Cirrus@Austlit

'During a conference trip to Canberra in 2013, I reserved some precious time to pay a visit to Luise Hercus in her Australian National University (ANU) office. As usual she was as sharp as a tack, and shared a story of her retrieval work with the Ngarrindjeri language. This time she told me of a very busy episode spent at her home in Victoria many years ago with James Brooksie Kartinyeri. He had come to stay for the weekend, and made constant requests for cups of tea and punctual meals, as she struggled to cope with the equal demands of her small son Iain, while her husband Graham was away. So Luise proceeded to share the agony and ecstasy of recording the Ngarrindjeri language from her demanding guest, knowing his language was in a state of serious decline, and no longer being learnt by children of Iain’s age. But I got the distinct impression, as Luise shared this tale, that one of the lessons to be learnt was ‘Don’t panic!’ I am sure this was because Luise knew that whatever little she did manage to retrieve and record during that busy time was going to be of some value in the future.' (Introduction)