This story comes not from me but from one of my indigenous Australian students. He was explaining today, that as a member of the Walpiri Tribe in the Northern Territory he's often hunted food in the traditional aboriginal manner, even though they can buy food in the local supermarket. On one particular day he and his friends were hitting a large hollow log to encourage a Bandicoot out of its hiding place. That didn't work, so he pulled out a CD and positioned it so that its surface would reflect the suns rays and illuminate the interior, thus frightening the animal into the open. To his surprise a large snake emerged. He put away the CD and used his stick to kill the snake, which they cooked and ate. I enjoyed this story because it showed how enterprising he was in using the CD in this manner; an unusual juxtaposition was created between old and new technologies and, old knowledge and new knowledge were combined to create a positive result.
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My good friend, Wurundjeri Elder, Ian Hunter told me of the adaptation of the Woiworrung language:
ReplyDelete"I recall listening to my Nan's sister talking about some of the use of old words [...] asking how they utilized the language to old Aunty Jessie. And she said they didn't change the language, they made it suit the new things, the old language. For instance it stuck in my mind what they called a saw was a Gee-gi gumbuli. Gee-gi means go away. Gumbuli means come back later, so a saw was a go-away-come-back"
That's fantastic Aliey, I love it. It's so logical.
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