A blog about language and linguistics by Lauren Gawne.
to receive Superlinguo posts in your inbox (weekly)
I am very happy to be able to say this installment of our Linguistics Jobs interview series is with Margaret Florey of the Resource Network for Linguistics Diversity (RNLD). Margaret is a busy woman, travelling all over Australia to work with Indigenous communities that want to build their capacity to document or revitalise their own languages. I worked at RNLD for a while in 2013, and I'm a big fan of their work. I'm also a big fan of Margaret's glasses. It's often Margaret behind the RNLD Twitter account if you have questions for her about her training, her work, or what RNLD do.
1. What did you study at university?
I did my undergraduate degree (BA Hons)at the University of Western Australia and I still feel so fortunate for theeducation and opportunities that opened up for me there. I began inanthropology, taking both general anthropology and Aboriginal anthropology inmy first year. I was very lucky to have both Ron and Catherine Berndt aslecturers during those years. I discovered linguistics during my first year,and continued to study both linguistics and anthropology through to honours.
Another break came when Alan Denchoffered me and two other students the opportunity to go with him to his (then)PhD field site in Onslow, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. So myfirst fieldwork experience came as a third year undergraduate. I did threefield trips with Alan, and knew that linguistics, language documentation andcommunity language activism was for me. After graduating, I worked for a yearin the Aboriginal Sites Department of the WA Museum, and spent much of thattime with communities across the Nullabor and in the Western Desert. I was inthe desert when I received the news that I'd been offered a scholarship fromthe East West Center to do a PhD at the University of Hawai'i. That too was afantastic experience. I had great teachers at UH at a time when the linguisticsdepartment was one of three important centres in the world for Austronesianlinguistics.
2. What is your job?
I'm co-founder of the Resource Networkfor Linguistic Diversity and Director of the Documenting and RevitalisingIndigenous Languages Training Program . That's a training model that I begancreating at RNLD in 2009. The DRIL program is committed to building skills inlinguistics, language documentation, and language revitalisation methods sothat Indigenous people can work more autonomously in their language projects. Wework with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people all around Australiafrom remote communities to rural centres. In the 5 years since the DRIL programwas launched, we've worked with more than 500 Indigenous people and about 95languages. We now have four DRIL trainers, which allows us to reach morepeople, but we always have a waiting list. We also link up linguists andcommunities where the communities want to build a relationship with linguistswho have worked on their language. That can be a lot of fun! Gavan Breen, LuiseHercus, Stephen Morey, and Tamsin Donaldson have all gone back to communitieswith DRIL trainers to co-run workshops.
3. How does your linguistics training help you in your job?
My linguistic training helps me everyday! In our experience, community people value the work that linguists havedone in documenting languages and preparing grammars and dictionaries. However,these materials are often impenetrable to people without linguistic training.Our training helps to make existing linguistic materials accessible, andempowers people to begin using linguistic methods themselves to documentlanguages or to prepare resources that can be more widely used for languagerevitalisation activities. This work is exciting and very moving. We areprivileged to be able to work every day with passionate, highly motivated, andvery determined people!
4. Do you have any advice you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/ careers/university?
I think I was very fortunate in my trainingat UWA and at UH and had access to great people who mentored me in my educationand career. That has continued throughout my career and I'm grateful for awonderful network of people who I link with internationally. I think that nowit's possible to advise people that they can choose a career inside academia orin community-based organisations. There are more options! That advice wouldn'thave been available to me early in my career. I'm glad I was able to find sucha satisfying pathway.
5. Any other thoughts or comments?
I'd encourage people to reach out andask questions of linguists in different fields. Ask them how they got there,what you might do to get there. Take any opportunity that comes your way!
#J-18808-Ljbffr