Norfolk Language Conference

The Norfolk Island Youth Assembly and the Norfolk Island Council of Elders jointly hosted a conference on The Future of Norf'k Language and Culture, which was supported by the University of Adelaide. Held at the Castaway Hotel on 13, 14 and 15 November, both the Council and the Youth Assembly acknowledged the success of the conference with distinguished scholars, knowledgeable locals, the old and the young, all giving presentations on the importance of language to a community and to the culture  of a place.  The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association London, who was also visiting Norfolk at the time, gave an address on "Connecting Cultures".

 The walls were decorated with projects carried out by school students in their Norf'k laengwij classes.

 Posters and mobiles, recipes and stories

 Albert Buffett, Chairman of the Council of Elders, Island Elder Mr Greg Quintal OBE and Secretary-General of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Dr William F Shija

Displays of weaving both hats and baskets, decorated with beautiful hibiscus

 Professor Peter Muhlhausler of Adelaide University

 

 Jodie Williams making her presentation on sounds and values.

 

 The room filled to the brim with those interested in language and culture

 My little self, stressing some point

 ..and again

 ...huh. And yet again,

well anyway, it's my blog!

For those who are interested ~ and even for those who aren't ~ the following is my address  (or as close as I can remember!)

Watawieh yorlyi?

Yorlyi kutus?

Gud’tan.

In 1988 Miss Alice Buffett OBE launched her book Speak Norfolk Today. It was a priceless gift. A gift that continues to give to the people of Norfolk Island and will keep on doing so. The next time I heard the Buffett system following the launch was at All Saints Church, Kingston when Miss Buffett read the lesson. In my language. Reading my language. I was filled with awe, wonderment, and a fierce, fierce pride. I can totally recall those feelings today despite that happening over thirty years ago. At that time I was Government Minister with responsibility for education. I tried very hard to get the system into the school. It took ten years. In 1998, with the government’s blessing I started teaching Year 8 as a Community Speaker, with the teacher Mrs Bianca Walsh.  The Pink Book  was our only resource. The children found the system easy and their need for resources was voracious. Everything became a resource. Conversations in the street, chats with family, jokes, songs, anything. I would translate them in the evening, photocopy them the next morning and present them to the students. Following a suggestion from Professor Muhlhausler, we started a spelling list. Not to test them but so that they could see how they were improving each week.  From the list we would create sentences and the best sentences were published in the Norfolk Islander and Windows. The students loved seeing their name in print, and so did their parents. Words that had fallen out of usage were re-introduced in the spelling lists and these went out into the Norfolk community as the students and their parents discussed them. Of course, being human, they had some complaints and came to me to voice them. Why had Miss Buffett not used double 0? My answer ~ probably because it’s a phonetic system and book and cartoon   has two different sounds. Why not use C? Curtain. Certain. Same reason. Why do we need this system?  Because it’s our language! You spent five years learning English. Surely you can spend one hour learning how to read and write YOUR language. I say to the students, you can bake a cake using the little gardening tools. It will work and you can eat the cake. But how much easier to use the proper tools. Miss Buffett has given us the tools! We invited to the school, the community members who were against the system. Invariably the students won them over. We extended that to Jack Quintal who spoke of whaling; Boonie Buffett who talked about working in Admin; Puss Anderson re KAVHA; Kathy LeCren talked about the radio; Brent Hattersley spoke of early school days, and many others. The students learnt their language and learnt about themselves and their Island. Flora, the Norfolk Pine. Fauna, the Boobook Owl.   Architecture, the Georgian buildings at Kingston. Colonisation. They learnt about the history of the Bounty and the settlement on Pitcairn. They did their genealogy. They made slide shows, stories, created videos and plays.  The language went to the wider community. I held night classes for those interested in learning the system. Another suggestion from Professor Muhlhausler, saw the development of a Language Camp for Year 9 students. I worked with Mrs Bev Cook on the programme for the first camp and today that is still successfully running with Archie Biggs and Colleen Crane. I thought that the students needed some coloured resources rather than the black and white photocopies, so with a grant from the School and the Government I produced six small readers on cultural topics such as Bounty Day, Fishing, Working the Ship. Still more resources were needed. The Chief Minister gave a speech on Bounty Day and that is taught to every student in my classes.

Baunti Dieh 1999

Spiich bai Hon David E Buffett AM MLA

'Hetieh Baunti Dieh!' 

Nor skworlen; es gud saf
Salan se rich shor, noen se slep in 'worta
En orl aklan bin or Gauwment Haus drink 'tii
En hetieh aklan ya f'sing en bigen 'iit
 Es Gordi d'wan laan'mii  orlem gehl sti ap hoel nait
mieken 'mada en 'pilhai en 'aena;
kuken 'pig en 'hoemnaenwi
En maitbii samem m ien bin miek'sup
 f'dem kaastaan 'tek 'sup
Dokta Didls gataa bohtl en aa behg gatiin
a or medsin, en hi el kamraun ef wantet
Ai bliiw enibohdi si aa behg kamen gwen 'wael
Wi haew 'put tuu thing in auwas hied orn Baunti Dieh
Fasorf dieh es d' taim orl aklan noe wi gat 'kamfram
Staanap. Miek big faret. Dumain salan tork f aklan
Sam el tal dems kamfram baetan auwas
Du yu bliiwet 
Hoelap 'hied   en miek shua auwas wieh es
wathen  wi kiip f'aklan
Wan taeda thing
Iyeh smorl said ya - Norf'k Ailen - es auwas
Plenti salan want wi kthort ent
En dem el miek plenti nois
Bat doh yu bliiw et, en hoel orn tait
kiip ii tuu thing in 'hied, domain waa -
Raitya orn Baunti Dieh - en orlem taeda dieh!

And now, a word of caution. Many more books are being written today on the Norfolk Language. They are written by English speakers who haven't lived here and do not speak Norf'k. These people are using earlier books as reference material and those earlier books were written by English speakers who hadn’t lived here. Assumptions were made and many were incorrect. Using these as reference material perpetuates the inaccuracies.  There are people living on Norfolk Island today who speak fluent Norf’k. Please. Use them as your primary resource. And acknowledge them in your bibliography.  The Triumphs! I didn’t teach Norf’k this year. But last year I had a delightful class. I asked them to write a story. Two boys, Mr Luke Fitzpatrick and Mr Gup Finch wrote stories which were truly excellent.  They worked with me later with photographs, and I had their stories printed in book form. That ~ Ladies and Gentlement ~ is a triumph!