Warrangu River Story by DOBBY

Dobby performing Warrangu River Story,
at the Art Gallery of NSW, 13 June 2022.
Photo by Tom Worthington CC BY

Warrangu River Story by the performer Dobby, on Sunday night was a remarkable event. We lined up outside the Art Gallery of NSW not quite knowing what to expect. 

This was a very different venue to the last performance I attended by the rapper, at the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival, in far western NSW in 2019. That was in a dry sand circle, during a drought, with a fire, and stars overhead. This performance was very different: in the Entrance Court of an art gallery with uniformed staff, and Champaign. A small stage had been built half way down the hall, with indigenous artworks about the western rivers on the wall behind ("Down river" by Uncle Badger Bates). The wall had been treated with florescent paint, so that an animated pattern moved along the rivers depicted. There was a small ensemble. 

There was less rap music than I was expecting, not as loud or as raw. This was reminiscent of David Fanshawe's African Sanctus, blending traditions of indigenous, western classical, and rapping. Recordings of elders, and bird song, were incorporated. 

The audience, like one at a classical concert, was very polite and passive, sitting still and applauding at the right places. The music deserved more active participation from the audience. But I noticed one young teenager in the front row, who was vibrating with excitement, and resisting a strong urge to get up and dance. Perhaps more dance could be incorporated into the work.

At the previous performance by Dobby, one act was cancelled, so he improvised rapping with members of the audience. This showed a natural talent for interacting with people, which I suggest could be incorporated into further performces.

Warrangu River Story could become a very popular multimedia work on streaming services, as well as for live performance. I suggest it could be pitched to Netflix as like "Hannah Gadsby's Nanette". 

Walgett, Brewarrina, Bourke, Wilcannia and Menindee Lakes

Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree
Tour 2019, Wilcannia.
Photo by - Mark Merritt,
courtesy of Earthling Studios P/L

I attended the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival, from 28 September to 2 October, in western NSW. This was by bus from Sydney to Walgett, Brewarrina, Bourke, Wilcannia and Menindee Lakes, then train from Dubbo to Sydney. Mat Ward produced a detailed blog of the trip, there is the Water for the Rivers Facebook Page,
so I will just provide a few reflections of my own.

Sometimes you see a photo, and think: that is not real: it was staged: they added the smoke and colored lights.  Well
Mark Merritt's photo of the Corroboree at Wilcannia looks too magical to be real, but I am one of those dots around the circle: that is what it looked like. Leaving early, crossing the old lift bridge over the river to the campsite, I looked back and the moon had risen directly over the ring, the smoke hung low.

While I have written about the problems of telecommunications, and e-learning in regional Australia, this was an academic exercise conducted at a distance. There were two buses, two trucks for supplies, and a convoy of cars. It is rare for me to travel long distances with a large party, and at times voices were raised. But mostly it all worked out.

One highlight were the Brewarrina Fish Traps (Baiame’s Ngunnhu), with a tour by staff from the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum. The fist traps may be the oldest existing human made structure.

 Save Our Rivers by
Bruce Shillingsworth 2019.

You may have missed this year's tour, but the Save Our Rivers Tshirt is still available.

Update: 

Indigenous community say they've lost their culture to water mismanagement, by Aneeta Bhole SBS, 18 October 2019

Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival 2019

Got my tent, and sleeping bag, ready for the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival, with local Aboriginal organisations at Walgett, Brewarrina, Bourke, Wilcannia and Menindee Lakes, 28 Sep to 2 Oct 2019. There are a few seats left on the buses: book now.

While I have written about the problems of telecommunications, and e-learning in regional Australia, I am now going to go out and experience it first hand. 

"Each dance group will perform in each township at the corroboree that will begin at dusk:

Betina Bysouth (Menindee / Bendigo)
Barkindji (Wilcannia)
Budjiti (Enngonia)
Kamilaroi (Walgett)
Mungundi (Moree)
Murrawari (Goodooga)
Ngemba (Brewarrina)
Wankamurra (Bourke)
Wakagetti (Brewarrina)
Wiradjuri (Trangie)

Also Aboriginal dance groups ...

Garul Giyalu Rock Mob (Katoomba)
Yama Guroo (Sydney)
Koomurri (Sydney)
Tal-Kin-Jeri (Adelaide)
Mujamundu (Quilpie)
Group (Darwin)"

"In Walgett, Brewarrina and Bourke, the Mothers Milk Bank will involve their musicians as part of their Ruby Hunter project ... In Wilcannia and Menindee the duo JOCEAN from Shell Harbour will perform ... The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations will lead these programs  ...

Eva Cannan will lead small ethical foraging bush trips and any food collected will contribute to evening meals. ... In Walgett she will be joined with Elder Camellia Bonney  ...

The Indigenous Energy Australia stall will provide information about their leading initiatives...."

Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival Bus Tour 2019

Uluru Statement from the Heart on Wikipedia

Denise Bowden,
signing the Uluru Statement,
in Central Australia.

I was surprised that the "Uluru Statement from the Heart" did not have a page in the Wikipedia, so I have added it for NAIDOC Week.

"... We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. ...".

Sally Gabori Art Opening in Canberra

Greetings from the Australian National University, in Canberra where "Sally Gabori 2005 – 2012: This is my Land, this is my Sea. This is who I am" opened this evening at the Drill Hall Gallery. If visiting the gallery, don't miss Sidney Noland's spectacular "Riverbend". This nine panel work is the largest and least know of the artist's Ned Kelly series.

The First Garden in The Sydney Botanical Gardens

Greetings from inner Sydney, where I have just been to a performance of the play "The First Garden" in the grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens. The play is a fictionalized account by Chris and Natasha Raja of the creation of what is now the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs. The play explores the work by by Olive Pink, anthropologist, gardener and supporter of Aboriginal land rights. In conjunction with the play, there are some of Olive Pink's botanical illustrations on display in the gardens, along with her notebooks and her typewriter (which features in the play).

Tonight's performance was made more topical by the presence in the audience of the real person upon one of the characters is based. Afterwards it was curious to see the actor playing the person, next to the realty. The play is on until Saturday 17 March 2013, with a special free performance for school groups 11am Thursday 14 March.

The play takes place on the Band Lawn at the gardens, overlooking Sydney Harbor, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The lawn is transformed into Alice Springs, by the use of a canvas painted to look like desert sand, a painted backdrop of the mountains made famous by Albert Namatjira. Like any outdoor performance it can be difficult to hear the actors at times, but the actors were able to project. The performance was made more magical by the excellent use of live music. Natasha Raja gave a credible performance as the elderly Miss Olive Pink. Scott Fraser (previously in "The Ship That Never Was") was less successful as Captain Southern. He gave a credible presentation of urban planner Henry Wardlaw (with the real Henry Wardlaw in the audience). Eshua Botton stole the show with a powerful interpretation of an aboriginal man trapped between two cultures.

The Script of The First Garden (Currency Press, 2012) is available, as is a biography: The Indomitable Miss Pink: A Life in Anthropology(Julie Marcus,NSW University Press, 2002). The University of Tasmania has Works by Olive Pink and the Naitonal Library of Australia has a list of books about Olive Pink.

Supervision of Indigenous Higher Degree Students

The Final Report of the "Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People" was released 14 April 2012 by the Australian Government. The report makes 35 recommendations, including on supervision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students. The “hands-on” approach and appreciation of cultural differences (particularly a deference to authority) are also relevant for other groups of students.

Improve supervision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students

It is well established that high-quality supervision is the critical foundation of a successful HDR experience for all HDR students (DIISR 2011a, p. 14). Supervisors provide the academic guidance, teaching, capacity building and mentoring, as well as the emotional support, to assist a student to produce high-quality research.

A 2004 report on the pedagogy of research supervision found that ‘supervisors who are more “hands-on” in their approach to supervision tend to be associated with faster and more completions’. Keywords were availability, reliability, trust, reciprocity and teamwork (Sinclair 2004, p. vi, cited in DIISR 2011a, p. 16).

Consultations and submissions reinforced that the quality of supervision is a critical element of the postgraduate experience.⁹⁶ They also indicated a need for supervisors to provide guidance, expert knowledge and assistance in developing research skills, while taking into account the student’s cultural background.

Cultural differences can affect expectations, chosen fields of research and instinctive learning approaches and methods. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students whose academic focus is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge had some specific issues identifying, as a priority, methods that are culturally acceptable to communities (for example, a preference for allegory and extended conversation, deference to authority and avoidance of critique). As one PhD holder described:

I had to approach my work in ways that had not been done before because existing methodologies were offensive to our mob and theories did not do the right job in explaining who we are. I could not find anyone in my field to talk it through with.⁹⁷

Another student noted:

Based on my experience it is more important that you have a good supervisor that understands you and works in the same way you do … One bad supervisor could be the critical thing that loses ‘us’ (Trudgett 2011, p. 392–393).

These are important reflections for supervisors because, of course, it is also their job to ensure that advanced training in disciplinary methods is provided. This is true in both cultural studies and in medicine. Empathy must be combined with rigour for an effective supervisory relationship.

Many present and past Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students consulted as part of the Review have had positive experiences with supervision. For example, a survey respondent at the IHEAC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Academic Doctors’ Forum reported:

My supervisor was caring and committed to my project—open and keen to learn.⁹⁸

A number of submissions spoke of the considerable goodwill of non-Indigenous supervisors. A submission, for example, indicated that some academics were reluctant to take on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students ‘through fear of “getting it wrong”’ (submission no. 16, Group of Eight, p. 21).

Survey work on this issue undertaken as part of a doctoral thesis in 2008 also showed a general consensus among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students that supervision played an important role in the academic experience (Trudgett 2008, p. 140, cited in Trudgett 2011, p. 392).

In 2008, according to the survey of 55 students, 70.9% had a non-Indigenous supervisor; 21.8% had an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supervisor (and 7.3% had no supervisor as they were masters by coursework students). Interestingly, those students who identified as being part of a local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community thought it was extremely important to have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supervisor (47%), while only 14% of those who did not identify as part of a local community expressed a similar view. This illustrates a diversity of needs depending on the student, location, the field of interest and thesis topic (Trudgett 2011, pp. 391–2).

This research also found that most students prefer an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supervisor where their research deals substantially with Indigenous subject matter (Trudgett 2011, p. 391).

While there were many instances of supervisors who were able to support student achievement, generally the ability of university supervisors to understand student needs in a culturally sensitive way was regarded as lacking. This suggests a need to better understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the university context.

Through consultations, the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council and PhD holders suggested that:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supervision be a competency within a university’s internal accredited supervisor training. Training should include information on the types of barriers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students face and how supervisors can best support them.
• universities ensure that co-supervision arrangements are available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students, utilising the appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expertise for the thesis. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-supervisors could support the application of appropriate epistemologies, data collection and working with communities. Consideration could also be given to having Elders and community members as co-supervisors.
• a national register of supervisors be developed listing researchers with the necessary skills to supervise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research students
• better mechanisms be developed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to provide feedback on support and supervision, such as student surveys and exit statements
• a national research supervision award be created to acknowledge outstanding research supervisors of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research students.

The Panel believes it is critical that attention be given to supervision to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students receive the support they need to produce high-quality research that is able—should they choose—to engage energetically with Indigenous knowledges and perspectives. Supervisors also need to be provided with better models to embrace their role. This is particularly important as the vast majority of supervisors are non-Indigenous (Trudgett 2011, pp. 391–2).

Good practice models should be disseminated nationally, for example, through a national project on good practice supervision or through AIATSIS providing a role in supporting good practice for universities. The Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council could also initiate an annual award for supervision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students. ...

From: Final Report of the "Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People", Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor Steven Larkin, Mr Robert Griew and Ms Patricia Kelly, July 2012

Online University Access for Indigenous Communities

The Final Report of the "Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People" was released 14 April 2012 by the Australian Government. The report makes 35 recommendations, aimed at "Parity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff in the higher education sector". The target set is 2.2%, being the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the population.

Measures proposed to achieve this include revising the guidelines for the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) to emphasize academic skills in school. Also universities and the vocational education and training (VET) sectors should work with professional bodies and private and public sector employers on alternative pathways into higher education. It is suggested the MyUniversity website have information on scholarships. A new funding model is proposed with tutoring support for more students.

Of particular interest to me is Recommendation 15:

That universities consider how best to support the needs of regional and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, including through:

• the use of virtual networks and other technology-based solutions to provide greater access to universities by remote and regional students ...
• working with the Higher Education Standards Panel to develop quality standards for Away-from-Base education delivery
• collaboration to allow recognition of the effort of universities that may enrol students who then go on to complete their degrees at different universities.

These measures for on-line education, education in the community and students being able to study at more than one university would be of benefit to all students, particularly those in remote areas. As a student myself, I found it useful to combine courses from different universities into the one program, using distance education and on campus courses. However, this has been a complex and expensive process.

The report discusses the use of telecommunications to improve access to education:

Access to high-speed technology and virtual networks for regional and remote students

Students from regional and remote areas require access to technology to support their distance learning. The consultations with HDR students indicated that the main forms of communication are often telephone and Skype (a voice-over-internet protocol service), but in many instances, telephone communications are considered unsatisfactory.

Distance Education is very lonely and isolating. I would definitely have enrolled as an internal student if I could have. I saw my supervisor once or twice a year.⁷⁶

Students often face challenges in gaining sufficient access to university services. One student relates:

I was unaware of any scholarships as I was living out on my homeland in a remote locality.⁷⁷

Virtual networks would help higher-degree students based in remote or regional areas to better access peers and academics. Suggested approaches during consultations included establishment of online forums and regionally based networks.

The National Broadband Network will play a critical role in increasing functionality of online support and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia has suggested that the needs of remote communities should be addressed in the rollout of the National Broadband Network (submission no. 65, ASSA, p. 6). ...

From: Final Report of the "Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People", Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor Steven Larkin, Mr Robert Griew and Ms Patricia Kelly, July 2012

Table of Contents of the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

• Foreword
• Executive Summary
• Recommendations
• Introduction
• Context
• Our approach: empowering communities, Closing the Gap and nation building
• Next steps
• Building on existing efforts
• Current situation
• What are we trying to achieve?
• Parity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff in the higher education sector
• Part I: Unlocking capacity and empowering choices
• 1 Unlocking capacity and empowering choices
• 1.1 Schools
• 1.2 Other pathways
• 1.3 Enabling programs
• 1.4 Access to information
• Part II: Supporting success and releasing capability
• Introduction to Part II
• 2 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student success
• 2.1 Provision of support through Indigenous Education Units and the faculties
• 2.2 Building professional pathways and responding to community need
• 3 Provision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander–specific support to universities and students
• 3.1 Indigenous Support Program funding
• 3.2 Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme – Tertiary Tuition
• 3.3 Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from regional and remote areas
• 3.4 Other non-financial support for students
• 3.5 Recognising and broadening student choices
• 3.6 Financial support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
• 4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and research
• 4.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and perspectives
• 4.2 Higher degrees by research and research training
• 4.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research capability
• 5 Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff
• 5.1 Growing and retaining the general Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university workforce
• 5.2 Building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academic and research workforce
• 6 University culture and governance
• 6.1 University culture
• 6.2 University governance
• 6.3 Parity targets to be included in mission-based compacts
• 7 The way forward: an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education strategy and evaluation framework
• 7.1 Development of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education strategy and the role of the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council
• 7.2 Development of a monitoring and evaluation framework
• Part III: Lessons learned
• Introduction to Part III
• 8 Whole-of-university approach
• 9 Unlocking capacity and empowering choices
• 9.1 Schools
• 9.2 Vocational education and training sector
• 9.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce
• 9.4 Correctional centres
• 9.5 Aspiration
• 9.6 Readiness
• 9.7 Access to information
• 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student success
• 10.1 Student support: a case management approach
• 10.2 Regional and remote delivery
• 10.3 Financial support
• 11 Building professional pathways and responding to community need
• 11.1 Community-based approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education
• 11.2 Professions and universities collaborating
• 11.3 Indigenous graduate attributes
• 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and perspectives
• 12.1 Curriculum and pedagogy
• 12.2 Teacher education
• 12.3 The interface between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems
• 13 Research, research training and university workforce
• 13.1 Good practice supervision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher degree by research students
• 13.2 Cohort support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher degree by research students
• 13.3 Building Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research capacity in students and early career researchers
• 13.4 Building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education workforce
• 13.5 Ethical practice in research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• 13.6 University strategies to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers
• 13.7 Research teams and models for research success
• 14 University culture and governance
• 14.1 Bringing community knowledge to campus
• 14.2 Decision-making and accountability structures
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Glossary
• Appendices
• Appendix I: Terms of reference
• Appendix II: Review process and personnel
• Appendix III: Submissions
• Appendix IV: Consultations
• Appendix V: Commissioned research
• References

Charcoal Lane Restaurant Melbourne

With a few hours to spare before catching the train back to Sydney, I made an impulse decision to try the Charcoal Lane Restaurant Melbourne. This is in an old stone building at 136 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (confusingly not in Charcoal Lane). This very up-market establishment is run by Mission Australia to give Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people work experience. The food and service were excellent, as was the venue. They were setting up for a multimedia street festival, with images projected onto the windows of the building, adding excitement to the evening.

Passion, Power and Politics at the Carriageworks Sydney

Bronwyn Bancroft talked on Saturday at the exhibition of her art "Passion, Power and Politics" at the Carriageworks Sydney. Bancroft is completing a PhD on issues of art for an Aboriginal woman. She mentioned the racism she faced studying art in Canberra.

The art on display ranges from photography and paining to fashion (including a video of first Australian fashion designer invited to show her work painted designs on cloth in Paris).

You may see some of my own work on display in the exhibition: the plinth on which one work was displayed was painted the same dark gray as the floor and adjacent to a bright projector, so it was not easy to see. Two people, a few minutes apart tripped over the plinth. So, with the approval of the staff, I folded two dozen of the exhibition cards (well worth picking up in the foyer) and placed these around the edge of the plinth to make it visible.

ps: Unfortunately it can be very difficult to obtain information about the Carriageworks, due to the poor quality of the web site. But it is well worth a visit.

Analysis Closing the Gap Strategy to Reduce Indigenous Disadvantage

Professor John Boulton will speak on "Wedging the gap: Why the rhetoric is wrong for remote Aboriginal child health" at the Australian National University, in Canberra on 29 March 2012. In my view recent government interventions in indigenous communities have failed as they do not empower indigenous communities.

Internet to Empower Indigenous Communities

Public Lecture
Wedging the gap: Why the rhetoric is wrong for remote Aboriginal child health

The credibility of the rhetoric of Closing the Gap is predicated on the demonstration of improvement in Aboriginal Infant Mortality Rates (IMR), child health, and school engagement. The Prime Ministerial Closing the Gap Report 2012 (15 Feb 2012), which stated that the IMR was set to close by 2018 and that early childhood education would be in place for all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities by next year, are examples. The reality for children born in remote northern Aboriginal Australia belies these predictions. In this presentation the marked discrepancies in IMR and the increase in risk ratio of death during infancy over the past decades, and separately those for performance on the national school entry Australia Early Development Index, will be presented from an historical and anthropological perspective to illustrate the extent of the barriers to the achievement of equity in outcome for life chances in health and for future economic independence using the example of an Aboriginal child born in the remote Kimberley region of north west WA.

John Boulton has worked in the Kimberley as senior regional paediatrician since his retirement from academic paediatric practice at the University of Newcastle in 2005. His research interests were in growth and nutrition and included the childhood origins of future disease. In the Kimberley he is an advocate of the need to inform medical practice with an anthropological, historical, and demographic perspective. His present investigative focus is on an anthropological understanding of the crisis in Aboriginal child morbidity and mortality. He holds honorary academic appointments at the universities of Sydney and Newcastle.

FootySpeak: Natural Language Generation for AFL Reports in Aboriginal Languages and English

Greetings from the School of Language Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, where Mark Dras, Department of Computing, Macquarie University is speaking on "Arrernte Footy: A Computational Grammar and Natural Language Generation System for Arrernte". The idea is to generate natural language new articles in English and Arrernte automatically from the data about an AFL football match. This is of interest to researchers, as well as having commercial application in financial and sports reporting, where there is a regular structure to what is reported and lots of statistics. This is also of interest for teaching languages and making languages more understandable. It occurs to me that the English language description of an AFL match is not really in English, it is in "FootySpeak", a subset of English (like Seaspeak). The same approach might be used to generate weather reports and emergency warnings, in a readable, but very precise language. The problem is that messages have to be created quickly in high stress situations.

A content selector, planner, deep realizer, dictionary complier, XLE and Weighted Finite-State Transducers (WFSTs) are used in turn to create the natural language sentences. A lexical functional grammar is used to describe the structure of sentences in the language. For Arrernte some featured not required in English are used, such as for reduplication. Also Glue semantics could be used, if the software would support it.

Some of the research was carried out at the Ngurratjuta Lightning Carnival (Lightning football is a shortened version). One use for the automatically generated text would be for teaching reading in schools, as football will be of many interest to many students than other topics.

Mark needs some recording or text of descriptions of football matches in Arrernte, so if you have any contact him.

ps: It would be interesting to generate Roy and HG commentary.

Arrernte Footy: Natural Language Generation for AFL Reports in Aboriginal Languages

Mark Dras, Department of Computing, Macquarie University will speak on "Arrernte Footy: A Computational Grammar and Natural Language Generation System for Arrernte" at the Australian National University School of Language Studies in Canberra, 4pm, today. He will discuss the analysis of reports of AFL football matches in the language of the Arrernte people of Mparntwe (Alice Springs).

ANU School of Language Studies
Monday 13 February SEMINAR 4 pm Baldessin Building, room W 3.03 (Map)

Mark Dras, Department of Computing, Macquarie University

Title: A Computational Grammar and Natural Language Generation System for Arrernte

Abstract:

Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems have as their goal the generation of human-like text from some underlying representation, often numerical or other data from a database. We are currently developing an NLG system to generate texts in both English and Arrernte about Australian Rules football games, of the sort found in newspapers after a game has been played (e.g. "GEELONG has claimed the club's ninth premiership and marked itself as one of the greatest sides of all time with a stunning 38-point Grand Final win against Collingwood...."). The final stage of this system is a realisation component that is built around Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and its XLE environment for grammar development: this takes a description of the functional structure of a sentence, and uses a computational grammar to make appropriate lexical and syntactic choices to produce the actual sentence. A large-scale grammar of English has already been developed by the international ParGram project, which we will be using; we are now building a computational grammar of Arrernte, based on existing linguistic descriptions of the language.

In the talk I will give an overview of this system, with a focus on the computational grammar of Arrernte, in particular how we've implemented in the LFG formalism a number of constructions that have been discussed in the literature, such as complex predicates like associated motion.

Communities of practice in Indigenous communities

Curiously the term "community of practice" did not come up at the ANU Educational Research Conference, until the last session by researchers from the ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. This was in Dr Inge Kral's discussion of "Multiple Pathways to Learning for Remote Indigenous Australian Youth". Dr Kral pointed out that what is measured in Australia wide standardized education tests is not very relevant to the needs of indigenous students in remote communities.

It occurs to me that use of e-learning and devices such as the OLPC would not be of use if they simply deliver the same syllabus in the same way.

Dr Kral pointed out that education continues for young people beyond school and so are invisible to education policy makers.

Dr Kral then addressed how indigenous learners made use of digital technology. A typical sight in remote communities is students with laptops, tablet computers and smart phones. The technology is not being used to just deliver a traditional course, but to provide a local identity on-line.

Dr Kral pointed out that a new definition of literacy is needed for the digital age. This involves video, audio and music. The associated learning is based on projects and informal group activities.

It occurs to me that these insights can be applied to better education for the wider community, including at university. It is also possible that just as traditional aboriginal art was successfully translated to new media and became financially and culturally successful worldwide, indigenous multimedia may similarly successful.

Effectiveness of Indigenous Education Policy

The last session of the ANU Educational Research Conference at the Australian National University was by researchers from the ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. The issues of what research evidence there is to say if indigenous education policy is actually effective is of great relevance to public policy making in Australia. This is also relevant to ICT, as one proposal for education is to use computers and the Internet: will this be as effective, or perhaps more effective, for indigenous communities?

One positive example presed was the "Djelk Rangers":

This report is the result of a ten-day general conceptualisation research trip in May 2003 into an Indigenous community to study the Djelk Ranger program operating under the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation (BAC). During this visit I spent time with several different groups of Rangers and visited several sustainable wildlife harvesting sites which are described here.

The Djelk Ranger program established by the BAC is built on the extensive knowledge and skills that already exist within this Indigenous community. The success of the ventures mentioned in this report is built on a unique blend of formal legal institutional mechanisms and customary law and socio-cultural conventions.

Cooperative community-based wildlife resource management and aquaculture has the potential to deliver sustainable and cost effective development benefits for Indigenous landowners. Greater recognition of the valuable land management and biodiversity conservation roles undertaken by Indigenous people in these circumstances would seem appropriate, and it would be desirable for these roles to be reflected in more formal and sustained income arrangements than the current CDEP project funding. The opportunities for economic development in Indigenous communities, and some of the challenges that these communities face are demonstrated in the Djelk Ranger program initiative.

The BAC is an impressive institution for its commitment to learning, communication, cultural integration, and economic development. There is clearly a need for such adaptive and flexible institutions to provide a bridge between cultures and protect the interests of remote Indigenous communities. ...

From: The Djelk Ranger Program: an outsider’s perspective, Cochrane, M, 2006

There is a summary of previous government policies in "The Road Forward? Alternative Assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students at the Tertiary Level" (Peter Christensen and Ian Lilley, 1997).

I was on the periphery of some of the developments with education and indigenous education, as an ICT professional in the federal Education Department, where the amounts of money being handed out were so large they were too big for the accounting software to handle. This changed to a system where the money went via state governments.

The report on Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse was released by the Northern Territory Government 15 June 2007. The Australian Government has responded by proposing to take control of Aboriginal communities in the NT, restricting welfare payments and brining in outside police and welfare workers. This ran counter to the reports recommendations. My suggestion was to use the Internet and the web can be used to empower the local communities and address some of the issues.

Sheds and Other Prefabricated Construction Remote Locations

Greetings from the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, where David Morris, University of South Australia, is speaking on the application of prefabricated construction systems and autonomous servicing technologies for remote locations. This is part of the Contemporary Australian Architects Speaker Series 2011 of the Australian Institute of Architects. The evening started on a sad note, with news of the death of Colin Madigan, architect of the National Gallery of Australia.

One of David's early jobs as an architect was to make models for the House of Representatives for the new Parliament House Canberra, under Romaldo Giurgola. He pointed to the design of the the columns in the corners of the House chamber as his work.

David emphasized that architecture is ultimately about having buildings built. Students learn about design, almost to the exclusion of the supervision of the construction of buildings. He started a student design and construction program in 1993 at University of South Australia to give students practical experience. One building was the Western Mining Corporation Visitors Centre. The students design and build the buildings, using basic materials, mostly steel and wood. Most of the buildings are in remote locations, requiring the students to plan in advance and cooperate in work on site.

One of the buildings were for aboriginal communities and David made the point it was effective to communicate with the clients using plans, which can be drawn in the sand. He criticize the housing being built under the federal government "Closing the Gap" program. He argued that placing housing in a urban closely spaced grid pattern will result in community tension. He also criticized the design of some steel frame, steel clad housing which lacked sufficient thermal barriers and so were uncomfortably hot. He suggest plywood was a kore suitable lining material for inside desert housing than steel, due to its thermal properties.

David demonstrated now computer design tools could be used to design appropriate housing for indigenous communities, with buildings arranged in clusters, with separation for different groups. The arrangement of the buoldings and their internal layout remindined me of the diagrams of indigioous settlements in Paul Memmott's Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia.

The buildings look very conventional, rectangular with a simple pitched roof, but carefully sited, with subtle design features. Housing for single young men has shared bedrooms with built in beds and lockers.

David ended by mentioning modular buildings being constructed to support the remote projects and for demonstration purposes.

David's paper "Lightweight Prefabricated and Precast Construction for Remote Building Applications in Australia" is available on page 177 of Transportable Environments (Proceedings of the International Conference on Portable Architecture, 1997).

ps: The event did not start quickly, with the person introducing David Morris spending far too long on anecdotes of interest to few.

NBN widening digital divide in bush

Nikki Tugwell, of ABC News Online's Investigative Unit reports that the NBN will widen the disparity between city and country Internet users ("NBN disparity threatens to widen the gap", July 12, 2011 14:15:00). Those in remote areas, beyond the reach of fiber optic cable and terrestrial wireless, will receive satellite broadband. This will be limited to i Mbps upload speed.

Associate Professor Ellie Rennie, Swinburne University's Institute for Social Research, will be reporting on the "Home Internet Usage for Remote Indigenous Communities", 20 July. She has indicated one megabit per second will not be sufficient for real-time video streaming, thus limiting its use for electronic health, education and training.

Professor Rennie is reported to have claimed that video conferencing won't be possible via the NBN, making e-health and off-site lectures impossible. This is an exaggeration, as video conferencing is possible at speeds slower than 1 Mbps, it is not needed symmetrically for many applications and many e-health and e-learning applications do not need video conferencing.

Also it will be the latency of the satellite link which will cause difficulties with many applications, not the bandwidth of the link. It is not that enough data can't be sent through the link, but there is too long a delay in transmitting the data.

This is not to say that the disparity of urban and remote NBN speeds will not cause problems, but that there are ways to address this. The first and most obvious solution is to design applications for different speeds: this will allow the service to be provided, on low and high speed links. Another way is to provide alternatives to real time video. An example is where high resolution videos can be prerecorded, with the real time interactive component done at lower resolution (I have successfully used video for education at 28.8 kbps).

One way to lessen the delay problems is with use of non-verbal/visual protocols. At a face to face event, a participant would indicate they wist to talk by putting up their hand or simply starting to speak. This may be difficult on-line and so systems have a button to click for the participant to raise their virtual hand to signal to the moderator. As well as getting around problems with the video/audio quality, this can allow for a very fast and efficient way to get feedback, not possible with traditional communications.

While remote users will still get lower speed NBN service, they will not necessarily receive inferior health and educational services as a result. By getting more direct access, they will have a better service in many ways, than those from traditional face to face services in the city.

E-learning in Remote Aboriginal Communities

Greetings from day 2 of CCA-EDUCAUSE Australasia 2011 in Sydney. Dennis Sharpe, Memorial University of Newfoundland discussed a study of "E-learning in Small Remote Aboriginal Communities". They found that web based learning was accepted as a viable option for remote locations, using both asynchronous and synchronous. Some students use the e-learning as a supplement to a face to face program, others have it for all schooling. Some of the students are adults returning to education. Pre and in service training for teachers was considered essential.

Dennis commented web based learning was not a cheap option. Also he pointed out that aboriginal students will miss weeks or months of schooling due to the need to go on hunting trips and courses need to accommodate this.

Pre-service (B.Ed.) courses were found to lack on-line pedagogy, web based technology and aboriginal cultural perspective. Provinces do not require on-line teacher education. Dennis pointed out that some of the school systems had vocational higher education articulated programs which were useful.

I asked Dennis if the same web based system used by the students could be used for teacher in-service training. He said this worked very well, with teachers forming on-line support groups.

This is all very relevant to Australia, which in addition to remote aboriginal communities, have itinerant communities which conventional schools do not cater for. One example are the travelling show people, for whom the Queensland government provided mobile schools. While this is not my area of expertise, my suggestion would be rather than treat these students as a special case, the curriculum should be available online to all students, so they all have this option.

Future of museum multimedia in Canberra

The National Museum of Australia (NMA) Yiwarra Kuju Exhibition features a painting by Rover Thomas and an 8 metre interactive multimedia display. Museums Australia ACT Chapter organised a "Hands-on demonstration and debate: The future of museum multimedia" as one of a series of events associated with the exhibition. The video makers and multimedia artists involved described the origins of the project and the design choices made. I felt a little out of place being about the non-museum person, but had the sense I was seeing history in the making, with a change in the way museums work happening before me.

In my view, this one multimedia display is of more value, and more significance, that the whole of the rest of the NMA, its building and collection. This reminds me of several years ago when Australian universities formed AARnet, to provide networking services. AARnet when on to foster the development and use of the Internet in Australia. While the universities see AARnet as a minor service function it is perhaps the most useful and valuable service universities have ever provided to Australia. Similarly, this one multimedia display is enough to justify the cost of setting up MNA, even if the Museum never does anything else of value.

One frustration with the event was that I did not know exactly who all the people speaking were, as they were not listed on the museum's invitation. The first speaker was a film documentary maker, who described how the project worked with local people to record interviews.

Then "Michael", the multimedia display maker, discussed the table top multi-media presentation. He showed previous examples, including the "number" display at the Berlin Jewish museum and the timeline at the Churchill war rooms in London. He pointed out that this form of display allowed for social interaction between people as well as with the system.

One subtle difference I noticed with the NMA display is that the screens are staggered, not in a neat straight row, like Berlin and London. Michael pointed out that his was a multi-touch display. This allows a more free-form use including control of images.

One frustration I have with the Canberra exhibition is that few people will see it. This is partly because it has been very poorly promoted and also because the display is limited to the physical exhibition in one room in one place. The exhibition is intended to be sent around Australia, but even so few people will get to see it. There is a web site associated with the exhibition, but this does no more than hint at the significance of the paintings and the multimedia. The obvious next step would be to create an online version of the interactive display and also a conventional linear documentary film version.

The display devices used are made by a start-up company in Finland co-founded by Professor Giulio Jacucci at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT). These are "MultiTouch Cell" units from MultiTouch Ltd of Helsinki (Australian agent: Lightwell, Chippendale, Sydney). The units feature a backlit LCD display (better than front projection units) and have a smaller bezel than the Microsoft Surface product, allowing multiple units to be placed together for a bigger display.

The MultiTouch units appear to be reasonably robust and might provide useful for command and control facilities in military and emergency headquarters, such as the new Joint Task Force Headquarters (JTFHQ) Afloat, to be installed on the Canberra class ships HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide. The US 7th Fleet may also wish to re-equip the Joint Operations Center on USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). Also these displays might be used in the new emergency centres being built by the Victorian and ACT governments. At tens of thousands of dollars each, these screens are relatively inexpensive. The units have survived six weeks use so far by the public, including children, which is a severe test.

The design for this display was first prepared on a full scale paper mock-up on the floor. This stage the value of having the screen tessellated became apparent. This provide more space for people to stand around the display.

The modular nature of the display could also prove useful in military and civilian command and control applications, where separate units could be reconfigured as required.

Another interesting aspect of the design was the use of audio. Each unit has its own audio and so there could be competing sound, but in practice this works. This could also be useful in command and control applicators, with staff naturally gravitating to the relevant display a, but still being able to hear what is happening around them.

One improvement which could be made to the multimedia display, and the whole exhibition, would be to make it less isolated. I was reluctant to enter the imposing front door of the exhibition. When I entered the exhibition I felt as if I was in a big black box, cut off from the world. It seemed odd that an exhibition about a very bright desert was shown in a dark cave. Perhaps there could be some live input to the display, from the stock route in real time and from people around the world looking at the same display.

At question time the issue of extending the interactive display online was raised by several people. Also the use of mobile devices was raised. It seemed obvious to me that a version of the multimedia display should be made avialable on the web and that it would make a compelling application when displayed on an iPad or similar multi-touch device.

At question time, I pointed out that because of the title of the exhibition I was expecting a few old stock whips and this was taken up by one of the panellists. Apparently "Canning Stock Route" was intended only as the subtitle. But the title of the exhibition is not in English, and so will be meaningless to most of the Australian public. This is the single point on which the exhibition could fail. Perhaps the ACT government and non-government tourism promotion bodies should step in to promote the display while it is still in Canberra. This exhibition has the potential to be more popular than the blockbuster Musée d'Orsay exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Another interesting question was if the format of short idea snippets of video would displace longer linear film documentaries. This is an issue I was interviewed recently regarding text. The film maker explained that the video snippets are designed to standalone but also be joined together to be a longer film.

One disappointing aspect of the event about the exhibition was the video recording. The session was recorded, but this was done with one camera and some poorly placed radio microphones. This distracted from the event, with audio feedback and the camera continually swivelling around. It seemed a shame for the NMA to invest so much in an event about multimedia and not correctly use microphones and cameras. Perhaps NMA need some advice on how to hold a live event with multimedia. The National Library of Australia do this very well with their Innovative Ideas Forum.

Painting by Rover Thomas and Multimedia at National Museum of Australia

The National Museum of Australia's Yiwarra Kuju Exhibition features paintings from the Canning Stock Route collection, including Rover Thomas. It also has an 8 metre interactive multimedia display and online Education kit for schools. The exhibition in Canberra is free and is on until 26 January 2011.

The exhibition was not well attended, when I visited on Sunday, perhaps due to the uninspiring English title "The Canning Stock Route", making it sound like a display of agricultural equipment, not an internationally significant art exhibition.

The 8 metre long multi-touch multimedia display is a remarkable achievement. About 14 large format flat screens are arranged horizontally as a desktop surface. The screens display a map of the stock route and viewers can touch icons to display images and videos. In addition they can draw in the virtual sand depicted on the surface as virtual ants crawl around. Dozens of people can interact with the display at once, using it from either side (each end of each wide format screen is designed to be used from either side). There is a rack of Dell PCs in a cabinet at the end of the display to drive the system.

This is the most carefully designed computer museum display I have seen and deserves to win an international award. It manages to be impressive, without distracting from the traditional art around it. There will be a forum about the display and the role of such technology in museums, 26 August.

Hands-on demonstration and debate
The future of museum multimedia

Meet the creators of the impressive 8-metre multimedia display in the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition. See behind the scenes, discuss the interpretation and debate whether multimedia is the way of the future for museums. Supported by Museums Australia (ACT Branch).
Free
Bookings essential. Telephone (02) 6208 5021 or email bookings@nma.gov.au.
2.30–5pm
Thursday 26 August
Meet at the Information Desk