Why Warriors lie down and die Review

Why Warriors lie down and die

Book Reviews

Kimberly Interpreting Service Newsletter
Issue 4
October 2001
By Keeley Palmer

War of Words can be overcome with interpreters
(by Keeley Palmer)

I was not instantly inspired to read When Warriors Lie Down and Die by Richard Trudgen when I first heard of its release. The title put me in mind of a Daisy Bates style analysis of the regrettable, but inevitable demise of the traditional aboriginal people of Australia. A few months later, the book was recommended to me because of its particular references to language issues, and I was pleasantly surprised by the clear and accurate arguments put forward by the author.

Trudgen's book is an attempt to understand the crisis facing Aboriginal people living in communities across the top end of Australia: ill health, unemployment, drug abuse, domestic violence, homicide and suicide, and is influenced by his experience living and working with Yolngu in Arnhem Land since 1973. Trudgen examines the problems from the Yolngu side of the cross-cultural / cross-language divide and is in a unique position to present this view to the wider public through his knowledge of Yolngu Matha languages.

In the chapters that deal specifically with language and communication Trudgen includes many examples of the difficulties that arise when people are not speaking the same language: what the author refers to as a war of words'. In hospitals and in meetings, Yolngu are constantly disempowered because they don't fully understand English. Even those who grasp the grammar and vocabulary of English can have problems because they dream in Yolngu Matha; that is they construct knowledge in their minds in Yolngu Matha and are therefore having to process the concepts expressed in English into their own language, which is exhausting.
In order to overcome this problem Trudgen argues for continued linguistic research into traditional languages to analyse their concepts completely and fully.
In this way, the words could be found to truly explain the Balanda (whitefella) way to Yolngu, using the language they understand. In his concluding chapter Trudgen's number one factor to create Yolngu friendly' environments is take people's language seriously, and in order to do this he calls for well funded language research, indigenous language media outlets, and language teaching for people from the dominant culture working with Yolngu.
In the meantime, the book presents arguments that encourage the use of interpreters and is a useful and interesting introduction to the basic issues facing speakers of indigenous languages throughout Australia.

$29.95 AUD

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