How is English Linguistic teaching erasing Indigenous people's Oral Systems?

Indigenous language of my people can never change the meaning or words laid down by Old Mother (Yuwinganha in Wiradyuri language) at creation time.? ?If we changed our words we would erase our Ancestors (therefore our) purpose for being.? Our language is immovable and unchangeable due to it being everything you need to express and live right according to Old Mother within our Oral System Mind Model.

The Ancient Indigenous Oral System of the Universe (AIOSU- aye oh sue) was created by Old Mother (known by the public name of Yuwinganha in my Wiradyuri speaking country), the original Fertility Goddess of the time before all, who placed her power essence (inner purpose) throughout the Universe. ??This completely Oral System honours how and why the sacred inner purpose/s (known in English as a soul) that Old Mother shared to each living thing to hold for her inside them ( this is how each living received their power essence also known as glitter) was assigned.? ?

A lot of people in Australia and elsewhere call Yuwinganha’ s journey ?“Dreaming”. I thinks this is a poor single definition of an entire ancient Indigenous belief system that is meant to be shared and localised to ensure correctness. ??In my Wiradyuri language we call it Muraymin which translates to living warmth or glow of everything.?

The earth is where the words on how to express AIOSU by living beings stem from. There are many pieces of country/earth where a different earth language have their own unique name for AIOSU.? In Warlpiri for example it is Jukurrpa or Manguny in Martu Wangka, a Western Desert language spoken in the Pilbara region of Western Australia; ?In Yawalaraay it is Ganunawu and some North-East Arnhem groups refer to the same core concept as Wongar – to name but a handful.

The human’s responsibility is to translate their families local earth language and learn the universal teachings their earth family is connected to.? It is oral and not meant to be written. Every resource holder on country has many names. English are trying to make it so we just have one.

This is why living beings have multiple names in our oral system.? ?Imagine a red gum – it is the holder of canoe, shields, medicine, gender names, ceremonial knowledge and weather information.? It cannot be honoured with just one name.

Aboriginal languages have no word for tree to shortchange our ancestors.

If I think of my one English name – I think of how many names I should have.? I am a historian, researcher, mother, sister, and friend.? How does Nola encompass my inner purposes?

The oldest developed mind model in the universe emerged from the beginning of all things.? But it danced to its own unique beat.? It is the human mind’s most organic basis for thinking, feeling and acting. The human brains original blueprints if you will.? A knowledge driven brain that is designed to spatially connect information by using entirely oral transmission.? A Mind Model that can be found today surviving only within the Indigenous peoples of the world. The world’s first people - the only humans who have managed to stay true to the standards and rules required to transmit and maintain a completely Indigenous Mind Model. But this Oral Mind Model is scarily at risk due to it being displaced and dominated by the Written Mind Model of the Western System.

We have out of desperation adapted English words ( known as Aboriginal English) in an attempt to get back some form of independence or ownership of a speech for our Mind Model way of communicating.? This adaption of English was due to the violent banning of our countries’ Old Mother’s dialect for as long as 6 or 7 generations.? ?But I will again say our original Old Mother Language with its many dialects cannot ever be changed.

The destructive effect of the English Language on the Indigenous Oral System

The British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's land surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and North American English, the two major varieties of the language, are together spoken by 400 million people. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion. There have been attempts to predict future English evolution, but they have been met with suspicion and doubt.? Because English no longer has its ideology (Christianity) at the core of what it is expressing (for some not all people), unlike Indigenous languages, it could keep changing forever.

The most worrying trend regarding Aboriginal language groups in Australia and across the world inadvertently framing their language restoration on English linguistic morphology (having western trained Linguists translating or singing from our multi layered song sheet).? Is it is leading to Aboriginal languages being taught in ROTE style learning (Alphabetising our words) which will eventually establish a middle English type of evolution of our oral Mind Model system.? In essence if we continue to allow the English Linguistic models and advisers to define our communication system (rewrite our expression model ) as having a language that separates itself from our Oral System Mind Model, we will lose our oral system and over time change from an Oral Mind Model to a written western one.?

Remember it was only a few centuries ago that English once was completely oral.? In Old English it was also gender based and free word formed much more like Indigenous languages.? The more the English wrote down their world the more disconnected they became from their belief system and its standards and rules for how to live right.? The English have created a system where the written word is up for sale or barter. It is temporary and changeable by anyone.? Considering this is their communication system which is meant to represent how to express their identity and standards and rules , ?they are establishing such a loose society where people have no ideology that supplies the standards and rules for how to live right (their social norm values and principles), and therefore are losing their inner purpose and responsibility to the entire universe and all other living things before themselves.

How is Aboriginal (Indigenous) languages different from English. I am using Wiradyuri as an example but this is the same across all from the Pama Nyungan language family (95% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages).

Within the structure and teaching of Wiradyuri language is the concept that all relationships stay the same, Grant & Rudder (2014) explains that:

???????? All things are in a fixed relationship to all others.

???????? Words? are receiver focused – framed on the relationship, bloodlines and ritual level you hold to the other person

???????? All things have two dimensions and “inside” and an “outside”

???????? All people and things are evaluated or defined in terms for these relationships.

???????? The quality of anything can transform to a different expression of the same identity once your relationship is established (who’s your mob?). Which used to be the question “what is your meat?” – which means checking bloodline connection.

Wiradjuri or all Aboriginal languages are not English, nor is it English using Wiradjuri words.? This is naturally due to the fact Aboriginal language/ all Indigenous languages came way before English was developed. All Indigenous languages are only meant to be utilised within a completely oral system.

Nola Turner-Jensen (Wiradyuri Oral Systems Historian - Ngilbunnara Warray bloodlines)

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