VISITING THE WOMEN’S CHOIR IN TITJIKALA

April 4, 2018

In March 2018 members of the Mobile Language Team staff visited the remote town of Titjikala in the Northern Territory. The MLT were able to meet with a number of residents, including members of the recently formed Titjikala Women’s Choir in order to evaluate the local language situation.

The town’s population of around 200 people represent a number of Aboriginal languages. Titjikala is located on Southern Arrente land, and languages used by the community include Central, Southern and Western Arrente as well as Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara. Most of the residents, including very young children, have knowledge of more than one of these languages.

Multi-lingualism was the norm for pre-colonial Australia, however as languages decline and English is pushed as the lingua franca of the country, there are fewer and fewer places who retain this diversity. Titjikala’s multi-lingualism represents a healthy language ecology, with great potential for language maintenance projects in the future.

The Titjikala women’s choir will be performing in Adelaide later this year.

The Mobile Language Team works with communities from all across South Australia and beyond. If your community would like to discuss language activities, revitalisation or general language resources, get in contact with Moible Language Team on (08) 8313 0707 or email us at info@mobilelanguageteam.com.au.