Old stories, new words - multilingualism in a colonised space/place
Date
2024
Authors
Edwards, N.
Hogarth, C.
Dank, D.
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Journal article
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Journal of Literary Multilingualism, 2024; 2(2):289-305
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Abstract
An experienced educator in various states of Australia, Debra Dank has recently found considerable acclaim as a writer. Her memoir, We Come With This Place, won a record-breaking four state awards in New South Wales in 2023 and was shortlisted for the national Stella prize for writing by Australian women in all genres. A plurivocal, polyphonic memoir from the Gudanji country in north-eastern Australia, Dank’s work is an outgrowth from a PhD dissertation in narrative theory and semiotics. In this interview, Dank discusses her linguistic heritage, which combines Standard Australian English with several Indigenous languages of Australia. She also outlines her perception of the place that Indigenous languages hold in the popular imagination in Australia and her attempts to challenge understandings of Indigenous linguistic history. In particular, she develops several new terms to help understand the interactions and impact of languages and cultures upon one another in Australia over thousands of years.
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Copyright 2024 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)