A link you may or may not be interested in reading

Boring title, tweeny post, potentially fascinating paper.

UPDATE: ok, upon reflection that was an incredibly lame post with zero substance. Who am I to assume you'll just read anything I link without knowing hide nor hair of the matter? (to those of you who did read it, hope it cut the mustard...). The above link is to a report: "The First Ever Northern Territory Homelands/Outstations Policy". This report puts the recent government policy re Indigenous Community housing into historical perspective.

Old Ladies

I have just been marveling on how old ladies can be so similar yet different. I volunteer at a book exchange which has occasionally brought me into the path of embittered old ladies (both volunteers and customers) who shake their heads and mutter at the state of Katherine Town: the litter, the graffiti, the antisocial behaviour. (More often than not, these comments develop a racial bent which prompts me to change the topic or flee)

Today I got chatting with an old aboriginal lady who hangs out under a tree near the book shop. As our conversation progressed, she shook her head and began to mutter about the state of Katherine Town: the litter, the graffiti, the antisocial behaviour. I thought to myself how in agreement all these ladies are. How dissatisfied with the youth of today, how disapproving. How in harmony their opinions.

Where is the big shady tree under which we can all sit to air and compare our grievances?

Show us your prefix!

Have just returned from the wonderful nerd-up that was the Australian Languages Workshop 2009 held at the beautiful Kioloa - ANU's coastal Campus.  To any budding linguist (whose cunning is yet to be discovered) it was real-life immersion in one's undergrad bibliography - and they say immersion is a great way to learn!

Topics and issues were from the fun and finicky (getting down and dirty with the nitty gritty of various grammatical, phonological, semantic question marks of particular languages) to the political hot potatoes (the bilingual debate, language ownership vs. linguistic thievery, and various other Governmental and just plain mental decisions which are wreaking havoc on the world's most endangered languages).

Of course, there were puns aplenty and jocular (but jovial) slinging matches between the longstanding linguistic heavy weights of Australian Linguistics.  A section of the lingo-blogosphere was also present: Jangari, Sophie, Jane, Bulanjdjan (and any I have forgotten) it was great to see you in the flesh.

Well, word to the nerd!  Hope to do it all again next year.

Ma.

stuff (and nonsense?)

I hope I didn't offend my (myriad!) of fans with the title of my (unfortunately over two months ago :S) post.  Anyone who clicked on the link would have found a book with the same title as my blog, but whose subtitle imitated (in the negative) the title of the previous post.

(I'm not sure whether I should apologise for all the brackets - it must be the mood I'm in, hopfully my ranting is still somewhat legible through all these curved wossnames)

Felt like I should write, as I haven't in ages, but not sure what about.  But that hasn't stopped me before, so perhaps I should just plow on?  I know at least one munanga (moo-nang-ah: Eastside Kriol for 'whitefella') who shares my pain of literary blockage.

I've recently had two amphibian visitors, photos of whom I won't post here because they can be found here.

I s'pose, in the grand scheme, many things have been afoot in the last two months.  Many or you may know that I have changed jobs.  I have just spent my first week at the new one, still getting a handle on things.  I've also managed to contract Ross River Fever - which, apart from being an exotic tropical disease - hasn't got much going for it.  Oh well, lots of rest, DVDs and mooching is on the cards for me.  I'm already Bollywooded out.

Our (in)famous Taj household is also in a state of newness and change at the moment.  On beloved friend, former colleague and most valued compadre, has left us for the humid climes of the Darwinian big smoke; while another soon-to-be-beloved friend, not-likely-ever-colleague, and all round great gal, will be moving in at the end of the week.  The King and I plow through these changes in a festive and party-like manner -rekindling my love of rope-lights at every opportunity:

Well, I'm all posted out for now.  Hope you guys are still kicken on in good fashion.  Catch you soon.  xxx

Bobo.

(Rembarrnga language for 'that's all')

Not the story of a transexual

So I came across this in a bookshop today.

In other news I'll be in Melbourne next week.  Apart from that, not much to report to you guys at this point.  Only that I'm looking forward to catching you Melbourne crew when I'm down under in a couple of days' time (please not my fully sic apostrophe); I'm in one piece and intend to remain so for the foreseeable future; I'm enjoying being surrounded by geeks/nerds (never really could distinguish a meaningful difference, c'mon guys, help me out in the comments) this week.

Marntaj.

Hottober

A month of increasing humidity and high thirties temperatures.  We've had a few sporadic patches of rain,  interspersed with sporadic parental visits: Mother and her man have been trekking through the desert.  They graced us at the Taj with their presence before kidnapping me for a several day sight see of Litchfield before depositing me in Darwin for a weekend out on the town.  They endured the sticky top end capital for a while, but ventured back down to drier (though still fairly sweltering) Katherine and have now embarked on the homeward stretch to the cooler climes of Southern Oz via Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

I, meanwhile, who have been slogging away at work, have somehow accumulated the busiest schedule in the history of the world for the hottest season of the year.  My timetable as of the coming week includes: A week at Jilkminggan, three days in Batchelor to tutor, another week at Jilkminggan, a week in town (or possibly Ngukurr), a week in Jilkminggan, another three days in Batchelor, another week in Jilkminggan.  Thankfully all this will be topped off with a visit to Sydney for Summerfest2008, and then on to Mtown for a brill xmas with family and friends.

Hope Mtown is keeping all you groovers satisfied with its bookshops, cafés, and whatnot.

Mayawa,

(Mangarrayi: that's all)

Waist Management

So it turns out at the weather gets hotter I start craving sugar, chocolate bars and ice cold milk shakes.  What makes this a particularly bad recipe is that as it gets hotter, I feel more and more slothful, only able to muster enough energy to sigh about how hot it's getting.  Ok, well that's a slight exaggeration.  But not for long; soon the buildup will be in full swing (it has been dubbed by meteorologists to have already started) and sweat will roll, heads will loll, and moans will escape parched lips.

So, apart from vague hopes of being able to sweat it all out, my cravings seem to be leading to an impractical layer of insulation around the middle.  Oh well....  at least laps at the pool are more appealing (though the sweltering bike ride to and from may be something to be endured)...  Lolling in the Taj pool is much more likely.

Well,  haven't heard from any of you Melbourne mob in a while (perhaps it is because you have disowned me for gratuitous use of the word 'mob'?).   Hope all well in the down under of down under.

xx  Love from the North.  xxx