Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Terezie Chýlová

Australia: Communication Before And After the Arrival of Whites

Bachelor‘s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph. D.

2010

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………. Terezie Chýlová

I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, PhD. for her help, support, guidance and valuable advice.

Table of Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 2

1. Theory of Communication………………………………………...... 5

1.1. Communication As Viewed by Sociolinguistics ...... 5

1.2. Communication As Viewed by Pragmatics ……………...... 9

1.3. Communication As Viewed by Cultural Anthropology...... 12

2. Characteristics of Aboriginal Communication ………...... 17

2.1. Aborigines As a Contact Culture ………………………...... 17

2.2. Body Language ………………………………………...... 19

3. Communication Before the Arrival of Whites …………...... 19

3.1. General Characteristics of Aboriginal

Communication Before the Arrival of Whites ……………...... 21

3.2. Aboriginal Languages in Pre-contact Australia ……...... 23

3.3. Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame …………………...... 25

4. Communication After the Arrival of Whites …………...... 29

4.1. First Contact …………………………………………...... 29

4.2. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith ...... …...... 31

4.3. The Fringe Dwellers …………………………………...... 36

4.4. Rabbit-proof Fence …………………………………...... 38

4.5. Samson and Delilah …………………………………...... 40

4.6. Aboriginal Languages and Aboriginal Engllish After

the Arrival of Whites …………………………………...... 42

Conclusion ...... 46

Resumé in English ...... 48

Resumé v češtině ...... 49

Works Cited ...... 50

1

Introduction

Communication is a tool we use every day without even thinking about it. Yet there are many factors that determine whether communication will be successful or not, factors that influence communication. In other words, it is a complex process.

The aim of my thesis is to analyse and contrast communication of Aborigines before and after the white settlement and also communication between Aborigines and whites from the point of view of the communication theories. I will look at both non-verbal and verbal communication of Aborigines and I will compare it and contrast with communication between Aborigines and whites.

For my analysis I have chosen the film The Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame for communication before the arrival of whites and the book The Chant of Jimmie

Blacksmith and the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and

Delilah for communication after the arrival of whites.

The first chapter is devoted to the theoretical background of communication.

I will describe communication from the point of view of the communication theories, namely sociolunguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology. I will describe different principles of these theories which I will be using in my thesis.

In the second chapter I will introduce the main aspects of Aboriginal communication – the features common in high contact cultures, and body language, the most significant part of Aboriginal communication. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the importance of body language in their communication and the complexity of it.

The third chapter deals with communication before the arrival of whites, i.e. with Aboriginal communication before 1788. I will elaborate on their non-verbal communication and I will also discuss verbal communication. Aboriginal languages

2 form a separate subchapter; they are one of the most apparent changes in Aboriginal communication after the white settlement, as will be demonstrated in the fourth chapter. The last part of the third chapter is devoted to the film Women of the Sun:

Alinta the Flame; I analyse body language and verbal communication shown in the film using the communication principles mentioned in the first chapter. The aim of the third chapter is, as the name suggests, the analysis of communication of

Aborigines before the white settlement. I would like to say that every film I analyse in this thesis is introduced by a short summary of the plot for better understanding.

The fourth chapter is devoted both to communication of Aborigines after the arrival of whites and to communication between Aborigines and whites. First of all

I will describe the first contact of Aborigines and whites and the first communication.

Afterwards I will analyse communication in the book The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and in the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and Delilah.

The very last part of the fourth chapter is devoted to Aboriginal languages and

Aboriginal English, both to the development after the white settlement and to the current situation. The aim of this chapter can be divided into two parts: the first one is analysis of communication of Aborigines after the white settlement and observation of changes in it – changes in non-verbal and verbal communication, including

Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English. And the second part is the analysis of communication between Aborigines and whites; the reason why I deal with communication between Aborigines and whites is because on the one hand ―white‖ communication has influenced communication of Aborigines and on the other hand we will be able to understand changes in Aboriginal communication only if we know communication between Aborigines and whites.

The intention of my thesis is to show how considerably Aboriginal

3 communication has changed after the arrival of whites and to demonstrate that communication between Aborigines and whites is often unsuccessful due to the feeling of superiority of whites and because of the differences between their cultures.

I would like to point out that communication is such a broad topic that it is impossible to cover everything within the scope of my thesis; therefore I will only analyse some apparent aspects of it.

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1. Theory of Communication

Communication is a phenomenon we encounter every day; it is a substantial part of our lives. However, it is a complex issue governed by certain rules and influenced by many factors, for instance social factors or culture. In this chapter I will examine such rules and factors within the scope of different communication theories.

But first of all, it is essential to define what communication actually is. The word

communication derives from the Latin verb communicare, which means ‗to share‘,

ʻto make commonʼ. When we communicate, we make things common. By making things common, we increase our shared knowledge or ʻcommon sense‘; common sense is a precondition for every community (Rosengren 1). Thus the importance of communication in society is unquestionable.

As communication is a complex phenomenon, different communication theories developed. The theories provide us with better understanding of communication as such and of the principles that are applied to it. The following subchapters are devoted to relevant issues in sociolinguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology; I will describe communication from the point of view of each of these fields.

1.1. Communication As Viewed By Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is a field dealing with the relationship between language and society. It examines social factors that influence language, the way language is used in different social interactions, social functions of language etc. (Holmes 1).

The following terms and definitions are basic concepts of sociolinguistics; they are important for understanding how society influences communication among participants of a conversation.

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Social factors and social dimensions

There are certain social factors that are relevant in conversation: the participants, the setting, the topic and the function (purpose of the conversation) (Holmes 9-10).

In addition to these factors, social dimensions are of importance as well: the social distance, the status scale, the formality scale, the functional scale. The social distance is a definite sign of how much we know the person we are talking to; it also influences our linguistic choice. Intimate distance implies high solidarity, whereas long distance implies low solidarity (Holmes 9-10). The status scale is also a relevant factor of linguistic choice: someone of a low status, the subordinate, will talk with someone of a high status, the superior, in a different way than they would talk with someone of the same status; for example a speaker who sees himself/herself as lower status tends to address a higher-status speaker by a title and a last name (for instance Mr Clinton, Dr

Dang) (Yule 59).

The formality scale determines whether our linguistic choice will be formal or informal, depending on the social setting (Holmes 9-10).

Finally, the functional scale indicates the purpose of the conversation: a friendly chat, a talk with a bank clerk or one´s boss (Holmes 9-10).

Politeness and address forms

Being linguistically polite means speaking to people appropriately according to the relationships they have with us. As Holmes points out in An Introduction to

Sociolinguistics, politeness is a complicated issue because it involves not only understanding the language, but also the cultural and social values of the community

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(296-297). It is much more than only the use of the words please and thank you; being polite involves being formal or informal or addressing people by their names, last names or titles. It means that, for example, one does not address his or her boss or a person he or she does not know well by their name, but rather by their title and last name (296-297).

Politeness can be negative or positive: negative politeness shows deference and emphasizes the importance of other´s time or concerns; it respects a person´s right to act freely. An example of negative politeness is the sentence Could you lend me a pen? or

I´m sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or something? (Yule 62-64)

Positive politeness, on the other hand, shows solidarity, emphasizes that both speakers want the same thing, and that they have the same goal. An example is the sentence How about letting me use your pen? or Hi. How´s it going? Okay if I sit here? (Yule 62-64)

As we can see, positive politiness is usually used among friends or people who know each other, whereas negative politeness is used when we are asking for permission to ask a question and therefore it does not always concern people we know (Yule 65).

Code-switching

Code-switching means that a participant of a conversation switches between two or more languages because of a changed social situation, such as the arrival of a new person who takes part in the conversation. The purpose of code-switching is to give the addressee a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity or solidarity (Holmes 41).

Language shift, language loss and language death

Language shift is a situation in which speakers of a community shift to another

7 language. When a language shift occurs, it is almost always towards the language of the dominant language group. The dominant language has prestige, status and social success and therefore it is not surprising that many young speakers of the minority language lose interest in learning their own language (Holmes 57).

Language death means that a language that was once used extincts for various reasons; there are no speakers of that languauge (Holmes 56).

Language loss is, as the term suggests, the process of losing one´s ability of speaking a particular language, usually a minor one. A typical situation is when emigrants come to a new country, begin to acquire a new language and use their mother tongue less and less so that it loses its speakers (Holmes 56). Aboriginal languages are a special case since it was immigrants who caused language loss of many of them; I will elaborate on this topic in chapter 4.

Pidgins and creoles

A pidgin is a language that has no native speakers; it develops as a means of communication between people who do not share a common language. Its structure is usually not complicated since its main purpose is to convey information, and not to express social distance or show how educated its speakers are; the vocabulary is rather small and there are usually neither affixes nor inflection (Holmes 90-93).

A creole, on the other hand, is a language that originated from a mixture of various languages. The grammar and vocabulary may, however, differ substantially from that of the original languages. It generally arises from a pidgin: when a child learns a pidgin from his or her parents as a primary language, he or she becomes the native speaker of it and a pidgin becomes a creole. Therefore the main difference

8 between a pidgin and a creole is that a creole has native speakers. A creole may also develop inflection or affixes (Holmes 95-98).

Aboriginal English is both a pidgin and a creole; it is discussed more in chapter 4.

1.2. Communication As Viewed by Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a linguistic discipline dealing with sentence meaning. Unlike semantics, pragmatics studies meaning in relation to speech situation (Leech 13). It studies principles of language usage and its main focus is on the meaning of speaker´s utterances rather than on the meaning of words or sentence (Peccei 5). Pragmatics involves a large number of terms and aspects; I will only touch upon those particularly concerning the theme of my thesis.

Speech acts

Speech acts are performances we deliver while communicating with someone; we perform actions via uttterances. It can be apology, complaint, invitation, compliment, promise or request. The basic assumption here is that the speaker´s communicative intention will be recognized by the hearer (Yule 47).

Speech acts are connected with felicity conditions; certain expected or appropriate circumstances for the speech act to be recognized as intended. Felicity conditions involve the utterance content, the context, the speaker´s intentions, understanding the language being used etc. Those are conditions for felicitously performed speech acts

(Yule 50-51).

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Pauses, overlaps and backchannels

When communicating, smooth transitions from one speaker to the next seems to be valuable. But there are certain phenomena that influence or even disturb the flow of conversation: pauses, overlaps and backchannels. Overlap means that both speakers are trying to speak at the same time, which in our (European) culture is felt to be awkward

(Yule 72-73). Pauses are perceived in a similar way: very short pauses mean hesitations, but longer pauses become silence and are mostly undesirable. However, silence may also be interpreted as communicating something (for example agreement)

(Yule 72-73). Backchannels are signals we are sending as listeners to show that we received the message, that we are following the speaker; they provide feedback to the current speaker. Such signals can be ‗yeahʼ, ‗mmmʼ or ‗uh-uhʼ. The absence of backchannels is typically interpreted as significant, especially during telephone conversations and face-to-face interactions (Yule 75-76).

Cooperative principle

Cooperative principle of a conversation is the assumption of cooperation; the assumption that people involved in a conversation will cooperate with each other (Yule

37). Yule gives an illustrative example in his book Pragmatics: he describes a situation where a man and a woman are sitting on a bench and a dog is lying on the ground in front of the bench.

The man asks: Does your dog bite?

The woman: No.

(The man reaches down to pet the dog. The dog bites the man´s hand.)

The man: Ouch! You said your dog doesn´t bite.

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The woman: He doesn´t. But that´s not my dog. (36)

The participants of the conversation did not cooperate; from the man´s perspective, the woman´s answer provides less information than expected (36). Therefore their communication was not successful.

Cooperative principle can be divided into four sub-principles, called maxims, which were introduced by Paul Grice (Yule 37). The four maxims are the following:

Quantity

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required.

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Quality

1. Do not say what you believe to be false.

2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

Relation

Be relevant.

Manner

1. Avoid obscurity of expression.

2. Avoid ambiguity.

3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary wordiness).

4. Be orderly. (Yule 37)

As Yule points out, keeping to the conversational principle and the maxims is the basic assumption in a conversation (40).

As we can see, pragmatics deals mainly with principles applied to language usage. When those principles are not applied or are applied incorrectly, conversation is not successful and may lead to misunderstandings.

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1.3. Communication As Viewed By Cultural Anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a field dealing with the study of culture in all of its aspects, including communication (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). Cultural anthropologists investigate the contrasting ways groups of humans think, feel and behave (Haviland and Prins 3). The basic assumption of cultural anthropology is that culture and communication work in tandem (Samovar and McDaniel, Communication

Between Cultures 11 ). Communication from the point of view of cultural anthropology means examining relationship between communication and culture and examining intercultural communication. In this chapter I will focus mainly on intercultural communication as it is more relevant to my thesis than other concepts of cultural anthropology.

Humans as social creatures communicate in many ways, but the most distinctive and complex form of communication is language, a foundation stone of culture.

Language from the view of cultural anthropology includes both spoken language and body language (gestures) (Haviland and Prins 98-99). Both will be discussed more below in this chapter.

Communication in the cultural anthropology approach involves a number of terms; I will briefly comment on some of them.

The structure of communication

There are certain structural components used in managing messages to create meaning. The first is the sender, the person who formulates and transmits the message via a channel to the receiver. The message consists of the information the sender wants to be understood by the receiver, the intended recipient of the message and the

12 interpreter of the message. After interpreting the message and assigning a meaning, the receiver will formulate a response. Feedback is another component of communication, related to response. It is the evaluation of effectiveness of a message. It may be smiles or frowns; it is a clue as to how message has been interpreted. Every communicative interaction takes place within an environment, for instance a classroom, a cafeteria or a bank. Environment influences the style of our communication (Samovar and McDaniel,

Intercultural Communication 8-9).

Those were the most important components of communication, but there is another influential factor of communication: our culture. Our culture provides us with a set of standards that govern how, when, what and why we communicate (Samovar and

McDaniel, Intercultural Communication 9).

Intercultural communication

Intercultural communication is a factor in our everyday life: everybody is familiar with the term globalization; globalization itself is a type of intercultural communication.

It is an unstoppable process that brings us into greater contact with the rest of the world

(Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural Communication 6). The definition of intercultural communication seems to be simple: it is sending a message from a person from one culture and processing it by a person from a different culture. Yet the realisation is much more difficult because it requires a thorough understanding of two key concepts: culture and communication (Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural

Communication 6).

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The integration of communication and culture

Culture is a complex, abstract concept that has influence on every aspect of our lives. The following cultural components are particularly relevant to intercultural communication: perception, patterns of cognition, verbal behaviour, non-verbal behaviour and the influence of context (Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural

Communication 13).

Perception

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and evaluating of stimuli. We select only what we consider relevant or interesting and then we organize it and evaluate it. Our culture influences the way we perceive the world, for instance what is beautiful for someone from one culture may be ugly for someone from a different culture. It represents our belief, value, attitude and worldview (Samovar and McDaniel,

Intercultural Communication 13).

Patterns of cognition

Culture has influence on cognitive thinking patterns, which includes reasoning and approaches to problem solving. Every culture has different thinking. An example is the Japanese having a tendency to reopen issues that the U.S. considers resolved.

Therefore it is necessary to understand that variant patterns of cognition exist and to learn about them (Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural Communication 14).

Verbal behaviour

The role of language in intercultural communication is clear: all of the participants must share a language in order to be able to communicate. There is a symbiosis between culture and language because one cannot exist without the other.

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Language is a set of symbols that a cultural group has arbitrarily agreed on to express different meanings. Different cultures have different sets of meaning, and therefore there might be situations that lead to misunderstandings in intercultural exchanges

(Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural Communication 14).

Non-verbal behaviour

Non-verbal behaviour or body language often communicates more than the actual spoken words. It includes gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, posture, touch, silence and the use of space and time. Culture influences the use of body language, and therefore in intercultural communication inappropriate or misused non-verbal behaviour can easily lead to misunderstandings or insults (Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural

Communication 15). Body language differs greatly across cultures; a good example is eye contact. In some cultures, for instance in Europe, it is considered very important because it indicates that we are listening to what the speaker is saying; it also tells us how sincere the speaker is. But for some Native Americans or Aborigines maintaining eye contact means disrespect (Craven 210). And therefore it is necessary to be aware of the influence of body language on intercultural communication.

The influence of context

Context of a particular situation determines our behaviour during communication.

For example, we do not wear shorts and tennis shoes when we attend a wedding. The rules for specific situations vary; what is appropriate in one culture might be inappropriate in another. It is important to be aware of the cultural rules governing the context of an intercultural communication exchange otherwise difficulties will arise

(Samovar and McDaniel, Intercultural Communication 15).

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Cultural anthropology stresses the importance of awareness and undestanding different cultures. As culture and communication are interconnected, we must learn about different cultures to be able to communicate with them.

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2. Characteristics of Aboriginal Communication

Although this thesis is mainly about communication among Aborigines and whites, it is essential to describe and analyze communication between Aborigines first, because only then are we able to understand differences between ―white‖ communication and Aboriginal communication and the reasons for the differences.

But first it is important to point out that everything in Aboriginal culture, including communication, is determined and influenced by certain myths and traditions.

Gestures, pauses during conversation, certain patterns of behavior and other things are deeprooted in Aboriginal culture (Bourke et al. 85).

The following subchapters are devoted to contact cultures (as Aborigines are a contact culture) and to non-verbal communication of Aborigines. We will see that some of the features of Aboriginal communication (for instance contact during communication described in the subchapter below) are features of two or more theories of communication (sociolinguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology); that they overlap.

2.1. Aborigines As a Contact Culture

To understand Aboriginal communication, one must first realize that their culture is fundamentally different from the culture of Europe. Aborigines belong to the so called high contact cultures; cultures in which there is a high degree of physical contact or proximity. People stand close to one another, they touch, embrace or shake hands. They also often look one another in the eye and speak

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in a rather loud voice¹ (Blackwell Reference Online). For illustration, the French,

Italians, Latin Americans or Arabs are members of high contact cultures, whilst

Japanese, Chinese and Koreans are members of low contact cultures

(Ting-Toomey 29).

Differences between high and low contact cultures may lead to situations where participants of a conversation, when in contact, might feel uncomfortable: they might feel their space is being invaded by someone standing too close or vice versa, they might feel that trust is lacking because someone is standing too far away; uncomfortable feelings may arise from being touched or not being touched etc. (Blackwell Reference Online).

As we will see in the following chapter, features of contact cultures

(distance, touching etc.) are at the same time features of body language, a significant part of Aboriginal communication.

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¹ Looking one another in the eye does not apply to all Aborigines; it is described and explained in the following subchapter called Body Language.

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2.2. Body Language

As has already been said, body language is a very important part of

Aboriginal communication. In this subchapter I will examine features of body language of Aborigines.

Non-verbal communication of Aborigines differs significantly from our

(European) way of communicating. A good example is eye contact: in Europe people are used to maintain eye contact when talking to someone, but some

Aborigines are not. Avoiding eye contact in some Aboriginal tribes is appropriate.

Some Aboriginal students may lower their eyes when being spoken to by a teacher; it is a culturally determined sign of showing respect. Avoiding eye contact at school does not necessarily mean lack of attention or engagement

(Craven 210).

Another feature of Aboriginal non-verbal behavior is physical contact during communication, a feature described in the previous subchapter. Contact during a conversation involves touching each other and standing close to each other.

Silence is also an important part of Aboriginal body language. We know from subchapter 1.2. that pauses during a conversation are undesirable and generally perceived as awkward. But this does not apply to Aborigines; silence does not mean that the person does not understand or does not care about what is being communicated, there is simply no obligation to ´keep the conversation flowing´ (Eckermann 119). Aborigines may be thinking or listening to others before expressing their own views (Australian Government Attorney-General´s

Department).

Closely related to silence is the perception of time. Walsh, the author of

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Cross Cultural Communication Problems in Aboriginal Australia, describes a situation that happened to him: he asked an Aborigine about a frog he saw in the tree. ―That frog over there in the tree, have you got a name for that one?‖ he asked. But he was not given any answer. Moreover, the Aborigine looked away; there was complete silence. After a few days, the same person gave him an answer. ―That one, that green one there, we call that one durket.‖ (4) Walsh calls this situation a delayed reaction. As he points out, for an Aborigine there does not seem to be any delay at all; they can even answer your question several years later with no link to what you had asked. The reaction seems to be delayed from a non-Aboriginal perspective (4).

Thus the Aboriginal perception of time is different from the European perception of time.

Body language of Aborigines shows how different their culture is from our

(European) culture. Knowledge of their body language is important for understanding the reasons why they act as they act in certain situations and why cultural clashes may occur if their body language is misinterpreted or misunderstood. The importance of of body language is discussed more in subchapter 3.1.

In the following chapter called Communication Before the Arrival of Whites

I will examine communication among Aborigines before the white settlement and

I will give a general overview of Aboriginal languages.

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3. Communication Before the Arrival of Whites

This chapter deals with communication of Aborigines before the European settlement, i.e. before the year 1788 (Making Multicultural Australia).

I will first give general description of Aboriginal communication (the importance of oral tradition and sign language) and go on with the description of Aboriginal languages. The last part of this chapter will be devoted to the film Women of the Sun:

Alinta the Flame; I will demonstrate features of Aboriginal communication in this film. I chose this film because Aborigines participated in it and therefore I consider it a trustworthy source. I would like to point out that the film depicts the life of Aborigines in the early years of the white settlement (1820´s), but because it is the beginning of the colonisation, I suppose I can draw from it when describing communication of Aborigines before the arrival of whites, since changes in communication did not arise immediately but were rather gradual.

3.1. General Characteristics of Aboriginal communication

Before the Arrival of Whites

Although it is estimated that Aborigines have lived in Australia for more than 40 000 years, there are no written records of their history (Crawford 2).

Therefore it is difficult to track and analyse communication between them before the colonisation. However, this does not mean that there is no literature or films to draw from; we only have to be careful when analysing their communication as not all the information portrayed in books or films is completely accurate; some things may be made up.

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What is known is that oral tradition was and still is an essential part of

Aboriginal communication: Aborigines have passed their history through stories and songs. Stories and songs were an educational tool; children learnt how to behave towards others, they learnt their responsibilities towards others and they also learnt about their religious beliefs. They were taught about their past and about their laws by grandparents (Crawford 2). The experience of bishop Salvado, a Benedictine monk Blainey mentions in Dějiny Austrálie, who had set out for

Western Australia in 1846, illustrates how important was singing of songs for

Aborigines: ―They sing the same song again and again and every time they repeat it they become more and more delighted, they enjoy it more. What would be an unbearable boredom for a European is a state of ecstatic excitement for an

Aborigine.‖ (Blainey 19) Songs were a communication tool; Aborigines sang songs during rituals such as initiation² or mourning (Women of the Sun: Alinta).

Body language was of great importance, too. In subchapters 1.3. and 2.2.

I described features of Aboriginal body language, but now I will explain why it was so important and on what occasions it was used.

Hunting was one of the occasions when it was necessary to use body language; it was very important not to frighten animals away (Edwards 100).

Gestures were also vital when two or more Aboriginal groups that did not speak the same language met; gestures enabled communication between them. In such cases, the message stick was important for communication. It was a stick carved with their group´s totem, identifying each group and used before entering a new

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² Initiation is a ceremony performed to introduce and celebrate adolescent girls and boys as adult members of the community ().

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territory. It helped groups communicate and maintain peace (Marshall 12-13).

Toas were a similar communication tool, only found in Lake Eyre Region of

South Australia (Marshall 13). They were small sculptures sharpened at the lower end (Woodward 383). Toas were made out of wood and had different shapes and sizes. Aborigines placed them in the ground when they moved to another camp; they were used as signs to other Aboriginal groups. Sometimes they contained directions to the next camp. Toas were also used to tell stories (Marshall 13).

Aborigines also used smoke signals to communicate over long distances; for example when two Aboriginal groups were hunting together. One group sent a signal to the other as an agreement on the hunt (Marshall 13).

Edwards gives some examples of gestures used by Aborigines in An Intro- duction to Aboriginal societies: ―Extending a fist with the palm facing down and a movement up and down was an instruction to wait, pointing to an ear indicated a rabbit, stroking the chin in the position of a beard indicates a man while touching the position of the two breasts indicates a woman.‖ (Edwards 102)

This subchapter discussed the importance of oral tradition and body language of Aborigines. The following subchapter is devoted to Aboriginal languages in pre-contact Australia, i.e. before the European settlement. It elaborates on the issue of verbal communication of Aborigines.

3.2. Aboriginal Languages in Pre-contact Australia

First, it is important to point out that verbal communication of Aborigines was not simple or primitive. Surprisingly, it is exactly the other way around: their languages were (and still are) rich and fairly complex (Blainey 19). Before the

23 colonisation, there were about 250 indigenous languages and 500 varieties spoken in Australia. Different Aboriginal groups often moved and lived far from one another, thus different languages developed. An average Aborigine spoke five or more languages because it was a tradition to learn the language of Aboriginal groups that lived close (Marshall 12). Aborigines were also able to identify other tribes´languages when they met somebody from a different region (Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages). The differences between neighbouring languages were often as complicated as the differences between English and Spanish, for example (Blainey 19).

According to Blainey, Aborigines had a remarkable gift of speech. In Dějiny

Austrálie, he tells about the experience of bishop Salvado, the Benedictine monk mentioned in the previous subchapter: he found out that Aborigines had spoken a complex language that reminded him of Italian and his mother tongue, Spanish. And when he learnt their language, he found out they were able to express many things by saying only a few words (20).

As has been said before, a typical Aborigine would probably know several languages and dialects. Blainey points out that we could easily disparage his abilities and say that indigenous languages were very simple and easy to learn but the fact is that the grammar was complex and the languages resembled rather Latin or Sanskrit than today English (19).

We have seen that before the white settlement a large number of Aboriginal languages and dialects existed and that the languages were not simple at all. They are an important part of Aboriginal culture and identity. We will see in chapter 4 how great the impact of the white settlement on Aboriginal languages was and how it changed communication both between Aborigines and between Aborigines and whites.

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The following subchapter is devoted to the film Women of the Sun: Alinta the

Flame. I will look for typical features of Aboriginal communication at the beginning of the white settlement, features I have described so far. I will also look at their communication from the point of view of the communication theories I wrote about in chapter 1.

3.3. Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame

The film Women of the Sun is a unique piece; it depicts the life of

Aborigines from 1824 to 1980s. It consists of four separate one-hour episodes, each episode is directed by a different director and has its own heroine. The first episode called Alinta the Flame takes place in the 1820s, at the beginning of the

British settlement in Australia (Australian Television Information Archive).

I will describe body language of Aborigines in the film and non-verbal communication as viwed by the communication theories.

Body language in Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame appears throughout the whole film. Aborigines often touch each other, stand close to each other while talking and speak in a loud voice, which proves that they are a high-contact culture. Touching appears during common conversations and also during rituals such as initiation, mourning or marital ritual. Marital ritual, among others, is portrayed in the film: when Alinta is leaving her camp with Murra, her husband, her relatives perform a ritual: they rub their armpits with their palms and then touch Alinta´s and Murra´s face. This ritual may be considered an expression of giving blessing and saying goodbye to the newlyweds.

Eye contact is another visible feature of body language in the film. What is interesting is that it is not always maintained; as I already mentioned in chapter 2,

25 eye contact does not apply to all Aborigines. And in this film eye contact is maintained in most of the dialogues, but there are some situations when it is not: when Alinta is asked to teach children a dance, the woman called Towradgi is talking about her, how skillful Alinta is, that she is a good girl etc. Another woman, to whom Towradgi is speaking, is nodding, but is not looking at her. Or another situation: when Alinta´s future husband Murra comes to the camp and gives her father a gift. He takes it and says ―It must have taken you a long time to make.‖ Murra answers: ―I made it especially for you.‖ The father does not look at

Murra for a single moment during their conversation.

The film also portrays signals used during hunting: when a group of

Aboriginal men goes hunting, they only use signals to communicate. Using signals during hunting was both effective and necessary to be able to catch wild animals.

Apart from body language, oral tradition of Aborigines is portrayed in the film as well, mainly through songs. There are many scenes depicting Aborigines singing, often the same song all over and over. Education of children is also portrayed: Alinta is taught by her mother and grandmother about their life and her responsibilities through oral communication.

There are several communication principles of sociolinguistics, pragmatics and cultural anthropology in the film Women of the Sun: Alinta the Flame. The sociolinguistic principles that appear in the film are social dimensions and politeness. As has been said in chapter 1, social dimensions include the social distance, the status scale, the formality scale and the functional scale. Aborigines in the film stand very close to each other while talking; their social distance is intimate, which implies high solidarity. According to Holmes, the social distance

26 is a definite sign of how much we know the person we are talking to (9-10), however, it does not apply to Aborigines in the film: they keep the same distance no matter who they speak with, no matter if it is someone from their tribe or a stranger.

As Aborigines did not have any hierarchy and everyone was equal, we cannot talk about the status scale. They did not use any titles or last names, only first names or addressings such as mother, father, brother or sister. There was no need to talk to someone in a different way because no one was superior or inferior (Ward 6).

It also means that the formality scale did not determine linguistic choice (being formal or informal), because the social setting did not change. I will not discuss the functional scale as it is not relevant here.

Politeness is another principle of sociolinguistics that appears in the film.

In chapter 1 I stated Holme´s definition of being linguistically polite; a part of this definition was that it is much more than only the use of the words please and thank you (9-10). Here I would stop as in this case the words please and thank you are extremely important as regards Aboriginal communication: they are not used at all. No Aborigine in the film used either please or thank you. The reason is their culture; every member of the tribe had his/her own duties and it was taken for granted that he/she fulfilled them (Saracho and Spodek 112). Therefore it was not necessary to ask someone to do something or to thank somebody for doing something. Both positive or negative politeness can be hardly found in their communication; there is no need for requests or permission. According to

Holmes, politeness also involves addressing people by names or titles, depending on the relationship we have with them (296-297). However, only first names are used in the film, no surnames or titles. The reason is again the fact that Aborigines

27 had no hierarchy, therefore there was no reason for distinguishing who was superior or inferior and addressing them accordingly.

Principles of pragmatics also occur in the film, particularly overlaps.

Overlaps are not frequent in the film, but they occur. Unlike in European culture they are not felt as awkward or undesirable; they are simply a part of Aboriginal communication. Other phenomena that influence or disturb the flow of conversation, pauses and backchannels, are missing in the film. The absence of pauses implies smooth transitions from one speaker to the next, but the absence of backchannels is typically interpreted as significant. Aborigines in the film do not send any signals such as ʻmmmʼ or ‗uh-uh‘to the speaker but still the message has been received by the listener although no feedback

(a communication principle of cultural anthropology) has been provided.

We can see that communication of Aborigines before the arrival of whites consisted largely of body language: touching, gestures, signals during hunting.

Some communication principles important for European communication were absent or were not applied in the same way, but communication was still successful. However, the absence of certain phenomena and the differences in their communication later caused communication problems between Aborigines and whites, as we will learn in the following chapter.

Chapter 4 is devoted to communication after the arrival of whites, both to communication between Aborigines and between Aborigines and whites.

I will analyse gradual changes in Aboriginal communication and describe interaction between Aborigines and whites.

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4. Communication After the Arrival of Whites

This chapter deals with communication after the white settlement, i.e. after 1788. I will focus on communication between Aborigines and whites, but

I will also discuss communication between Aborigines as their communication gradually started to change after the contact with whites. The sources I will draw from will be the books The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally, and the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and Delilah.

I will first describe the first contact of Aborigines and whites, then I will go on with analysing communication in the book and in the films and finally I will describe the language situation – Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English.

4.1. First Contact

The first British settlement in Australia was established in 1788 in Port Jackson; the first contact among Aborigines and the British occured at Botany Bay. The mutual communication seemed to be effective and also smooth, at least from the colonists´point of view (Troy 33). Troy, the author of the text Language Contact in Early Colonial New

South Wales 1788 to 1791, refers to Watkin Tench´s words3:

―…At last an officer in the boat made sings of a want of water, which it was

judged would indicate his wish of landing. The natives directly comprehended

what he wanted, and pointed to a spot where water could be procured… The

——————————

3Watkin Tench was a British Marine officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first settlement in Australia

(from Wikipedia).

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Indians, though timorous, shewed no signs of resentment at the Governor´s

going on shore; an interview commenced, in which the conduct of both parties

pleased each other so much, that the strangers returned to their ships with a

much better opinion of the natives than they had landed with…‖ (33)

One can see that the first communication attempts were successful, even beyond expectation. Aborigines were neither aggressive nor hostile. The film Women of the

Sun: Alinta the Flame confirms the same; the very first contact with white settlers was rather friendly, although Aborigines were distant to a certain degree because they did not know why the settlers had come. Nevertheless, the situation changed soon after the arrival of the British: Aborigines no longer approved of their presence in their own territory. But communication was still important; it was necessary to establish some common language to be able to communicate. And this language was Aboriginal

English.

Aboriginal English is discussed in subchapter 4.6.; it is focused mainly on its development and on pidgin and creole as these terms are closely connected with

Aboriginal English.

In the following subchapters I will analyse communication among Aborigines and between Aborigines and whites first in the book The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and then in the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and

Delilah.

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4.2. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

The story of a half-Aborigine takes place at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, and therefore serves as a good source of examples of communication between Aborigines and whites. The book is based on real events that took place in Australia at the turn of the nineteenth century, i.e. about 130 years after the establishment of the colony (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith). The main character in the book is Jimmie Blacksmith, an educated young man, the son of an Aboriginal mother and a white father, the so called ―half-caste‖. Rev. Neville, a white missionary, educates him and shows him the ―life of whites‖. However, when Jimmie is exploited by his white employers and betrayed by his white wife, he does not want to be ―white‖ anymore and decides to take revenge: he kills several of his employers.

Keneally does not only narrate a story, but also describes cultural and social background, which is very important for understanding mutual communication.

If whites believed that ―by lying with blacks a white man was gradually reduced to impotence with white women‖ (3), it is no wonder that communication among themselves and between whites and Aborigines was lead on different levels; that the way a white spoke to another white was different from the way he spoke to an

Aborigine. Or the fact that ―tribal elders lent out their wives to white men for a suck from brandy bottle‖ (7); it implies that the position of Aborigines in the society and also in communication was on lower level. Such attitudes were obviously reflected in their communication.

A conversation between Healy, a farmer Jimmie is going to work for, is a good example of the status scale, of the position of Aborgines in the society and prejudices against them:

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―Yer have any religion? Other than nigger?‖ ―Methodist, boss.‖ ―Then I give yer my Christian promise that I´ll cut yore bloody black balls out if yer mess the job. And every post that´s out of place an inch, I´ll dock yer a shillin´.‖ ―Fair enough, boss.‖ (15)

Healy clearly does not believe a black man could work as well as a white one. The way he talks to Jimmie implies his superiority and Jimmie´s inferiority; Jimmie is regarded as inferior despite the fact that he is educated.

The word nigger is pejorative here, but sometimes it is not if it is used by an Aborigine.

Jimmie, probably upset by Healy´s thinking, replies in a polite way because he knows this is how blacks talk to whites.

A similar example is the discussion between two white officers arguing at the

Department of Agriculture where Jimmy comes for a leaflet about fencing:

―We shall see when Mr Parr rises from his bed of influenza, we shall see what he thinks about insulting a fellow officer of the Department before a visitor.‖ ―In front of a visitor? Jacko over there? Mr Parr´ll kick yer arse in for wasting time…‖ (17-18)

Jimmie did not even have a chance to say why he came there, but one of the officers automatically assumed it would be a waste of time. What is interesting is that he knows

Jimmie; it is not a conversation with a black he just met. The status scale is the same as in the previous dialogue: the officer is superior and Jimmie inferior.

Not only vulgarisms or harsh words are insulting; there is another way of showing one´s superiority: high-level language. Jimmie was insulted by a cook he was working with although the cook did not use any vulgarisms. The cook was annoyed

32 because Jimmie refused to put a spell on a girl the cook was interested in:

―Put a spell on the young lady, Jimmie.‖ ―I don´t go in fer that sort of stuff, Mister cook.‖ ―Aha! Dark and deadly tribal secrets!‖ the cook called out like a busker at a country sideshow.‖ ―It´s all nonsense, boss.‖ ―Oh, I´ve hurt your feelings, Jimmie. We Europeans are so poor in the spirit the best we can do is laugh at primitive who, in my experience, always have something, God knows what it is, but something.‖ (47-48)

Jimmie did not reply anything. The discussion went on:

―You want help with the meals, Mister cook?‖ he persisted. ―Ah, the practical turn of mind of the nomadic foodgatherer. We Europeans look on the primitive life as an idyllic if not poetic state of mind. But in fact the primitive life is beset with practical issues, and primitive man must have a mind to them.‖ ―I ain´t a primitive, Mister cook. I´m a half-breed. My father´s an important man in Brentwood.‖ ―Oh yes, Jimmie?‖ the cook asked. ―What was he in Brentwood?‖ ―He was a minister of religion.‖ ―My God, you do use your indefinite articles well, Jimmie. I´ve never met a black who could even use one before.‖ ―I don´t know what those are, Mister cook. All I know is yer really want t´make me out a fool.‖ ―Now, Jimmie, you know I didn´t intend-‖ ―All I know, Mister cook, and I know it bloody well…‖ ―… all I know is I never leave a job until I finished it…‖ (47-48)

One can see that although Jimmie did not irritate him in any way, the cook went on in his insulting speech, humiliating Jimmie by underestimating his intelligence. He stopped only when he realized that Jimmie was not a primitive as he had assumed.

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And despite the fact that he offended Jimmie greatly, Jimmie did not say anything insulting, he did not even use a single bad word. He kept the politeness principle; he spoke with the cook appropriately according to the relationship he had with him, addressing him ―boss‖ and ―Mister cook‖, which again shows Jimmie´s inferiority.

The superiority of whites is also visible in the following two conversations:

The first one goes on between farmer Newby for whom Jimmie worked, and Jimmie.

Newby just found out Jimmie´s wife was pregnant:

―How yer goin´ to raise yer piccaninny, Jimmie?‖ ―He be no piccaninny, boss. He three parts white.‖ ―Yer. And his kid´ll be an eighth black and his sixteenth. But it doesn´t matter how many times yer descendants bed down, they´ll never get anything that don´t have that tarbrush in it. And it´ll always spoil´em, that little bit of somethink else.‖ (61)

Not only Newby offended Jimmie by using the words piccaninny and tarbrush (the first one being a derogatory term for a black child and the second an offensive word for a person of black and European origin (Urban Dictionary)), but he also excluded the possibility of Jimmie´s baby to become a decent person.

It seems that the speech acts delivered by whites and Aborigines were mostly successful, the four maxims of cooperative principles were kept and so communication was successful; what was communicated was understood. Aborigines also provided response and feedback when communicating with whites.

Keneally´s book does not only involve conversations between whites and

Aborigines, but also conversations between Aborigines. I will describe some features of their communication and changes related to them.

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The most significant feature and change in their communication at the same time is the use of bad words such as ―bastard‖, ―bloody‖, ―bullshit‖ or ―fucking‖. What is interesting is that they can be intended as vulgar or they can simply be a part of their communication; sometimes the bad words are even positive as we will see in the following examples.

The word “bastard” can be used both as a vocative and as a pejorative, depending on the participants of the conversation. When used among Aborigines, it is often an expression of a friendly greeting or a way of expressing joy that one meets someone one has not seen for a long time. When Jimmie comes back from his initiation, his mother Dulcie cries ―Where yer bin, yer paley bastard?‖ (5) She is keen her son is back and so she calls him ―bastard‖.

A similar example is a conversation between Jimmie´s relative Wongee Tom, and Jimmy:

―Hey, yer paley bastard!‖ ―Hey, wongee Tom.‖ ―Yair, that´s who. How´s that old sow Dulcie goin´?‖ ―Dulcie´s good. Wilf´s drunk.‖ (10)

The word “bastard” here is also used as a demonstration of joy that Wongee Tom met his relative after a long time. The word ‗sow‘is used in a similar way; to express

Wongee Tom´s delight that he can hear something about Dulcie, the person he likes.

The other use of the word “bastard” is pejorative, it is a derogatory expression.

An example is Morton´s (Jimmie´s half-brother) statement; he is discussing betrayal of Jimmie´s wife with McCreadie, a hostage they took:

―Yair,‖ Mort said, ―but Jimmie´s wife says she´s goin´t´ have Jimmie´s piccanin´. ―When it gits itself born it ain´t his but some white bastard´s.‖ (143)

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The other bad words that appear in the book (“bloody”, “bullshit” and “fucking”) are mostly used as pejoratives.

The book The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith shows how communication between whites and Aborigines developed 130 years after the white settlers from Europe had come to Australia. Aborigines were seen as inferior and were treated the same when being spoken to by whites. The principle of politeness was kept by Aborigines, but not by whites. As cooperative principle was kept, communication between whites and Aborigines was rather successful. Responses and feedback were also provided by Aborigines. The communication among

Aborigines changed: they started to use bad words and kept the principle of politeness, a feature that was unknown before the white settlement.

4.3. The Fringe Dwellers

The Fringe Dwellers is an Australian film released in 1986 and directed by

Bruce Beresford (The Fringe Dwellers). It is based on the book by Nene Gare who drew from her own experience of an Aboriginal community (Australian Screen).

It tells the story of Trilby, an Aboriginal teenager living in a poor Aboriginal neighbourhood with her extended family. Trilby is an ambitious girl who wants something more. She manages to persuade her mother to move into a nice house in a white neighbourhood, but not everything develops as she imagined; she faces many problems caused by unsuccessful communication both with their white neighbours and her own family.

The film contains several scenes depicting clashes between Aborigines and whites. The first one occurs at the beginning of the film when Trilby and her siblings

36 are having a drink in a bar. A white girl sitting next to them starts to criticise their clothes and embarrasses them in front of other people. Suddenly a white man who notices the girl´s apparent behaviour stands up for them and says: ―You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Those kids have the same right to be here as anybody.‖ The aim of this scene was perhaps to show that fighting racism or one´s superiority is necessary. However, Trilby is not pleased; she does not want anybody to defend her, she thinks she can do it herself. She finds the act of the white man not heroic, but rather humiliating. She is saying ―You are not better than me, I do not need your defence.‖

Trilby regards herself as equal, not inferior. She adopts a similar attitude when their white neighbour gives them second-hand clothes. The neighbour probably did not mean to offend anybody; she thought she would please Trilby´s family. But Trilby is furious and says ―I want only new clothes.‖ Again she is saying ―I am the same as you.

Why should I wear second-hand clothes?‖ Trilby´s mother, unlike Trilby, accepted the clothes with gratitude, which shows her inferiority.

The films also contains scenes in which Aborigines gain respect of whites:

Trilby´s brother, who is drawing pictures at school all the time, is given a sketch book by his teacher who tells him ―When you´re older, there´s nothing to stop you being an artist, buddy. You can go to an art school in the city.‖ And she shows him some paintings by an Aboriginal artist. She believes in him and encourages him. Or the scene with Trilby´s older sister: she must pass exams I order to be allowed to stay in the hospital where she is working. Unfortunately she does not pass them. Her supervisor is hesitating whether to let her stay, but then Trilby´s sister convinces her when she is the only one who manages to persuade one of their patients to take her medicine. She is told some extra couching would be arranged for her so that she could stay.

Communication among Aborigines is also portrayed. When Trilby´s family

37 decides to move to a white neighbourhood, some Aborigines from their community do not approve of it; they think they do not belong there and should stay with them.

Some of the young Aborigines (including Trilby) do not exactly identify with the

Aboriginal way of life (borrowing things, wearing second-hand clothes, living in a dingy dwelling etc.), which causes communication problems between them and their relatives who do not understand their discontent. Identity of such juveniles is split into two parts: the Aboriginal one and the white one. Trilby seems to have found her identity in the end when she decides to leave for a city and to leave her family who meanwhile moved back to the Aboriginal community.

The Fringe Dwellers portrays both clashes between Aborigines and whites and attempts of whites to improve communication with Aborigines; in this sense the film is rather positive. It also depicts communication among Aborigines which was considerably influenced by whites; by their way of life and their communication.

4.4. Rabbit-Proof Fence

The film depicts the situation in Western Australia in 1931, when a special law, the Aborigines Act, came into force. The law enabled A. O. Neville, the

Chief protector of Aborigines, to ―remove any half-caste child‖ from their family.

The law was only abolished in 1970; the generations of ―removed‖ children are called Stolen Generations (Rabbit-Proof Fence).

The film depicts a true story of two sisters, Molly and Daisy, and their cousin Gracie who were taken away from their family in order to become ―white‖. In the camp they were taken to they were forced to speak only English, to pray and many other customs of whites. Speaking only English meant gradual loss of knowledge of Aboriginal languages and together with forcing the half-caste children to ―behave like whites‖ it led

38 to the loss of Aboriginal identity, values and culture. Half-caste children had to use the words ―please‖ and ―thank you‖ and to address the whites in the camp ―Mr‖ or ―Mrs‖, something they were not used to at all. The status scale remains the same as in the book

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith: Aborigines were seen as inferior and whites were the superior ones. As half-caste children were forced to do things against their will, backchannels and feedback are often missing; their absence is a sign of disagreement.

The film shows Aborigines using body language, however, it is apparent that it was used less and less; for instance there is not much touching. Gestures were used mainly when it was important to remain silent, for instance Molly used gestures to communicate with Daisy and Gracie in order not to draw attention of the whites looking for them. Verbal communication is also shown in the film, in particular songs. Songs were still very important to Aborigines. When Molly, Daisy and Gracie were taken away, their mother and grandmother were singing songs; it was a ritual expressing sorrow.

Rabbit-Proof Fence shows the impact of the Aborigines Act on the lives of

Aborigines who lost their children and the impact on half-caste children who often lost their Aboriginal identity forever. The law caused a great change in communication among Aborigines who grew up in camps where they were taught ―white‖ life: acquiring politeness, reinforcing the status scale, loss of Aboriginal languages. The film also depicts communication among Aborigines: less touching, the use of gestures and the importance of songs.

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4.5. Samson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah is an Australian film directed by Warwick Thornton, which was released in 2009. It depicts the story of Samson and Delilah, two teenagers who live in Jay Creek, a deserted Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. It is based on

Warwick Thornton´s experience and events he has witnessed (Samson&Delilah).

The film depicts complex relationships between Aborigines and whites and the difficulties in communication arising from them. Samson and Delilah live in an

Aboriginal community where nothing ever happens: every day is the same, the same boredom, the same monotony. In order to escape from such world, Samson sniffs gas. He falls for Delilah and after her grandmother dies they decide to leave the community. However, life among whites is not better; they sleep under the bridge and steel food to survive. Delilah tries to sell some of her Aboriginal paintings, but is rejected by the same man who used to come to their territory to buy their paintings for almost no money. Whites do not want to communicate with them, they are prejudiced against Samson and Delilah. The couple is at the edge of the society; there is no chance for them to be accepted into the white society. Communication between them and whites is not successful because the message they are sending is not received by the receiver. And so neither response nor feedback is provided.

Aboriginal communication forms a large part of the film too. The most significant feature of the film is that there is not much talking; non-verbal communication prevails throughout the film. The reason for this is explained on the website of the film:

―Warwick thinks it‘s more realistic for them to not speak too much from his own experience. There is a lot of communication that happens between them – it‘s just not necessarily verbal […].‖ (Samson&Delilah)

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The director wanted to show the lives of some Aborigines in Australia together with one of the most distinct features of their communication: body language. Body language is used a lot in the film, mainly gestures. Some rituals are also shown in the film: when Delilah´s grandmother dies, Delilah cuts her hair. It is a sign of respect and a sign to others, to alert to a loss (Samson&Delilah). After the death of her grandmother is beaten by her aunts. The filmmakers give an explanation of such behaviour:

―Part of the grieving process in some Central Australian Aboriginal cultures is the idea that someone needs to take responsibility for a death. It is usually the person or people who are most responsible for looking after the deceased that get beaten by other relatives as part of the ‗sorry business‘ ritual. This is something that Warwick doesn‘t agree with and he believes it‘s one element of culture that should evolve.‖

(Samson&Delilah)

As I have already said, there is not much of verbal communication in the film.

Samson and Delilah talk only if they have to, mostly with whites. Conversations with whites show Samson´s and Delilah´s inferiority: no white really wants to talk to them and when they have to, they are rather brief, showing unwillingness.

Music is also an important part of the film as it communicates: there is one song playing over and over during the whole film; the reason is perhaps to show the boredom and monotony of everyday life in the community, that there is no possibility of change for Aborigines.

Samson and Delilah demonstrates how difficult communication between

Aborigines and whites is today because of prejudices and lack of interest of whites.

Warwick Thornton probably wanted to show that attempts for communication with

Aborigines are often missing and that more effort is necessary. The film also shows communication among Aborigines: the use of gestures, the importance of rituals and

41 songs.

4.6. Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English

After the Arrival of Whites

Despite the fact that there are 145 Indigenous languages still spoken in

Australia today, only about 10 of them are capable of survival from a long-term perspective. Aboriginal Languages Research and Resource Centre affirms that only those 10 languages are ―healthy‖ enough to be taught in schools (New South Wales

Government Department of Aboriginal Affairs).

Although there are only 10 ―healthy‖ Aboriginal languages out of estimated

250 that were used before colonisation, recently there has been great effort to revive

Aboriginal languages. Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett and Minister for

Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin announced new national approach to preserve

Indigenous languages in 2009. The aim of the approach is to bring attention to

Indigenous languages, encourage the use of endangered languages, preservation, recognition by government and also support of teaching and learning of Indigenous languages in schools (New South Wales Government Department of Aboriginal

Affairs).

In August 2009 the news website The Australian brought the article called

‗Aboriginal Languages Deserve Revival’. It was based on the assumption that ―the more languages we know, the more likely we are to embrace different perspectives‖ and that

―the intellectual gains of being bilingual have been significantly demonstrated‖. (The

Australian) Ghilad Zuckermann, the author of the article calls attention to the importance of reviving Aboriginal languages, but at the same time argues that it is

―impossible without influence from the mother tongue(s) of those at the forefront of the revival‖. In other words, revival is important and possible, but not without

42 linguistic changes. He claims that ―Revival activists should be encouraged to be more realistic, and less puristic, about their goals. For example, they should not be discouraged by borrowed English words and pronunciation within the emergent languageˮ (The Australian).

This is Zuckermann´s rather realistic view on revival of Aboriginal languages. Although the first steps to revive Aboriginal languages and to preserve their culture have been taken, it is difficult to say what the situation will look like in the future.

Aboriginal English has a greater chance of survival than Aboriginal languages. In chapter 1 I stated that Aboriginal English is both a pidgin and a creole; I would like to elaborate on that here. It is a pidgin because it had no native speakers at the beginning of the white settlement in Australia. It developed as a means of communication between

Aborigines and whites. And it is a creole because a creole generally arises from a pidgin and also because Aboriginal English has native speakers (Holmes 95-98).

However, Aboriginal English did not only develop from pidgin English, but also from the so called Aboriginalization of English. Pidgin English developed in Australia after the arrival of the British. They were reluctant to learn any of the Aboriginal languages

and so communication was left up to Aborigines. They learnt some English to be able to communicate. It was a simplified language but it soon became an important communication tool not only between Aborigines and the British but within a few generations it was used among different Aboriginal groups that did not have a shared language (New South Wales Government Department of Aboriginal Affairs).

Aboriginalization means that in some areas Aboriginal English did not develop from pidgin English because there was no pidgin English. Instead, Aborigines brought into English their accents, words and grammar from their Aboriginal languages. But

43 today it is linguistically inaccurate and derogatory to use the term ‗pidgin English‘ when referring to English spoken by Aborigines (New South Wales Government Department of Aboriginal Affairs).

We have seen that Aboriginal English was an important communication tool after the arrival of whites and that today it should not be refered to as pidgin English as it is rather derogatory. However, Aboriginal English was considered bad English for a long time; only since 1960 it has been recognized as a valid and rule-governed language. It is the mother tongue of many Aborigines and in more remote areas it is spoken as a second, third or fourth language. Aboriginal English is important for

Aborigines´self-identity, particularly in parts of Australia where there are no traditional languages and cultural practices anymore. Aboriginal English has approximately

50 000 speakers today. Some literature is also published in Aboriginal

English today (Pauwels 109).

Although it is still not recognized by many non-indigenous people, Aboriginal

English has recently strengthen its position. The legal system has also made some important developments in the recognition and understanding of Aboriginal English: in the state of Queensland, for example, the Department of Justice and the

Attorney-General has developed a project to facilitate communication with speakers of Aboriginal English. A handbook was published and people are trained to become specialist communication facilitators. The aim of the project is to know about the differences between Aboriginal English and Standard English and to avoid eventual misunderstanding (New South Wales Government Department of Aboriginal Affairs).

Because Aboriginal communication is different, communication in court may easily lead to misunderstanding, even though many Aborigines speak Aboriginal

English and understand the questions they are asked in court. It often happens that

44 they do not give their evidence in the expected way because they do not know how important it is for the court proccesses. They often answer only ―yes‖ and ―no‖ and give answers that are expected of them rather than describe what really happened

(O´Neill, Rice, Douglas 594). But communication in court is getting better, many places in Australia are now introducing new projects aimed at communication improvement

(similar projects as the one in the state of Queensland).

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Conclusion

This thesis had two aims: the first aim was to analyse and contrast communication among Aborigines in Australia before and after the white settlement and the second aim was to analyse communication between Aborigines and whites before and after the white settlement.

White settlement in Australia meant a great change for Aborigines. During the first few decades after the arrival of whites more than half of Aboriginal languages were lost; at the same time a new language was created: Aboriginal English. Their communication gradually started to change because of the influence of whites. We have seen in the film Women of the Sun that Aborigines used body language a lot, it was a substantial part of their communication. However, films portraying communication after the colonisation show that Aborigines have been using body language less and less, mainly touching during conversation. Their verbal communication also changed after the arrival of whites: Aborigines started to use bad words and words such as please and thank you, words that had been unknown to them before. Their communication was also influenced by the so called ―Stolen Generations‖: half-caste children were forced to speak English and to acquire ―white life‖, which meant gradual loss of their identity, languages, values and culture. The status scale of Aborigines has also changed: many

Aborigines, as we have seen in the book The Chant of Jimmie Blackmisth and in the films The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and Delilah, are regarded by whites as inferior. The feeling of inferiority is projected in communication with whites: Aborigines are often treated with disrespect, and vice-versa, there is often certain servility when Aborigines communicate with whites. Communication of

Aborigines with whites has brought many difficulties arising from the lack of interest of whites, the feeling of superiority of whites, the suppression of Aboriginal values and

46 culture and also because many Aborigines regard themselves as equal, not inferior anymore. However, it seems that recently communication between Aborigines and whites has improved: attempts to revive Aboriginal languages have been taken,

Aboriginal English starts to be recognized as a valid language by non-indigenous people, and generally more effort has been made to inform about Aborigines and their culture. But it is difficult to predict whether the steps that have been made will be successful or not.

I will conclude my thesis with a quote by G. B. Shaw which best illustrates the complex nature of communication: ―The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.‖ (Wisdom Quotes)

47

Resumé in English

The aim of the thesis is to analyse and contrast both communication of Aborigines and communication between Aborigines and whites after the white settlement from the point of view of the communication theories.

In the theoretical part of the thesis, basic concepts and terms of communication theories are presented.

The practical part is divided into communication before and after the arrival of whites. In the chapter dealing with communication before the white settlement

I analyse both verbal and non-verbal communication of Aborigines. In the following chapter dealing with communication after the white settlement I analyse Aboriginal communication and the changes in it and I also analyse communication between

Aborigines and whites; I discuss problems in their communication. The sources I draw from in the practical part are the book The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and the films

The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence and Samson and Delilah.

The analysis of the book and of the films shows that Aborigines use body language much less than they did before the white settlement. Today there are only 10

Aboriginal languages out of 250 languages originally used before the arrival of whites that are capable of survival. When communicating with whites, there is certain servility on the side of Aborigines; their status scale shows inferiority. The feeling of superiority of whites is projected in their communication and is one of the causes of frequent misunderstandings between them.

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Resumé v češtině

Cílem mé bakalářské práce je analyzovat a porovnat komunikaci Aboriginců a komunikaci mezi bělochy a Aboriginci před a po příchodu bělochů z pohledu komunikačních teorií.

V teoretické části práce jsou představeny základní pojmy komunikačních teorií.

Praktická část je rozdělena na komunikaci před a po příchodu bělochů. V kapitole zabývající se komunikací před osídlením bělochy analyzuji jak verbální, tak neverbální komunikaci Aboriginců. V následující kapitole, která se zabývá komunikací po osídlení bělochy, analyzuji komunikaci mezi Aboriginci a bělochy a rozebírám problémy v jejich komunikaci. Zdrojem pro analýzu je kniha The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith a filmy The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit-proof Fence a Samson and Delilah.

Analýza knihy a filmů dokazuje, že Aboriginci používají řeč těla mnohem méně než před osídlením bělochy. V současnosti má šanci na přežití jen 10 aboriginských jazyků z původních 250. Při komunikaci s bělochy je ze strany

Aboriginců cítit jistá podřízenost; jejich status naznačuje nižší postavení. Pocit nadřazenosti ze strany bělochů je promítnut v jejich komunikaci a je jednou z příčin vzájemných nedorozumění.

49

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