DOCSLIB.ORG

Aspects of Intonation and Prosody in Bininj Gun-Wok: an Autosegmental-Metrical Analysis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Aspects of Intonation and Prosody in Bininj Gun-Wok: an Autosegmental-Metrical Analysis Aspects of intonation and prosody in Bininj Gun-wok: an autosegmental-metrical analysis Judith Bishop Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics The University of Melbourne August 2002 Abstract This dissertation presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of aspects of the intonation and prosody of an Australian polysynthetic language, Bininj Gun-wok (BGW; also referred to as Mayali). The theoretical framework is autosegmental-metrical phonology, as adapted to the description of intonation by Pierrehumbert (1980), Bruce (1977) and others. The analysis focuses principally on two dialects, Kuninjku and Manyallaluk Mayali (MM), with some reference to the Kunwinjku, Kune, Gun-Djeihmi and Kundedjnjenghmi dialects. One of the principal motivations for analysing intonation and prosody in BGW is to provide input to the developing field of intonational-prosodic typology, from the perspective of a language which is typologically interesting on at least two counts: its position in the Australian language family, and its polysynthetic character. This dissertation provides numerous auditory as well as visual records relating to the contents of the analysis. The provision of auditory records is an innovation intended to improve the accountability of the phonetic analysis and to facilitate typological comparison. The content of the chapters is as follows. In Chapter 1, I review the literature on intonation and prosody in polysynthetic languages (§1.2) and in Australian languages (§1.3), and highlight findings relating to possible parameters in intonational-prosodic typology (§1.3). I outline the grammatical and segmental phonological structures of BGW (§1.4) and describe the autosegmental-metrical theoretical framework (§1.5). I then discuss the ToBI model of intonation and prosody transcription (§1.6), and present the Bininj Gun-wok system of transcription (§1.7). In Chapter 2, I discuss the corpus of texts analysed in the preparation of the dissertation (§2.2). An overview of the basic intonational contours is presented (§2.3–2.5) and the prosodic constituent hierarchy of BGW is described (§2.6), drawing on illustrations from across the six dialects. The intonational grammar is described in §2.7. In Chapter 3, I review the literature on metrical structure in stress accent languages (§3.2), and analyse the organisation and derivation of metrical structure in the i Kuninjku and Manyallaluk Mayali dialects (§3.3–3.4), and its relationship to the assignment of intonational pitch accents within the phonological word. Chapter 4 presents an experiment to determine whether the acoustic correlates of metrical structure observed in other stress accent languages are also found in BGW (Kuninjku dialect). In Chapter 5, I apply a process of elimination to determine whether variations in the phonetic alignment of high pitch accent targets are potentially related to distinct phonological categories, or are conditioned by phonetic or prosodic context (§5.2.–5.4). I analyse patterns of transitional high F0 (§5.5), and discuss their implications for models of phonetic implementation in BGW. In Chapter 6, I present arguments for a previously undescribed level of prosodic constituency in BGW, the phonological phrase, and show how it is differentiated from other levels of prosodic constituency. Chapter 7 describes the lexical content of phonological phrases (§7.3), patterns of ‘prosodic integration’ of accented words in phonological phrases, and the distinct phrasing patterns of unaccented words (§7.4). Chapter 8 concludes the dissertation, providing an overview of the principal findings and their implications (§8.1), and discussing directions for future research (§8.2). ii Declaration This is to certify that • the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface; • due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; • the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signed JUDITH BISHOP 12th August, 2002 iii Preface The section on the Bininj Gun-wok ToBI transcription system (BGW-ToBI) presented in Chapter 1, section 1.7 of this dissertation, draws on a chapter jointly written with Dr Janet Fletcher, which is to be published in Prosodic Models and Transcription: Towards Prosodic Typology, edited by S.-A. Jun. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The material on the tone tier was written together with Dr Fletcher, after comparing our analyses of different dialects of BGW (my work on the Kuninjku, Kunwinjku, Manyallaluk Mayali and Kune dialects, and Dr Fletcher’s analyses of the Gun-Djeihmi and Kundedjnjenghmi dialects). The material relating to the break index tier is entirely my own. iv Acknowledgements My thanks and gratitude, first of all, to my Bininj Gun-wok language teachers and consultants during my five months’ fieldwork in Manyallaluk: Mary-Ann Kalamuka, †Hilda Dooley, Lily Dooley, Kirsten Dooley, Peter Bolgi and Anna Bolgi, †Reggie Miller and Margaret Miller, for their generosity in sharing their language, their patience, for laughing together, and for sharing stories and insights which have remained with me. Also to those who were personally kind and generous in various ways during my time at Manyallaluk: Mavis Jumbiri (for helping with the transcription of the story Ngarrarla and Wurruyung, and for giving me the tiny throat bones of wurruyung, which are the baby in the story), Carol Pamkal and Jinel Pamkal (for being like a younger sister during the five months), and my garrart, Judy Dalywater. To Murray Garde, my sincere and heartfelt thanks for generously sharing his recordings of Kuninjku speakers, which became so integral to this analysis. To my two supervisors, Nick Evans and Janet Fletcher, whose advice – stern when it was needed! – has been so valuable in shaping the final product, and whose encouragement has helped me through the most difficult phases. Finally, my love and gratitude, To my parents, Ted and Beryl; and to past and present friends in the lab, especially Bruce, Nick, and Dana (for showing it’s possible to finish!): for their warmth, encouragement, good humour and passionate conversations about downstep and peak alignment, blond babies and pink carpeting, and for sharing the odd cup of tea… to Karin, for her care and wonderful philosophical conversations, and Drew, for sharing and re-inspiring my pursuit of poetic ones, and to Simon, for his constant affection and amazing generosity, for keeping me well and making me smile, and for never losing sight of what is most important in living. v [blank page] vi Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 AIMS OF THE DISSERTATION.......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 The project of intonational-prosodic typology................................................................................ 3 1.1.2 Definitions of key terms.................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 INTONATION AND PROSODY IN POLYSYNTHETIC LANGUAGES ...................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Previous studies of polysynthetic languages ................................................................................... 5 1.2.2 Polysynthetic languages and the role of intonation and prosody in relation to information structure........................................................................................................................ 6 1.3 PREVIOUS STUDIES OF INTONATION AND PROSODY IN AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES........................................ 8 1.3.1 Wik-Mungkan.................................................................................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Dyirbal ............................................................................................................................................ 12 1.3.3 Kayardild ........................................................................................................................................ 13 1.3.4 Iwaidja............................................................................................................................................. 13 1.3.5 Overview of intonational-prosodic typology in Australian languages......................................... 15 1.3.5.1 Postlexical vs lexical uses of tone................................................................................................................15 1.3.5.2 Delimitative uses of tone..............................................................................................................................15 1.3.5.3 Culminative and prominence-lending uses of tone.....................................................................................16 1.3.5.4 Lexical and grammatical conditioning of intonation..................................................................................16 1.3.5.5 Relationships between intonation, prosody and information structure......................................................17 1.3.5.6 Contrastive modifications of the tonal space (pitch register).....................................................................17 1.4 FEATURES OF BGW RELEVANT TO INTONATION AND PROSODY ................................................................ 18 1.4.1 Syllable structure and syllable
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Borrowing, Sound Change and Reduplication in Iwaidja
    Doubled up all over again: borrowing, sound change and reduplication in Iwaidja Nicholas Evans Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University [email protected] Abstract This article examines the interactions between reduplication, sound change, and borrowing, as played out in the Iwaidja language of Cobourg Peninsula, Arnhem Land, in Northern Australia, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Iwaidjan family. While Iwaidja traditionally makes use of (various types of) right-reduplication, contact with two other left-reduplicating languages – one Australian (Bininj Gun-wok) and one Austronesian (Makassarese) – has led to the introduction of several (non-productive) left-reduplicating patterns. At the same time as these new patterns have been entering the language, the cumulative effect of sweeping sound changes within Iwaidja has complicated the transparency of reduplicative outputs. This has left the language with an extremely varied and complicated set of reduplication types, for some of which the analysis is no longer synchronically recoverable by children. Keywords: Australian languages, Iwaidja, language contact, directionality, Makassarese, reanalysis 1. Introduction Despite growing interest in language contact on the one hand, and reduplication on the other, there has been little research to date on how diachrony and language contact impact upon reduplicative patterns. 1 In this article I examine precisely this theme, as played out in the Iwaidja language of Cobourg Peninsula, Arnhem Land, in Northern Australia, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Iwaidjan family spoken by around 150 people now mostly living on and around Croker Island in the Northern Territory (see Evans 2000 for a survey of this family).
    [Show full text]
  • KUNINJKU PEOPLE, BUFFALO, and CONSERVATION in ARNHEM LAND: ‘IT’S a CONTRADICTION THAT FRUSTRATES US’ Jon Altman
    3 KUNINJKU PEOPLE, BUFFALO, AND CONSERVATION IN ARNHEM LAND: ‘IT’S A CONTRADICTION THAT FRUSTRATES US’ Jon Altman On Tuesday 20 May 2014 I was escorting two philanthropists to rock art galleries at Dukaladjarranj on the edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment. I was there in a corporate capacity, as a direc- tor of the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust, seeking to raise funds to assist the Djelk and Warddeken Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) in their work tackling the conservation challenges of maintain- ing the environmental and cultural values of 20,000 square kilometres of western Arnhem Land. We were flying low in a Robinson R44 helicopter over the Tomkinson River flood plains – Bulkay – wetlands renowned for their biodiversity. The experienced pilot, nicknamed ‘Batman’, flew very low, pointing out to my guests herds of wild buffalo and their highly visible criss-cross tracks etched in the landscape. He remarked over the intercom: ‘This is supposed to be an IPA but those feral buffalo are trashing this country, they should be eliminated, shot out like up at Warddeken’. His remarks were hardly helpful to me, but he had a point that I could not easily challenge mid-air; buffalo damage in an iconic wetland within an IPA looked bad. Later I tried to explain to the guests in a quieter setting that this was precisely why the Djelk Rangers needed the extra philanthropic support that the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust was seeking to raise. * * * 3093 Unstable Relations.indd 54 5/10/2016 5:40 PM Kuninjku People, Buffalo, and Conservation in Arnhem Land This opening vignette highlights a contradiction that I want to explore from a variety of perspectives in this chapter – abundant populations of environmentally destructive wild buffalo roam widely in an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) declared for its natural and cultural values of global significance, according to International Union for the Conservation of Nature criteria.
    [Show full text]
  • Presentations
    Presentations CHIE ADACHI AND VERONICA DOBSON community language planning within the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. She has immensely New ways of learning and teaching Arrente - enjoyed working on the development of online curriculum for developing language and culture course online Central and Eastern Arrernte language and culture with elders from Central Australia. The current paper explores ideas and issues around developing curriculum for learning and teaching of an Veronica Dobson is a highly respected elder from Central Indigenous Australian language. As part of a tertiary course Australia. She has extensively worked on the documentation at the newly established Australian Centre for Indigenous and revitalisation of Central and Eastern Arrernte language Knowledges and Education (ACIKE), the Central and Eastern and culture for many years as an educator. She was involved Arrernte language and culture curriculum has been developed. with establishing the orthography of this language. She also This paper presents a story of developing new ways of has extensive ecological knowledge of the land and takes great transmitting the Arrernte knowledge by creating multimode pride and joy in teaching this knowledge to young generations of learning and teaching space and incorporating the oral as well as non-indigenous people. tradition into non-traditional mode of online teaching with the For her significant contribution and services to the community Arrernte people. as a linguist, naturalist and ecologist, Veronica was appointed This paper also addresses the issues of: a Member of Order of Australia in 2011. She is an author of many books on Central and Eastern Arrernte language, land • Approaching and negotiating protocols to protect and and culture, and a figure that many people come across once share the Arrernte knowledge; they start learning about Arrernte.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotion Nouns in Australian Languages: a Case Study and Preliminary Survey
    This item is Chapter 16 of Language, land & song: Studies in honour of Luise Hercus Editors: Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch & Jane Simpson ISBN 978-0-728-60406-3 http://www.elpublishing.org/book/language-land-and-song Emotion nouns in Australian languages: a case study and preliminary survey Maïa Ponsonnet Cite this item: Maïa Ponsonnet (2016). Emotion nouns in Australian languages: a case study and preliminary survey. In Language, land & song: Studies in honour of Luise Hercus, edited by Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch & Jane Simpson. London: EL Publishing. pp. 228-243 Link to this item: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/2016 __________________________________________________ This electronic version first published: March 2017 © 2016 Maïa Ponsonnet ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing Open access, peer-reviewed electronic and print journals, multimedia, and monographs on documentation and support of endangered languages, including theory and practice of language documentation, language description, sociolinguistics, language policy, and language revitalisation. For more EL Publishing items, see http://www.elpublishing.org 16 Emotion nouns in Australian languages: a case study and preliminary survey Maïa Ponsonnet Dynamique du Langage, CNRS/Université Lyon 2 The University of Sydney, Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language 1. Introduction Documenting emotions in Australian languages is a complicated task, not only because of caveats inherent to the privacy of this domain, but also because of additional cultural obstacles specific to the Australian context. Indeed, among Aboriginal groups, emotions are often considered too mundane or sometimes too traumatic to be discussed with strangers (Ponsonnet 2014a). However, linguists who have successfully explored emotions in Australian languages have revealed a wealth of linguistic resources (Turpin 2002; Gaby 2008; Harkins 2001; Ponsonnet 2014b).
    [Show full text]
  • Developing a Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages
    Vol. 8 (2014), pp. 345-360 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24612 Developing a Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages Catherine Bow, Michael Christie, Brian Devlin Charles Darwin University The fluctuating fortunes of Northern Territory bilingual education programs in Aus- tralian languages and English have put at risk thousands of books developed for these programs in remote schools. In an effort to preserve such a rich cultural and linguistic heritage, the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages project is establishing an open access, online repository comprising digital versions of these materials. Using web technologies to store and access the resources makes them accessible to the commu- nities of origin, the wider academic community, and the general public. The process of creating, populating, and implementing such an archive has posed many interesting technical, cultural and linguistic challenges, some of which are explored in this paper. 1. INTRODUCTION. During the era of bilingual education in the Northern Territory (1973 – 2000s), many books were produced at school-based Literature Production Centres in more than 25 languages. These materials, which are both widely dispersed and endan- gered, contain interesting and significant stories in Indigenous Australian languages, many with beautiful illustrations. As a result of policy and other changes, many of the materi- als produced for these programs are no longer in use, and in many places have been lost, damaged or, occasionally, deliberately destroyed. The goal of the Living Archive of Abo- riginal Languages project1 is to create a digital repository of this endangered literature and, with permission from the language authorities (usually original authors and illustrators or their descendants), to make the materials available to community members, researchers, and other interested parties through a searchable, online repository.
    [Show full text]
  • Noun Phrase Constituency in Australian Languages: a Typological Study
    Linguistic Typology 2016; 20(1): 25–80 Dana Louagie and Jean-Christophe Verstraete Noun phrase constituency in Australian languages: A typological study DOI 10.1515/lingty-2016-0002 Received July 14, 2015; revised December 17, 2015 Abstract: This article examines whether Australian languages generally lack clear noun phrase structures, as has sometimes been argued in the literature. We break up the notion of NP constituency into a set of concrete typological parameters, and analyse these across a sample of 100 languages, representing a significant portion of diversity on the Australian continent. We show that there is little evidence to support general ideas about the absence of NP structures, and we argue that it makes more sense to typologize languages on the basis of where and how they allow “classic” NP construal, and how this fits into the broader range of construals in the nominal domain. Keywords: Australian languages, constituency, discontinuous constituents, non- configurationality, noun phrase, phrase-marking, phrasehood, syntax, word- marking, word order 1 Introduction It has often been argued that Australian languages show unusual syntactic flexibility in the nominal domain, and may even lack clear noun phrase struc- tures altogether – e. g., in Blake (1983), Heath (1986), Harvey (2001: 112), Evans (2003a: 227–233), Campbell (2006: 57); see also McGregor (1997: 84), Cutfield (2011: 46–50), Nordlinger (2014: 237–241) for overviews and more general dis- cussion of claims to this effect. This idea is based mainly on features
    [Show full text]
  • Rainbow Colour and Power Among the Waanyi of Northwest Queensland
    Rainbow colour and power among the Waanyi of Northwest Queensland Author Tacon, Paul SC Published 2008 Journal Title Cambridge Archaeological Journal DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774308000231 Copyright Statement © 2008 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/23005 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Rainbow Colour and Power among the Waanyi of Northwest Queensland Rainbow Colour and Power among the Waanyi of Northwest Queensland Paul S.C. Taçon In 2002, an investigation into the rock art of Waanyi country was undertaken in conjunc- tion with ongoing archaeological excavation. Various subjects, styles and techniques were documented, associated oral history from Waanyi elders was recorded and the relation- ship to archaeological deposits was assessed. A large number of rainbow-like designs, in red or red-and-yellow, were recorded, along with a magnificent and very large red-and- yellow Rainbow Serpent. These and other images are discussed in relation to the travels of Ancestral Beings, stories and uses of coloured pigment and the use of local stone for both tools and the situating of important spiritual sites. Links to a network of other communities across northern and central Australia are highlighted. It is concluded that colour played a fundamental role in both expressing and maintaining relationships to places, Ancestral Beings and other groups of people. Important local differences can be seen in comparison to the ways in which colour has been used by Aboriginal people elsewhere.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Pitch Reset in Perception at Discourse Boundaries
    ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 THE ROLE OF PITCH RESET IN PERCEPTION AT DISCOURSE BOUNDARIES Hsin-Yi Lin & Janice Fon Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT pitch contours tend to be the same or on the same declining track [4, 5]. Such a melodic continuity The present study is targeted to investigate how can be broken by pitch reset for speakers to mark pitch reset as a boundary correlate functions in shift of topic or segmentation in discourse. The indicating structural information in discourse for second aspect is its ability to reflect hierarchical listeners. Two experiments were conducted: one status of a boundary. Many studies have indicated was a boundary detection test, and the other was a that the amount of pitch reset is bigger across boundary hierarchy rating test. Results of both discourse segments than within [6, 8, 11], experiments indicated that listeners indeed rely on suggesting that as boundaries become bigger, the the presence and the strength of pitch reset in amount of pitch reset is larger too, making it a nice decoding hierarchical segmentation in discourse. indicator in reflecting boundary hierarchy. Keywords: pitch reset, boundary correlate, As established in the above studies, speakers discourse boundary, discourse hierarchy, prosody use pitch reset, among other cues, to encode segmentation and hierarchical structure in 1. INTRODUCTION discourse. Therefore, the present study aims itself In human communication, discourse structure on investigating whether listeners also use this cue plays an important role in providing speakers with to decode discourse structure in speech.
    [Show full text]
  • Kakadu National Park Management Plan 2007–2014 Akadu Is Aboriginal Kland
    Kakadu Board of Management Kakadu National Park MANAGEMENT PLAN 2007–2014 PLAN MANAGEMENT KAKADU NATIONAL PARK MANAGEMENT PLAN 2007–2014 Design Direction Design 3888 Photos Comb-crested Jacana: Michael Nelson Magpie Goose: Greg Miles Orchid: Michael Nelson Termite mound: Michael Nelson Darter: Michael Nelson Lotus flower: Michael Nelson Fire management: Michael Nelson Tourists at Ubirr art site: Michael Nelson Paperbark trees: Michael Nelson Tourists at Ubirr lookout: Peter Wellings West Alligator Head main beach: Greg Miles 4WD at Gunlom Falls: Michael Nelson Artwork Guided walk: Emily Scheibe Ranger at rock art site: Kristina Williams Fire management: Rhiannon Compton Ranger in boat: Justin Giumelli Pandanus and tree: William Suitor Chapter Pages Photos: Ian Oswald-Jacobs Artwork Lotus flowers and birdlife (page 1): Kodi Nadji Water lily leaves on wetland (page 15): Gail Rotumah Crocodile and landscape (page 17): Curtis Yarrbar Park use – featuring Frilled lizard (page 152): Christine Marie Alangate Designed by Design Direction Printed by CanPrint on Monza Satin (100 per cent recycled stock, from plantation timber) Kakadu National Park MANAGEMENT PLAN 2007–2014 © director of national Parks 2007 iSBn: 978 06 42 55 33 94 this work is copyright. apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process, re-used or redistributed without prior written permission from the director of national Parks. any permitted reproduction must acknowledge the source of any such material reproduced and include a copy of the original copyright notice. requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and copyright should be addressed to: the assistant Secretary Parks australia north gPo Box 1260 darwin nt 0801 director of national Parks australian business number: 13051 694 963 this management Plan provides the general public and Park users/visitors with information about how the Park will be managed for the next seven years.
    [Show full text]
  • The Phonology of Tone and Intonation
    This page intentionally left blank The Phonology of Tone and Intonation Tone and Intonation are two types of pitch variation, which are used by speak- ers of many languages in order to give shape to utterances. More specifically, tone encodes morphemes, and intonation gives utterances a further discoursal meaning that is independent of the meanings of the words themselves. In this comprehensive survey, Carlos Gussenhoven provides an up-to-date overview of research into tone and intonation, discussing why speakers vary their pitch, what pitch variations mean, and how they are integrated into our grammars. He also explains why intonation in part appears to be universally understood, while at other times it is language-specific and can lead to misunderstandings. The first eight chapters concern general topics: phonetic aspects of pitch mod- ulation; typological notions (stress, accent, tone, and intonation); the distinction between phonetic implementation and phonological representation; the paralin- guistic meaning of pitch variation; the phonology and phonetics of downtrends; developments from the Pierrehumbert–Beckman model; and tone and intona- tion in Optimality Theory. In chapters 9–15, the book’s central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions – partly in OT – of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, French, and English. Accompanying sound files can be found on the author’s web site: http://www.let.kun.nl/pti Carlos Gussenhoven is Professor and Chair of General and Experimental Phonology at the University of Nijmegen. He has previously published On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents (1994), English Pronunciation for Student Teachers (co-authored with A.
    [Show full text]
  • 8. Rock Art Evidence for Macassan– Aboriginal Contact in Northwestern Arnhem Land1
    8. Rock art evidence for Macassan– Aboriginal contact in northwestern Arnhem Land1 Paul S. C. Taçon and Sally K. May Introduction Some of the most important evidence for the activities of Southeast Asian or ‘Macassan’2 visitors to Australia prior to the European settlement of this continent can be found in the rock art of northern Australia—from the Kimberley to the Top End of the Northern Territory to parts of northern Queensland (for example, see Chaloupka 1993, pp. 191–2; 1996; Clarke and Frederick 2006; Roberts 2004). Rock art is widely acknowledged as encoding social, economic and cultural information about the artists and their cultural groups and it can reflect changes in these societies as well as the wider landscape. This is the case for the early encounters and ongoing regular interaction between Australian Aboriginal people and Macassans. Rock art illustrates some of this complex, sustained and diverse story. As discussed in Clark and May (this volume), the commonly accepted date for the earliest Macassan visits is contested, as is the theory of pre-Macassan contact (see, for example, Berndt and Berndt 1954; Evans 1992, p. 66; McIntosh 2004). European accounts, such as those of Matthew Flinders in 1801 (Flinders 1814), have led researchers to suggest that these visits began between 1650 and 1750 (for example, Macknight 1976; Crawford 1969); Macknight later revised this to 1780 (Macknight 2011). The interpretations of early radiocarbon dates continue to be debated (Clarke 2000); however, recent accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of a beeswax snake design overlaying a prau (perahu/ship) painting 1 We thank Ronald Lamilami and his family for supporting this research, as well as for their generosity and hospitality in the field.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thesis Submitted by Dale Wayne Kerwin for the Award of Doctor of Philosophy 2020
    SOUTHWARD MOVEMENT OF WATER – THE WATER WAYS A thesis submitted by Dale Wayne Kerwin For the award of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Abstract This thesis explores the acculturation of the Australian landscape by the First Nations people of Australia who named it, mapped it and used tangible and intangible material property in designing their laws and lore to manage the environment. This is taught through song, dance, stories, and paintings. Through the tangible and intangible knowledge there is acknowledgement of the First Nations people’s knowledge of the water flows and rivers from Carpentaria to Goolwa in South Australia as a cultural continuum and passed onto younger generations by Elders. This knowledge is remembered as storyways, songlines and trade routes along the waterways; these are mapped as a narrative through illustrations on scarred trees, the body, engravings on rocks, or earth geographical markers such as hills and physical features, and other natural features of flora and fauna in the First Nations cultural memory. The thesis also engages in a dialogical discourse about the paradigm of 'ecological arrogance' in Australian law for water and environmental management policies, whereby Aqua Nullius, Environmental Nullius and Economic Nullius is written into Australian laws. It further outlines how the anthropocentric value of nature as a resource and the accompanying humanistic technology provide what modern humans believe is the tool for managing ecosystems. In response, today there is a coming together of the First Nations people and the new Australians in a shared histories perspective, to highlight and ensure the protection of natural values to land and waterways which this thesis also explores.
    [Show full text]