The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies is a good place to start. Its Language of the Month column spotlights specific Aboriginal usage traditions, offering poems and other authentic examples of such living languages as Gumbaynggir, Ngiyampaa, and Warumungu. (Previous Languages of the Month are archived back several years.) Another good place to begin surfing is D. Nathan's catalogue of 90 Aboriginal-related links. Some of the sites listed are maintained by remote rural communities. One of my favourites comes from Roebourne Primary School. Sound files reveal what the students' Yindjibarndi language sounds like, while a stew recipe starts out "first, shoot a kangaroo." Elsewhere, traditional bush foods and medicinal plants, complete with photos, are listed by their Yindjibarndi names. This Scottish writer got a jolt from the Roebourne kids' description of "pudding," a dish apparently identical to haggis except that it calls for a kangaroo rather than a sheep. If I'm ever in Roebourne, I'll have to try this "hopping haggis."
Another site worthy of special mention is popular music group Yothu Yindi's beautiful, high-tech homepage. Among other things, lead singer Madawuy Yunipingu supplies sound and video clips recorded in his native Gumatj.
Few of the world's aboriginal societies have suffered more under foreign domination than Australia's. Though the Australian people have come farther, faster, in this regard than any other New World society, they haven't yet walked the racist songline to its end. For example, having only recently won the right to bilingual education, Aboriginals are now facing a Proposition 227 of Australian make. Just as in California, government argues that 19th century suppression of language rights is in Aboriginals' best interest. Fortunately, for the first time in history we can easily solicit articulate Aboriginal responses to this contention, thanks to the democratising influence of the Net.
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