Cirrus@Austlit

'In this paper I discuss the work being carried out in Australia by Aboriginal people dedicated to the cause of language revival and maintenance in their endeavours as trained linguists, language workers or community researchers. These people are regarded as language activists in their community and more widely and regularly work with non-Indigenous linguists who specialise in the field of Australian Aboriginal languages. Many of these relationships work well in different situations, and continue to do so particularly when the Aboriginal member of a language team is in a position of power to negotiate their role and contribution to the project from a non-compromising starting point. At times tensions arise in the working relationships between these two groups and if these are not addressed early in a project, discontent and sometimes resentment can become an issue for the Aboriginal member of the team. Aboriginal people working in language teams on collaborative research projects or revival and maintenance language programs may feel powerless because of a lack of experience, training, knowledge or understanding of linguistic concepts. It also could be they don't have a high level of speaking competence in their own language or the language they are working with.' (Abstract)