Eight Indigenous Language Teaching Resources Win Award

On Friday 10 November, 2006, Canberra based visual communications company Multilocus Interactive Pty Ltd came away from the 24th Annual ATOM Awards for Film, Television, Video and Multimedia in Melbourne with an ATOM for Best Indigenous Educational Resource.

The 2006 Awards Ceremony was hosted by Comedian Denise Scott and held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne’s Federation Square.

Now in its second decade, the ATOM Awards recognise excellence in over thirty categories of film, television, video and multimedia and are a celebration of the very best in Australian and New Zealand media products.

An integral part of the film and multimedia industry calendar, the awards are the most high profile activity for ATOM, (Australian Teachers of Media), with the unique component of recognising educational/vocational works on a national scale. They are sought after by educators, educational institutions and producers as a seal of quality from educators and young Australians, and this year attracted over 700 entries.

Finalists and winning entries are selected by panels made up of media educators and practitioners who nominate works that entertain, educate and enlighten within the scope of each category.

This is Multilocus’ second ATOM award.

Mark Arundel, Multilocus’ Managing Director, said “We came to Melbourne with a small hope that we would be successful on the night but after doing our homework and watching the previews of the other four finalists we really thought that one of the others would take out the award. The quality of the other four finalists was extremely high. It, therefore, came as a big surprise and it took a little while to sink in when they announced “And the winner is ‘Eight Indigenous Language Teaching Resources’.”

“Much of the work that Multilocus has undertaken recently has run over a number of years so it is extremely gratifying for both ourselves and our staff to receive confirmation from our industry that we are producing a high quality product for our customers. We share the accolades that come with this award with the eight language groups that provided us with such great material to work with. The project took us to some marvellous locations and it was a privilege to work with everyone involved.”

Funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) the completed resources are the culmination of two years work undertaken between June 2003 and June 2005.

The selected language groups who participated in the project were drawn from remote regions of Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, and Tasmania and Victoria. Part of the selection criteria that Multilocus applied to the language groups was that they had not been able to obtain funding to develop similar resources before. This was their first exposure to developing a multimedia resource.

The languages, their geographical location and the organisations that Multilocus worked with to produce the winning eight resources were:

• Adnyamathanha – Flinders Ranges SA, Adnyamathanha Speakers and South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services
• Arabana – Maree SA, the Arabana Community and South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services
• Ngaanyatjarra –  Warburton region of WA, Ngaanyatjarra  Community and the Ngaanyatjarra Education Area, WA Department of Education and Training
• Ngarinyman –  Katherine region of NT, Katherine Regional Aboriginal Language Centre, Diwurruwurru-Jaru Aboriginal Corporation
• Nyangumarta –  South Hedland region of WA, Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre
• Paakantji – Wilcannia NSW, Wilcannia Central School
• palawa kani – Tasmania, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre
• Wathaurong – Geelong VIC, Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative

To make the most out of the available funds, Multilocus and the language groups took a modular approach in developing the resources. In November 2003, after visiting each of the language groups, Multilocus invited representatives from each  group to a workshop in Adelaide.

The purpose of the workshop was to design learning modules that could be used by a spectrum of groups ranging from those recovering languages from historical records to groups where an Aboriginal language is still spoken as a primary language.

At the conclusion of the workshop, fourteen different activity modules and three different story modules had been designed. The learning modules are suitable for all ages and are described in the "Overview of Activity Modules" booklet.

Download "Overview of Activity Modules" booklet (2.7MB PDF)

Each language teaching resource consists of an interactive CD-ROM and a printed Teachers Guide. The CD-ROMs feature stories and songs reflecting the culture of each language group, as well as exercises and games to promote language skills. The accompanying Teachers Guide includes suggested lesson plans and black line masters.

Mark Arundel said that “Following the workshop we were told by the participants that this was the first time in Australia anyone had facilitated such a meeting with the aim of working together on a common set of learning modules. So it is unfortunate that even though representatives of nine languages attended the workshop we were only able to develop eight resources due to a clash between the wet season and departmental funding deadlines.”

The ‘look and feel’ of each resource links the resource to the language group’s country and is unique to each resource, but the functionality and layout of each module is the same across all resources.

It is the different communities’ content that makes each resource unique thus giving important ownership to each community.

Different approaches were taken by each of the groups to collect content and provide artwork for use in the “look and feel” of their resource.

Mark Arundel added “The process in making each resource was as equally important as the finished product. The discoveries made during the project and project outcomes would be enough to fill a small publication.”

In one case a group used a professional artist to produce the graphics for their resource, whilst other groups engaged school students to provide the graphics and recordings.

In all cases each of the participating groups’ communities discovered and learnt language as a result of the process of making the resource. The children learnt language out of the need to create drawings to illustrate individual words or sentences to be included in the resource. Adults learnt language by being involved in the making of a small video.

In one instance during a planning meeting Elders remembered a long forgotten song that was then used as the basis of one of the resources. This song was then learnt by the local school children and performed at the end of year school concert. The song’s theme, (the life cycle of the turtle), was also then taught and incorporated into a number of the different curriculum streams of the school.

One community found themselves debating the spelling and pronunciation of different words. This was seen as a positive occurrence as it prompted discussion of the language that may not have otherwise taken place.

The words, sentences, pictures and audio requests used in all the module activities are randomly selected by the computer. Therefore, each time an activity is played, the student will be presented with a different set, thus giving variety and preventing the student from learning that the correct answer is always in a specific order and position on the screen. The Student Tracking feature ensures that the students see all the items in an activity before they are randomised and presented again.

In accepting the award Mark Arundel thanked DCITA for providing the funding necessary for the project and commented “.... It was a privilege for all of us at Multilocus to work with all the individuals and communities involved in the project over the two years the project ran. However, it is sad to report that in the later stages of the project and since its completion a few of the Elders involved have since passed away taking a lot of language knowledge with them. It is the passing of these Elders that demonstrates the value and importance of projects such as this in preserving language and why funding to continue such projects in the future is ever so important.”

Denise Arundel, a Director of Multilocus listed each of the participating language groups and the names of each of their products and concluded, “…. We proudly share this award with each of these groups and individuals.”

Multilocus dedicates this award to the Elders no longer with us.

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