Ngaawa-Garay Summer School 2007

Ngaawa - Garay, The Summer School for Gamilaraay and Gumbaynggirr Languages was held from Monday 15th through to Friday 19th January 2007.  Classes were taught at the Koori Centre, University of Sydney.

Introduction

A choice of two NSW languages was given at the Ngaawa - Garay Summer school in January. One group chose Gamilaraay, a language of the NSW North-West. Another Group chose to do Gumbaynggirr, a language from the North Coast. While the Gumbaynggirr class  was run in parallel, and, for three events, in conjunction with Gamilaraay, it is the Gumbaynggirr course that is the subject of the following report.

The Gumbaynggirr course was organised by Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Cooperative, and Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre, Nambucca Heads. It (as well as the Gamilaraay course) was hosted by the Koori Centre at the University of Sydney and generously funded by the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Personnel

Three team teachers: Michael Walker, Sharon Smith, and Br Steve Morelli  provided the input and Muurrbay chairperson Ken Walker, and staff Pauline Hooler and Gary Williams gave tutorial support. Muurrbay staff including Sue Tomkins also gave support in preparing materials.  Information and provision for students, PR, liaison with the funding body and registration and office support was coordinated by Anna Ash (Many Rivers ALC), and also supported by Muurrbay Staff.

Teacher-Student interaction

Teacher / Student face-to-face hours were set at 28.5; including 18 hours formal classes, 5 hours practice and workbook help; and 5.5 performance time and presentations. Two of the performances were interactive with Gamilaraay and Gumbaynggirr sharing presentations of songs, speeches and other learnt materials. Final Statements of Attainment were also presented at a meeting of both groups.

Aims / Objectives

A. Grammar

To enable students unfamiliar with Gumbaynggirr to learn the equivalent of half the grammar taught in the full Certificate II course. This to include:

• An appreciation of the language origins of Goori English
• Recognition of a Gumbaynggirr vocabulary of around 200 items; including ‘traditional’ and post-contact items.
• Recognition of 7 Gumbaynggirr pronouns including the distinction between transitive and intransitive ‘I’.
• Enabling students to introduce themselves in language.
• Responding to simple Gumbaynggirr commands.
• Understanding of the meaning and function of  ‘cases’ on nouns.
  Understanding verbless sentences;
• Awareness of Transitivity as the basis of all sentences with verbs.
• Knowing how to make verbs from other parts of speech in Gumbaynggirr.

B. Phonology

To enable students to:

• correctly pronounce the 17 Gumbaynggirr phonemes;
• correctly say a range of Gumbaynggirr written words
• distinguish the three Gumbaynggirr rhotics (‘r’ sounds)
• pronounce word-beginning ‘ng’; and word-final ‘ny’

C. Culture and Dreaming associations

To enable students to:

• Learn four Gumbaynggirr dreaming stories in at least some of their original language context.
• Explore the relationship in the Aboriginal / Gumbaynggirr world between Language, Land and People.
• Learn language in 10 songs with Gumbaynggirr content.

D. Learnt Language for Specific Uses

To enable students to feel confident in performing at least one of the following oral tasks:

• A welcome to others in Gumbaynggirr;
• Acknowledgement of country in Gumbaynggirr;
• A traditional Gumbaynggirr song (of three taught intensively);
• A speech referring to the Aboriginal flag in Gumbaynggirr.
• Any other speech (composition guided by teachers)

Materials Provided to students:

• Student text (78 pages);
• Student Workbook (25 pages);
• Audio CD of Gumbaynggirr speaker and accompanying written script;
  
• writing materials;
• Two ‘Streetwize’ comics in Gumbaynggirr (all materials free of charge).
• Gumbaynggirr Dictionary and Grammar (at a cost of $10).

Presentations

Material presented by the team teachers made use of:

• Flashcards;
• Texts;
• Audio language material;
• Power Point presentations;
• Gumbaynggirr songs (traditional and made-up).

Methods included

• TPR: Here students are guided to respond to simple commands using pictures and props.
• Group and one-to-one dialogues
• Learning of songs and poems as memory aids

Student Assessment

Sixteen Indigenous students participated in this course and each satisfied the course requirements. These received a Statement of Attainment: qualifying for the equivalent of three modules of eight in the Certificate II (AQF) in Gumbaynggirr Language  and Culture Maintenance, a course which is accredited by VETAB. No (lesser) ‘Statement of Attendance’ was therefore issued.

Minimum requirements (assessed by the indigenous presenters) were:

• Consistent class participation
• Satisfactory workbook entries.

Outcomes

I believe the achievements of this intensive course were outstanding; for several reasons:

• Gumbaynggirr language was correctly heard and responded to by all students;
• Gumbaynggirr of a simple kind was spoken and sung by all students;
• Language was read and written at an excellent level.
• Interaction and presentations shared between participants of this course and the members of the parallel Gamilaraay course were mutually very fruitful.

The enthusiasm of the students for this kind of language work, as shown by personal comments and student written assessments indicated:

• Further language workshops of this kind will be in demand.
• Development of a follow-up dialog with students should be enabled: perhaps via the internet. An internet site has already been established by the Gamilaraay group.

Conclusion

Ngaawa - Garay has brought to our own area the tradition of having Indigenous language summer schools of the kind that have been conducted in North America over several years. The levels of  achievement and interest give promise that such schools will continue here too. I am grateful to all the people whose effort is bringing this about.

Supplement

The following Participants received Statements of Attainment: Jan. 9th, 2007:

Clark Webb, Ciaron Dunn, Louise Campbell, Marjorie Campbell, Ken Ralph, Lenore Parker, Julieanne Manson, Cliff Foley, Jason Mumbulla, Athena Mumbulla, Niiyan Mumbulla, Lois Birk, Jessica Birk, Michael Birk, Emma Donovan and Majhid Heath.

Br Steve Morelli, teacher

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These courses are recognised in the Indigenous Langauges Education programs offered by the Koori Centre, University of Sydney.

Ngaawa-Garay has been funded by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and also supported by The Koori Centre at the University of Sydney and the former Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) now known as Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
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