{"id":46560,"date":"2016-04-11T02:11:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T02:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46560"},"modified":"2016-04-11T15:19:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T15:19:49","slug":"an-heir-to-a-tribes-culture-ensures-its-language-is-not-forgotten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46560","title":{"rendered":"An Heir to a Tribe\u2019s Culture Ensures Its Language Is Not Forgotten"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Heir to a Tribe\u2019s Culture Ensures Its Language Is Not Forgotten<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Saturday Profile<\/a>
\nThe New York Times<\/a>
\n2016-04-08<\/p>\n

Michelle Innis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nStan Grant<\/a>, a Wiradjuri<\/a> elder, at his home in Narrandera, Australia<\/a>. Mr. Grant was an author of \u201cA New Wiradjuri Dictionary<\/a>,\u201d after years of advocating to preserve the Wiradjuri language<\/a>.
\nCredit Adam Ferguson for The New York Times <\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

NARRANDERA, Australia<\/a> \u2014 Stan Grant<\/a>, crudely tattooed in a way that hints at the petty crime and drunken brawls of his youth, clasped gnarly hands across his round belly and murmured: \u201cbirrangbirrang, birrangbirrang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Grant had spotted a small kingfisher<\/a>, or birrangbirrang in Wiradjuri<\/a>, as it swooped low over the Murrumbidgee River<\/a> in the oppressive summer heat, calling to its mate.<\/p>\n

Slipping back into English, he spoke over the whirring of cicadas<\/a> in the river red gum trees that line the sandy banks: \u201cIt is smaller than a kookaburra<\/a>. Its mate will be nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Grant, 75, is an elder of Australia\u2019s<\/a> second-largest Aboriginal tribe, the Wiradjuri<\/a>, who roamed most of central New South Wales<\/a> before white farmers surged inland in the early 1800s.<\/p>\n

Until recently, he was one of only a handful of people still speaking the tribal language, also called Wiradjuri (pronounced wi-RAD-jury), which nearly died out in the 20th century, when Aboriginals could be jailed for speaking their native tongue in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are nobody without language,\u201d Mr. Grant said. \u201cThe world does not respect a person who does not have language.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…Mr. Grant was probably 8 or 9 years old the night a local policeman heard his grandfather, Wilfred Johnson, and locked him up. But he does not recall a sense of alarm.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an elegant man,\u201d he said of Mr. Johnson. \u201cHe was beautifully dressed, usually in a coat and hat. But he was black. So it wasn\u2019t the first time he had spent the night in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the arrest, Mr. Johnson, who spoke seven languages, refused to speak Wiradjuri in public…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Heir to a Tribe\u2019s Culture Ensures Its Language Is Not Forgotten The Saturday Profile The New York Times 2016-04-08 Michelle Innis Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri elder, at his home in Narrandera, Australia. Mr. Grant was an author of \u201cA New Wiradjuri Dictionary,\u201d after years of advocating to preserve the Wiradjuri language. Credit Adam Ferguson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,1245,459,8,3015,4405],"tags":[986,23500,23502,10939,2640,23498,2327,23501,23499],"class_list":["post-46560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-biography","category-history","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","category-oceania","tag-australia","tag-michelle-innis","tag-narrandera","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-york-times","tag-stan-grant","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-the-saturday-profile","tag-wiradjuri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46561,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46560\/revisions\/46561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}