Please find below information on some of the presentations to appear at Puliima 2009

Sharing Culture

Presenter - Jodie Maymuru
Weblink - http://www.sharingculture.com.au/
Organisation - Sharing Culture

Summary

Sharing Culture combines ancient Aboriginal culture with the latest web based technologies. We’d like to invite you to come and see how we’ve used multimedia to create a variety of teaching and learning tools delivered in an e-learning environment. We’ve combined the language Yolngu Matha with visual elements, audio and interactivity to create a Childrens Dictionary and bi-lingual Story book as well as other fun and engaging activities and games. Our award winning programs are authentic, fun and easy to use and are for Indigenous and non-indigenous students and teachers in the lower and middle schooling years (Prep – Yr 9) and are currently used in Schools, Government and Community Organisations right across the country.
You’ll have an opportunity to interact and play with the Sharing Culture programs and we’ll also give you a sneak preview of our latest product development – The Sharing Culture Template.  The Sharing Culture Template allows a greater representation of Indigenous Australias rich cultural diversity. We’ll demonstrate how it can be customised for your local area, allowing you to replace the Yolngu content with local language, stories and cultural knowledge. The Sharing Culture Template is designed for Language Centres, Community Organisations and Schools in partnership with Communities and allows for total control over the content and who has access to view it.

We Say - Dictionary Development Software

Presenter - Cathy Bow and Karl Rolfe
Weblink - http://www.wesay.org/
Organisation - SIL Australia

Summary

WeSay is an Open Source project aimed at providing computer tools to help communities perform several language development activities on their own. The first version helps people build a dictionary in their own language. It has various ways to help native speakers to think of words in their language and enter some basic data about them (no backslash codes, just forms to fill in).

OLAC: Accessing the World's Language Resources

Presenter - Steven Bird
Weblink - http://www.language-archives.org
Organisation - Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of Melbourne.

Summary

This presentation will describe the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC), its metadata format, and its search service, and explain how Australian language resources, such as dictionaries and recordings, can be documented and discovered.

Aboriginal Languages of Victoria - Resource Portal for Language Reclamation and Research

Presenters - Dr Heather Bowe (Monash University), Assoc Prof Kathy Lynch (University of the Sunshine Coast) & Dr Julie Reid (Monash University)
Weblink - http://ilv.usc.edu.au
Organisations - Monash University & University of the Sunshine Coast

Summary

In 1992 the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority accredited a VCE Study Design - Indigenous Languages of Victoria: Revival and Reclamation, which provides some essential skills for reconstituting an Indigenous language, and people from several communities have undertaken this study. For example, in 2008, with the assistance of linguist Dr Julie Reid, nine Wotjobaluk people successfully completed this course, and are now able to write their dreaming stories in language. Several more groups have initiated language reclamation projects, but lack the expertise to locate and interpret many of the historical sources necessary for this task.
Written records of Victorian Aboriginal languages include language resources gathered in the 18th and early 19th centuries by government officials and interested private citizens. Some material was published at the time it was collected, and is available in the reference collections of major libraries. Other material is only available in manuscript sources in research libraries and/or on microfiche. In the last fifty years linguists have analysed such material, producing overview classifications of the languages of Victoria, and, in some instances, complex linguistic descriptions of a particular language. These descriptions, called ‘sketch grammars', are not easy to understand without linguistic training.
A project led by Dr Heather Bowe, a linguist from Monash University, and Assoc Prof Kathy Lynch, an ICT researcher from the University of the Sunshine Coast, will enable people without linguistic training to access this vital language information via a web resource portal. The resource portal is organised according to geographical regions, then languages. The first phase of the project is aimed at providing resources for the following geographical regions:
• Murray-Goulburn (Yorta Yorta, Bangerang, Yabula Yabula)
• Melbourne and Surrounds (Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung, Taungurung)
• Gippsland (Gunnai Kurnai) and
• one other region or language, yet to be decided.
The resource is a portal or window to information on the languages, their relationship to each other, lists of academic and historical resources, comparative word lists, simplified sketch grammars (suitable for non-linguists) with examples, and comprehensive lists of the words collected for each language. It also allows for the uploading of community created resources such as stories and images.
At this point in time, there will only be a comprehensive list of sources for other Victorian languages. However, should a community wish to expand the information on their language to include the items listed above, the site has the capability to do so, subject to funding constraints.

Miromaa & Beyond

Presenter - Dr Christina Eira
Weblink - http://www.miromaa.com.au
Organisation - Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages

Summary

The Miromaa Language Database Program can be a one‐stop shop for all your records of your language words ‐ what people know now, what was recorded by your ancestors, and everything you have found out about all those words. Making it a one‐stop shop will make many things much easier ‐ for interpreting old sources, for making resources, for making decisions about spelling and other things.
Doing this well will save you going back over the same sources many times, or having to change decisions made for your language because you had only some of the information available at the time.
To achieve all this, you need to use your Miromaa database in the best way possible. We will present a series of two one‐hour hands‐on workshops to help you develop best practice for your language research.

Interactive Audio Pen

Presenter - Alexander Pantelic
Organisation - The Australian Book Connection

Summary

Alexander Pantelic from Australian Book Connection will demonstrate the electric pen which they believe would be an ideal teaching aid for Aboriginal children.
This pen is able to read the written word much the same as a barcode reader but with sound which is downloaded from a CD.

Talking Head

Presenter - Paul Paton and Dr Christina Eira
Weblink - http://www.vaclang.org.au
Organisation - Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages

Summary

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It can be useful for many things, such as understanding how people learn language, developing a spelling system for an oral language, working out the sounds of a language that is not currently spoken, and understanding how languages change. The “Talking Head” website informs viewers of the sounds of Aboriginal Languages and the movement required to create the sounds. This adds value to the process of language reclamation and as Aboriginal Languages are traditionally an oral language, re‐learning the sounds that aren’t part of the English language, can sometimes be difficult.

Unlocking Literacy Program

Presenter - Maxine Cowie
Weblink - http://www.starjump.com.au
Organisation - Starjump 

Demonstrate how the Unlocking Literacy Program can: 

• Maintain and revive language and culture
• Engage youth with modern technology
• Be used as a community development tool
• Teach English using visual spatial systems of thinking
• Creative expression embedded in culture and learning

Online Digital Repository of Maori Songs

Presenter - Rachael Ka'ai Mahuta
Weblink - http://www.teipukarea.maori.nz
Organisation - The National Maori Language Institute, AUT University

Summary

Te reo Māori (the Māori language) is traditionally an exclusively oral language. Therefore, our waiata (songs) have acted as an archive of our histories and traditions. Waiata offer us an alternative view of the history of Aotearoa/New Zealand to those that are based on mainstream history books and archives. However, many of these waiata are being lost through time and with them, our knowledge base regarding the meaning behind the words. This is exaggerated by the fact that waiata contain the highest form of language utilising proverbs and figurative speech. In addition waiata also contain references to important historical landmarks and events across tribal areas.

As part of my PhD thesis, I am developing an online digital repository of waiata that will include not only the music and lyrics but also in-depth analysis of the meaning behind the lyrics. The site will be free to access and act as an archive to preserve oral histories contained within waiata. This will provide a national resource thus demonstrating the interface between recovering traditional knowledge and storing this through innovative technology especially for future generations.

AustLang - Keeping Australia's Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Languages Alive