The wrong t‐shirt: configurations of language and identity at Warruwi Community

Abstract

On June 22nd 1916, Reverend James Watson was brought to Warruwi in a canoe by a group of Maningpurru people. A re‐enactment of this event was staged at the beach called Angpungijpa or Watson's Landing on the 22nd of June 2016. The performers wore either a yellow or blue t‐shirt and the two colours were interpreted by many participants as representing the languages Mawng and Kunwinjku. In interpreting the t‐shirts, people made a direct connection between language and identity, invoking the ‘language tribe’ (Rumsey 1993). In other contexts, however, language ownership is claimed by connecting language to identity indirectly, via patrilineal clan (Merlan 1981). The multiple configurations of language and identity available at Warruwi reflect the way that clan groupings, significant within the current regime of recognition in the region (Povinelli ) co‐exist with the ‘language tribes’ of earlier eras and other groupings both long‐standing and emergent.

A small speech community with many small languages: The role of receptive multilingualism in supporting linguistic diversity at Warruwi Community (Australia)

“…The Indigenous origin story of Warruwi credits Kunwinjku speakers with finding the 'first missionary' wandering on the mainland, bringing him over to Warruwi and then negotiating good relations between the missionary and Mawng-affiliated families already living at Warruwi. This story cements the place of various groups and families at Warruwi (Singer, 2018). Warruwi Community has been treated as an entity by both Church and State since the establishment of the Goulburn Island Methodist Mission in 1916.…”

“…Preparations for ceremonies involve elders deciding on the set of social groups which will play key roles. This is true not only of long-practiced ceremonies such as funerals but also of newer ceremonies such as the celebration of the centenary of the mission in June 2016 (Singer, 2018 Reuben's case he has multiple mentors in music and dance and each could claim him, or he could claim their group, depending on the context.…”

“…However, language use can also reveal shared histories between two groups that stress their distinctiveness. Language identities have become more significant in the delineation of social groups in western Arnhem Land in the past 100 years (Singer, 2018). The prominence of 'language-named tribes' as Rumsey (1989) calls them, has arisen in the recognition space (Pearson, 1997) under the influence of long-held European ideas about the primacy of language in circumscribing nationhood.…”

“…The idea of the 'dialectal-tribe' (see Sutton 1978, inter alia), a kind of ethnic group bounded by the use of a single language is still rife in the literature, although anthropologists of Indigenous Australia fought hard against this misconception in the late 1960's (Merlan, 1981;Singer, 2018). The underlying fantasy behind these conceptions, 'linguistic nationalism' is like a sinkhole that scholarly accounts tend to fall back on without even necessarily intending to.…”

7 Intergenerational challenges: Of handing down languages, passing on practices, and bringing multilingual speakers into being

“…In all of the described settings, generational roles mix with other social roles. Singer (2018) illustrates with her data from an anniversary ceremony on Australia's Northern coast how complex generational and societal patterns can lead to speakers being identified with right or wrong T-shirts, used as an expression of belonging and of alignment with clans, heritage, and language groups. Languages are in her context not completely congruent with clans, but through a set of identification processes, mostly along the lines of belonging to the coast or the inland people, families do arrive at a shared understanding of which distinctions should be made relevant in a given performance.…”