‘maang’ a video work in progress
by: r e aOver the past two years I have been investigating my relationship to language – both my own Indigenous language, which I don’t speak and my learnt language - English.
I have asked myself many questions as to how the loss of my Indigenous language has effected me and impacted on who I am and how I see the world. Questions, which inevitably come back to - what is my relationship to land and country? Who am I and where do I belong within the Australian landscape? And, how does language define me and in what way can I reclaim my language and ultimately my sense of self within the land?
My Indigenous language group is Gamilaraay, which is one of a small group of New South Wales Indigenous languages that managed to survive the impact of colonisation. Today, the Gamilaraay language is being taught to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students within the Central Western region of NSW. In 2003 the Gamilaraay language was formally written down and published as a dictionary. ‘Whilst, written grammars and dictionaries are not the best way to learn a language sadly, for many Australian Indigenous languages they are the only way to learn most of the language’. (Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaalayaay Dictionary IAD press) A web site also accompanied the publication of the dictionary.
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AborigPages/LANG/GAMDICT/GAMDICT.HTM
‘maang’ is a video work-in-progress, which explores how my newly-found connection to my Indigenous language has impacted on my sense of self and on my on-going understanding of the complexities of my blood connection to land.
‘maang’ , came out of a residency which I participated in entitled: the Cultural Diversity Clusters Residency from 2004 – 2005 . It was a condition of the residency program that each of the participating artists’ presented a number of workshop explorations, specifically related to the themes of culture, language and death. I presented a series of workshops, which focused on the relationship between Indigenous languages’ and English. I subsequently invited Dr. Christine Nicholls who teaches Aboriginal History, Art History and Languages at Flinders University to help me and the other artists to translate English words into a spoken Aboriginal language. Dr Nicholls speaks fluent Walpari from the Central Australian region. I then decided to work with a classic, aussie, nationalistic text and Dorothea McKellar’s 1904 poem, ‘My Country’ seemed perfect as many generations of Australian children both black and white grew up, endlessly reciting this poem in primary school. Ironically, I first heard this poem when Oodgeroo Noonuccal read it on the radio ! I am currently exhibiting the work in progress as a single channel video, as I work through a layered creative process, which will move the final work towards a three channel video installation.
Therefore, ‘maang’ is part one of my foray into language and land. I am consciously invading a colonial text and I am occupying it entirely within an Indigenous language_scape and landmass.
Clusters was an experimental residency program based in Adelaide at Flinders University, which was initiated and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. The Cultural Diversity Cluster Residency program was co-ordinated by Prof. Julie Holledge, through Australian Performance Lab. ( http://www.flinders.edu.au/apl/html/lab/index.html ) and further information related to the Clusters Artists’, ( http://www.cluster.net.au/index.php/profiles )
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