Tongue Trap
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Posted by Tyson Yunkaporta Mar 31, 2006 |
Supposedly on the subject of low school attendance for Indigenous students, a Cape York principal recently said to The Australian newspaper, "A big start would be to convince parents here and in the Torres Strait that it is important to speak to their children in English at home." I wonder where thinking like this comes from.
If our thoughts make the world, then what makes our thoughts? Language, of course. But do we shape the language we speak, or does it shape us? Are colonial attitudes of racism and exploitation so embedded in the English language that it is impossible to speak it without being hijacked by a racist colonial agenda? There is a secret English, a hidden English that lurks behind our subtext, subverting our best intentions. I know this, because when I speak other languages my worldview shifts the moment I open my mouth. Truly, we don't speak English - English speaks us. Read my new article "Secret English Myth" to find out more about the cultural assumptions of uniform "black" and "white" ethnic groups, assumptions that hide in our language, invading our reality against all logic.