuss some of the diverse spatial strategies used in psycholinguistic tasks and navigation narratives (cf. Cialone 2019), and the potential implication of these findings for our understandings of spatial reference more generally.

Speaker: Eleanor Yacopetti is a linguist based at Monash University. Her PhD research focuses on the dynamics of spatial reference in Australian languages, and how it is related to culture, cognition, and the environment. She collaborates with the Kune community in Arnhem Land (NT, Australia) to document the Kune language, a variety of the Bininj Kunwok language chain. Eleanor has also previously worked with the Miriwoong community in Kununurra, Western Australia, as an intern at the Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring language centre.

Eleanor has an interest in semantic typology, particularly the semantics of space and emotion (in Australian languages). She received First Class Honours at The University of Western Australia for her investigation of the semantics of emotion nouns across Australian Indigenous languages.

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Wednesday 1st March 2023

Mei-Li Fang, A ‘Performance Approach’: Rapid and Effective Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract: The ‘Performance Approach’ (PA) is a methodology for rapid, effective, and predictable language teaching and learning, accountable to learning and teaching goals. While much teaching is sequential, adding content week after week, PA learning takes place in a ‘spiral’, where learners continually revisit and perform what they have learned. It uses meaningful conversation as well as staged drama to transform learners from engaging in ‘production’ to participating in performance. PA method applies an understanding of learners’ diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and learning goals to providing an ‘ecology’ of syllabus, textbook, learnable content, classroom methods and activities, assessment and evaluation. Drama is a key component and the talk will include video demonstrations of the learning process and learners’ performances.

Speaker: Originally from Taiwan, Mei-Li Fang completed her PhD in Linguistics at Ochanomizu University in Japan. She held a Postdoctoral position at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and was then Assistant Professor of Japanese at Fu-Jen University in Taiwan, Foreign Professor in Mandarin Chinese at Tsukuba University and Ochanomizu University. She taught Hokkien at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and at SOAS University of London, and taught Mandarin at Imperial College. She has done fieldwork and published on the endangered language Siraya in Taiwan, and has published on language pedagogy, Japanese and Chinese linguistics, and has produced several language learning texts.

David Nathan & Brenda Muthamuluwuy, Revitalising a language … app: new digital resources for Yolŋu languages at Charles Darwin University

Abstract: After over 20 years of using the original Gupapuyŋu app to support the Yolŋu Matha language teaching program at Charles Darwin University, changes in technologies, the inclusion of additional Yolŋu languages, and the guidance of Yolŋu philosophies and pedagogies, necessitate the development of an updated language learning app. Our current project, supported by the Commonwealth’s ILA program, combines the experience of the current Yolŋu-led program with one of the longest continually running learning apps for any Indigenous language. The new app is a web-based, open-source, sustainable, multilingual platform catering for today&rquo;s devices, technologies, and the skills and expectations of both Yolŋu and Balanda students.

Speakers:

David Nathan trained in linguistics, computing, and management. As a researcher at AIATSIS in Canberra he co-authored the world’s first web dictionary, for Gamilaraay (with Peter K. Austin). He has taught computing, linguistics, cognitive science, and multimedia, with publications including the textbook Australia’s Indigenous Languages and papers on archiving, language documentation, audio, internet, and lexicography. As Director of the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS University of London, his team developed new approaches to archiving digital language documentation and trained a generation of linguists in technologies and methods for documentary linguistics. He recently retired from his position as linguist for the Groote Eylandt Language Centre.

Brenda Muthamuluwuy  is a Yolŋu Gupapuyŋu woman originally comes from Galiwin’ku community in North East Arnhemland. After completing her schooling year 12 in 1984, she began working at Arnhem Land Progress Association (ALPA) which was located in Winnellie in Darwin working with G & R Wills. She was then transferred to the Galiwin’ku Community, working at ALPA Community store for several years until 2000. In 2001 she commenced working at Shepherdson College (community school) as Administrator, a position which she held for 12 years . Brenda also worked as the Cultural Supervisor in the school. As a community member she was so passionate to be a role model and work in a leadership role for her Community Elders and the Community. In 2012 she was appointed to apply for coordinator of Mawul Rom Pty Ltd in partnership with Charles Darwin University (CDU) in a Master’s program at CDU until 2015. Brenda is currently an Indigenous lecturer of Indigenous Languages Yolngu Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Society at Charles Darwin University. Lived and worked in Darwin NT. Brenda is a member of the Indigenous Researchers Initiative (IRI) at the Northern Institute (CDU) and is a supporter of the Indigenous Researchers Initiative.

Angelina Aquino, Disaster communication, intercultural translation, and language technology: Pathways for two-way learning and participation in Arnhem Land

Abstract: The Northern Territory of Australia is prone to many recurring hazards including cyclones, bushfires, and floods. Reducing the impact of such hazards involves the acquisition of knowledge about hazards and risks, the communication of information across robust channels, the formation of measures for risk reduction and response, and the mobilization of people to enact these measures.

In the Arnhem region, Indigenous (Bininj) knowledge practices for disaster risk reduction exist alongside external (Balanda) emergency management processes. But these traditions have largely developed independent of one another, and long-standing issues of empowerment and trust as well as linguistic and socio-cultural barriers have made communication and mutual understanding between these circles particularly challenging. These issues have been addressed in other domains through established approaches of two-way learning and participation, and we believe that these approaches hold similar promise for building intercultural capacity around disaster.

In this project, we aim to find pathways for Bininj and Balanda to work together towards improved disaster communication, under the framework of participatory action research. We seek to translate knowledge practices both ways: from Bininj to Balanda, by constructing a grounded theory about disaster in Bininj communities; and from Balanda to Bininj, by co-designing technological means to support local disaster communication. Through these research activities, we hope to promote ongoing engagement between Bininj and Balanda actors in disaster management, and in doing so strengthen the foundations for sustainable change.

Speaker: Angelina Aquino is a Ph.D. student in the Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University. She obtained her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she investigated and co-advised projects on speech processing, machine translation, and linguistic analysis for Philippine languages. She is broadly interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research that supports local knowledge transmission, Indigenous governance, and community-led design.

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19th September 2022

Professor Michael Walsh

Professor Michael Walsh speaks on “The Rise and Rise of Australian Languages”

Speaker: Professor Walsh has been dedicated to working with Australian Aboriginal languages for about 45 years. He has worked and published extensively on documenting and revitalizing these languages, especially in the Northern Territory and New South Wales. His research interests include lexical semantics, cross-cultural pragmatics, language and identity, language and law, linguistic geography, language revitalization, song language and other expressive uses of language. He is currently affiliated with AIATSIS, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University among others.

Abstract: Endangerment discourse is replete with negativity: death; extinction; morbidity. This kind of discourse has been applied to the languages of Indigenous Australia. One account declares that of the approximately 250 languages encountered at first significant contact with outsiders, just 13 are still being learned by children as a matter of course. This account would imply that there are 237 languages in various states of disrepair. However over the last 20 to 30 years many languages are in the process of revival. Examples of language revival will be presented demonstrating the range of strategies that have been adopted.

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30th March 2022

Professor Michael Walsh speaks on “Austronesians in northern Australia: re-assessing the linguistic impact of ‘Macassans’”

The speaker: Professor Walsh has been dedicated to working with Australian Aboriginal languages for about 45 years. He has worked and published extensively on documenting and revitalizing these languages, especially in the Northern Territory and New South Wales. His research interests include lexical semantics, cross-cultural pragmatics, language and identity, language and law, linguistic geography, language revitalization, song language and other expressive uses of language. He is currently affiliated with AIATSIS, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University among others.

Abstract: In 1979 James Urry and I suggested that the linguistic impact of so-called Macassans in northern Australia may have been more extensive than had previously been thought. Not long after, this was published (Urry and Walsh 1981) and was vindicated by Walker and Zorc (1981) who had the unusual but very useful combination of a strong background in Yolngu-Matha and Austronesian. Another linguist (e.g. Evans 1992) demonstrated significant influence in a wider range of languages. Meanwhile archaeological research has pointed to a much more extensive geographical spread and a greater time depth. This paper will build on an earlier re-assessment of Macassan influence (Walsh 2012) which suggests a geographical spread along the northern coast from western Cape York to the Kimberley, and possibly to the Pilbara. Time depth could be as early as the 14th century. This means that there are many northern coastal languages for which Macassan influence is yet to be explored. A method for streamlining this process is proposed.

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Friday 20 August 2021

Guest speaker – Dr Alice Mitchell

“Using community-led development to build health communication about rheumatic heart disease in Aboriginal children”

Alice will report on her 2021 paper published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (vol 45, no3). Speakers of four Aboriginal languages in Maningrida created lessons to teach children about rheumatic heart disease in their home languages, drawing on principles of community-led development. The paper found that action to address high rates of rheumatic heart disease in remote communities must include effective health communication strategies that value Indigenous Knowledge, language and culture, collaborative leadership and respect for Indigenous data sovereignty.

Read the open access paper at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1753-6405.13100

Alice would like to engage in discussion with the TELC audience about

• What is a cross-disciplinary approach?
• What situations would this approach be suitable or beneficial for?
• What are the challenges in using a cross-disciplinary approach?
• Should this approach be attempted in NT settings and when?

About the speaker:

Alice Mitchell is a midwife and registered nurse who trained as an applied linguist. With a longstanding interest in intercultural communication and Indigenous healthcare, she completed a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics where she researched health literacy in the NT. Her PhD thesis entitled That Heart Sickness: Exploring Young Aboriginal People’s Experiences of Rheumatic Fever Care from Childhood to Adulthood has confirmed the longstanding view held by many experts that there’s a disconnect between the biomedical language and world view of the west and that of Indigenous Australians, and that this disconnect leads to confusion, misinterpretation and even harm.

Additional presentation: “Exploring the effectiveness of COVID-19 communication with Yolŋu””

Information about COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is growing and changing rapidly. There have been many efforts to produce materials in Indigenous languages to reach people in remote communities, however little is known about how those messages are being received. Our research involves interviews and focus groups with Yolŋu participants in Darwin and one remote community, to explore the effectiveness of communication related to COVID-19. Preliminary findings indicate that people are not accessing these resources, and Yolŋu have suggestions about how the messaging could be done more effectively. Our emerging findings challenge resource developers to go beyond adapting existing health messages and to implement alternative co-creation processes.

About the presenters:

The project is being conducted by a team of Yolŋu and non-Indigenous researchers, and this presentation will involve some of the team including Anne Lowell, Emily Armstrong, Cathy Bow, Dikul Baker, and Brenda Muthamuluwuy.

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24th February 2021

Professor Michael Walsh speaks on “Christianity in Indigenous Australia: Linguistic Adaptations to an Exotic Spirituality”

• Time: 2-4pm, Thursday 24th February 2021.
  Prof Walsh will speak from 2-3pm, followed by participants sharing about their projects from 3-4pm, with time for networking.
• Location: Charles Darwin University, Casuarina campus, Northern Institute, Red 1, level 3 function room (above the cafe). Campus map| Map of seminar location
• See the meeting flyer for further information

The speaker:

Professor Walsh has been dedicated to working with Australian Aboriginal languages for about 45 years. He has worked and published extensively on documenting and revitalizing these languages, especially in the Northern Territory and New South Wales. His research interests include lexical semantics, cross-cultural pragmatics, language and identity, language and law, linguistic geography, language revitalization, song language and other expressive uses of language. He is currently affiliated with AIATSIS, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University among others.

Abstract:

Since the earliest days of “settlement” in 1788 Indigenous Australia has been engaged with Christianity. At one end of the spectrum were so-called “rice Christians”: Indigenous people who endured religious services because of an expectation that they would be given food. At the other end of the spectrum is the Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM, a Yolngu from the Northern Territory, who has preached, lectured and published on Aboriginal spirituality for many years.

Sometimes encounters between Christianity and Indigenous spirituality have led to the counterintuitive. For instance in the late 1970s Lutheran missionaries were engaged in re-translating the New Testament into Western Arrernte (central Australia). When asked why there was a need for a re-translation, the surprising response was along these lines: the earlier translation was so good that, now, almost no-one can understand it.

Some commentators (e.g. Daisy Bates) have suggested that some Christian material (e.g. The Lord’s Prayer) cannot be translated into an Australian language. Recalling the parable of the seven wise and foolish virgins, it becomes a challenge for the translator of Scripture if there is no Indigenous word for “virgin”! This account will present some of the range of issues surrounding the encounter between Indigenous Australia and Christianity.

4th March 2020

Presenter: Dr John Mansfield, lecturer in linguistics at the University of Melbourne, and an Honorary Fellow of the Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University.

Title: Aboriginal languages in Darwin prison

Abstract: Darwin is a meeting place of many Aboriginal languages and cultures. This is true not just of Darwin’s urban areas and coastal parks, but also of Darwin prison, where the majority of some 1000 prisoners speak at least one Aboriginal language.

In this seminar I will present a sketch of Aboriginal language use in Darwin city, and in Darwin prison. I will also introduce a new program of prison activities conducted primarily in Aboriginal languages. This project is currently being piloted with Murrinhpatha and Tiwi inmates, but would ideally cater to all the larger Aboriginal language groups in the NT Corrections system.

 

13th March 2019

Charles Darwin University, Casuarina campus, Northern Institute

Presenters:

• 1:00-1:30pm Ben Grimes, Charles Darwin University Differences in Yolngu and SAE narrative discourse patterns: Implications for judges and juries
• 1:30-2:00pm David Moore, University of Western Australia and Alice Springs Language Centre Language at the Centre: The contribution of German Lutheran missionaries to linguistics in the Northern Territory
• 2:00-2:30pm Professor Steven Bird, Charles Darwin University Learning English and Aboriginal Languages for Work
• 2:30-3:30pm Professor Ian Malcolm, Edith Cowan University Sharing our English

Abstracts