South Australia

A large area survey of 32 contiguous airborne hyperspectral HyMap image flightlines were acquired over outcropping crystalline basement units of the Proterozoic Giles Complex in the Musgrave Province of South Australia. Rainfall prior to the survey was sufficient to stimulate growth of vegetation in an environment recognised as typically arid. As a consequence, vegetation signatures are present in most pixel

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative pilot project that implemented an internet social networking intervention and evaluated the effect it had on older people's experience of temporal loneliness. The project was implemented over a three-month period and utilised an in-home, one-on-one education strategy. Six older people aged 69 to 85 years were recruited from a community aged care

In remote areas, wild-fires often must be controlled by applying fire-retardants and suppressants dropped from small aircraft. However, impacts of these chemicals on natural stream ecosystems are poorly known. Unintentional aerial application of fire-fighting chemicals (Phos-Chek WD-881 and ForExspan S) onto two small streams during a natural wildfire on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, provided an opportunity to study the short-term

The barriers to Indigenous people entering tertiary education, succeeding, and gaining employment in the health professions are broad and systemic. While efforts have been made to address these barriers, the number of Indigenous health professionals ...

Twenty five genotypes of oilseed rape (canola and mustard) were tested under varied supply of Zn (+Zn: 2 mg kg-1 soil, -Zn: no Zn added) in two pot experiments in soil culture to determine the genotypic variation in tolerance to the Zn-deficient conditions, that is, to identify the Zn-efficient genotypes. On the basis of performance of genotypes in pot experiments,

Background The SF36 Version 2 (SF36V2) is a revision of the SF36 Version 1, and is a widely used health status measure. It is important that guidelines for interpreting scores are available. Method A population sample of Australians (n = 3015) weighted to achieve representativeness was administered the SF36V2. Comparisons between published US weights and sample derived weights were made, and Australian population norms computed and presented. Major findings Significant differences were observed on 7/8 scales and on the mental health summary scale. Possible causes of these findings may include different sampling and data collection procedures, demographic characteristics, differences in data collection time (1998 vs. 2004), differences in health status or differences in cultural perception of the meaning of health. Australian population norms by age cohort, gender and health status are reported by T-score as recommended by the instrument developers. Additionally, the proportions of cases within T-score deciles are presented and show there are important data distribution issues. Principal conclusions The procedures reported here may be used by other researchers where local effects are suspected. The population norms presented may be of interest. There are statistical artefacts associated with T-scores that have implications for how SF36V2 data are analysed and interpreted.

Movement patterns of the southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii were determined from 14 280 tag‐recapture events across South Australia between 1993 and 2003. In total, 68% of lobsters were recaptured within 1 km of their release site and 85% within 5 km. The proportion of lobsters moving >1 km in marine fishing areas (MFAs) ranged from 13% to 51%. Movement rates were noticeably high in the south‐east and at Gleesons Landing lobster sanctuary off the Yorke Peninsula but patterns of movement differed spatially. In the south‐east, lobsters moved distances of <20 km from inshore waters to nearby offshore reefs whereas at the Yorke Peninsula, individuals moved distances > 100 km from within the sanctuary to sites located on the north‐western coast of Kangaroo Island and the southern end of Eyre Peninsula. In total, 85% of all lobsters released inside the sanctuary moved distances >1 km. Movement was highest in immature females within most MFAs. Females also remained at large an average of 124 days longer than males. The high variation in lobster movement observed across South Australia highlights the need for locally derived, regionally specific data when assessing the proposed location and subsequent modelling of marine protected areas. This is of particular importance to inshore areas, where movement rates of lobsters were highest.

Recent studies have concluded that acupuncture is safe in the hands of a qualified practitioner. This study assessed the risk of adverse effects of acupuncture administered during pregnancy. 593 women with nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy volunteered to participate in a randomised controlled trial, conducted at the Women&amp;#39;s and Children&amp;#39;s Hospital, in South Australia. Patients were given either traditional acupuncture, formula acupuncture, sham acupuncture or no acupuncture. Data were collected on perinatal outcome, congenital abnormalities, pregnancy complications and the newborn. No differences were found between study groups in the incidence of perinatal outcome, congenital abnormalities, pregnancy complications and other infant outcomes. Our findings suggest that no serious adverse effects arise from acupuncture administered in early pregnancy.

Academic Reference:

Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference: Language Endangerment in the 21st Century:Globalisation, Technology & New Media. Auckland, New Zealand.

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Revival Linguistics and the New Media:
Talknology in the service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation


Ghil‘ad Zuckermann

Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[ghilad.zuckermann@adelaide.edu.au]


Paul Monaghan

Mobile Language Team
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[paul.monaghan@adelaide.edu.au]


Abstract

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (see Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

The study: The Barngarla language (spelled Parnkalla by Schürmann 1844) is a no-longer spoken Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal language of the Lakes Cultural Region of South Australia. Most recently Zuckermann, Monaghan and the Barngarla community have launched a reclamation of this sleeping beauty in three major rural/urban centres on the Eyre Peninsula, namely Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. The presence of three Barngarla populations several hours drive apart presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving ‘talknological’ innovations, such as online chatting, newsgroups, photo and resource sharing through a Barngarla wiki. This paper also examines the tensions accompanying the creation of a Barngarla ‘community of practice’ (cf. Wenger 1998) in a post-traditional Aboriginal context. In important ways, the new talknology poses a direct challenge to existing authority structures relating to the everyday management of knowledge, collaboration and participation. We predict that how the broader Barngarla community negotiates these issues will have an important bearing on the ultimate results of the reclamation project.




Revival Linguistics

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

Revival Linguistics complements the established field of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep. Revival Linguistics ought to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): Grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation, i.e. in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann’s 1844 spelling of the Barngarla word nunyara ‘recovery’, which ignores the English environment, thus resulting in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara.

Closely related to contact linguistics, Revival Linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics, e.g. by weakening the Family Tree model, which implies that a language ought to have only one parent. Assisting Aboriginal communities in a realistic, non-purisitic way, without selling them myths, Revival Linguistics promotes efficiency and efficacy in language reclamation.

Certainly Australia has been made the ‘Unlucky Country’ through the historical processes of linguicide (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating). These twin forces were in operation from the early colonial period. In her detailed study of the role missionary language practices in the early years of the South Australian colony, Scrimgeour quotes the following colonial language ideology: ‘Mr Forster afterwards adverted to the present mode of teaching the children in their own language. He, with all respect to the Missionaries, would say, on several grounds, that this was wrong. The natives would be sooner civilized if their language was extinct. The children taught would afterwards mix only with whites, where their own language would be of no use – the use of their language would preserve their prejudices and debasement, and their language was not sufficient to express the ideas of civilized life.  He gave the Missionaries full credit for their talents and zeal, but he thought it would be better to teach the children in English’ (from Report on a public meeting of the South Australian Missionary Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, Southern Australian, 8 September 1843; Scrimgeour, 2007: 116, italics added).

In the case of glottophagy, Governor George Grey noted: ‘The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port, regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications, he would stand astonished at the changes he produces.  With the wizard wand of commerce, he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding, cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect – away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion.  The strong-holds of murder and superstition are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around’ (Grey 1841: 200-201, italics added). Grey was a strong supporter of Aboriginal languages, encouraging Schürmann’s work documenting the Adelaide language (Kaurna) and Barngarla at Port Lincoln (see below).

With globalization, homogenization and Coca-colonization there will be more and more groups all over the world added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples. Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing. There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival: for example, social justice, diversity and employability, respectively.

Zuckermann (2012) has enthusiastically called for Native Tongue Title and linguistic human rights, suggesting that the Australian government ought to compensate Indigenous people not only for the loss of land but equally importantly for the loss of language. Zuckermann has suggested to the Australian government to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages.

Furthermore, it is predicted that in the future the very insights offered by Revival Linguistics will themselves become part of Indigenous Intellectual Property, when Slovenes and Estonians come to Australia and New Zealand to ask Aboriginal Australians and Maori to assist them in their own European language resurrection.

There is an urgent need to produce perspicacious LINGUISTIC and socio-linguistic insights relevant to language reclamation. Otherwise, linguists or language workers would not be able to offer, if asked by Indigenous people, efficient and efficacious advice. There are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and First Nations leaders to work more efficiently; for example, to focus more on basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than on sounds and word order – see Zuckermann (2009: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf.

Revival linguistics would assist revivalists to be more realistic and to abandon discouraging slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!" The following are among the basic principles that the revival linguist encourages in Aboriginal communities:

i. If your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive!
ii. If you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue; and
iii. If your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.

One day we may invent devices to “inject” a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

The Study


Figure 1: Map of Traditional Aboriginal Country after Norman Tindale (adapted from Hercus 1999)

The Barngarla language reclamation project has arisen through partnerships between the University of Adelaide (Linguistics and the Mobile Language Team) and the Barngarla people. Although still in its infancy, consultations began in September 2011, a number of very significant steps have been made towards reclaiming this ‘sleeping beauty’. Without doubt, the key challenge has been to develop a strategy for the reclamation of the language simultaneously and without favour in three major regional centres. In ways that will be elaborated below, this multi-sited, regional or peripheral reclamation makes demands that are very different to those often found in metropolitan reclamation contexts (e.g. Kaurna, cf. Amery...

This paper proposes the enactment of an ex gratia compensation scheme for loss of Indigenous languages in Australia. Although some Australian states have enacted ex gratia compensation schemes for the victims of the Stolen Generation policies, the victims of ‘linguicide’ (language killing) are largely overlooked by the Australian Government. Existing grant schemes to support Aboriginal languages are inadequate, and they should be complemented with compensation schemes, which are based on a claim of right. The proposed compensation scheme for the loss of Aboriginal languages should support the effort to reclaim and revive the lost languages. We first outline the history of linguicide during colonisation in Australia. We then put a case for reviving lost Aboriginal languages by highlighting the benefits of language revival. After evaluating the limits of existing Australian law in supporting the language revival efforts, this paper proposes a statute-based ex gratia compensation scheme, which can be colloquially called ‘Native Tongue Title’.

Lean thinking is a method for organising complex production processes so as to encourage flow and reduce waste. While the principles of lean thinking were developed in the manufacturing sector, there is increasing interest in its application in health care. This case history documents the introduction and development of Redesigning Care, a lean thinking-based program to redesign care processes across a teaching general hospital. Redesigning Care has produced substantial benefits over the first two-and-a-half years of its implementation, making care both safer and more accessible. Redesigning Care has not been aimed at changing the specifics of clinical practice. Rather, it has been concerned with improving the flow of patients through clinical and other systems. Concepts that emerged in the manufacturing sector have been readily translatable into health care. Lean thinking may play an important role in the reform of health care in Australia and elsewhere.

In an effort to combat the known negative effects of exposure to unrealistic thin ideal images, there is increasing worldwide pressure on fashion, media and advertising industries to disclose when images have been digitally altered. The current study used eye tracking technology to investigate experimentally how digital alteration disclaimer labels impact women&#39;s visual attention to fashion magazine advertisements. Participants were 60 female undergraduate students who viewed four thin ideal advertisements with either no disclaimer, a generic disclaimer, or a specific more detailed disclaimer. It was established that women did attend to the disclaimers. The nature of the disclaimer had no effect on time spent looking at particular body parts, but did affect the direction of gaze following reading of the disclaimer. This latter effect was found to be greater for women high on trait appearance comparison. Further research is paramount in guiding effective policy around the use of ...