WEEK+4+&+5+-+Language,+Culture+and+Identity

ROBERT EGGINGTON – Director, Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation
==== “Some people would go as far as saying language is the most basic foundation of culture and that without language culture doesn’t exist. Language is also one of the very first aspects of our culture that they destroyed in the sense of prohibiting Aboriginal people from speaking language, thereforth breaking down those cultural foundations and, you know, the spirtual core of our life.” ====

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

 * ====What if you couldn't communicate in your own language?====
 * ====How can language be used to exclude and marginalise?====
 * ====How can language be used to protest?====

ACTIVITIES

**These questions may be used as forum questions, print journal questions or simply for discussion.**

 * 1) ====How would you feel if you couldn’t communicate in your own language? Brainstorming/discussion.====
 * 2) ====What is the significance of your name? How would you feel if you suddenly had to change it?====
 * 3) ====What would be some of the day-to-day challenges of not being allowed to speak your own language?====


 * 1) ====How did the different Aboriginal languages come to be, according to myth?====
 * 2) ====Explain how Aboriginal languages are different from English.====
 * 3) ====What is the significance of Aboriginal language to Aborigines?====
 * 4) ====Why do you think it might be difficult for Aborigines to suddenly start speaking English?====

Questions for Discussion

 * ====How do you respond to this clip? What do you think has shaped your response?====
 * ====Define the word **assumption**====
 * ====What assumptions about Aborigines and Aboriginal ways of living underpin this clip?====
 * ====How does the language of the clip highlight these assumptions? (consider choice of words such as 'rescued', 'abandoned', 'dream', 'fairytale' )====
 * ====Compare/ contrast the newsreel with the poem set out below in terms of the perspectives presented.====