Authenticity, Ideology and Early Ethnography - untangling Far West Coast Gugada

Copy of conference paper presented at "Warra wiltaniappendi: Strengthening Languages" the Inaugural Indigenous Languages Conference (ILC) 2007, at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Abstract: One of the main features of the Far West Coast Guguda (South Australia) language and culture revitalisation project has been the digital repatriation of a wide range of archival materials, including the writings and audio recordings of missionaries, anthropologists and linguists. These materials have informed the publication of the Gugada Interactive Talking Dictionary and the preparation of a more detailed draft dictionary. While research has turned up numerous historical sources for FWC Gugada (a variety of the far-flung Western Desert language), this has not meant that the process of documenting it for revitalisation has been free of tensions. Apart from the usual difficulties encountered when interpreting historical sources, there have been particular problems arising from the attempt to reconstruct a language that is (i) distinct from other local languages, such as Winmgu, and that is (ii) distinct from other Western Desert varieties. In many ways this has been informed by a desire for authentic form on the one hand and a desire for non-traditional functions for the revitalised FWC Gugada on the other. This paper describes the ways decisions made by community and researchers have shaped the documentation produced for attempts to revitalise a language.