Australian Indigenous Sign Languages
Eileen Pwerrerl Campbell is one of the leaders of the Iltyem-iltyem project. She lives at Ti Tree, and is one of a group of senior Anmatyerr and Warlpiri women in the community. Eileen has worked steadily over many years supporting Anmatyerr language and culture in the
Cindy Jinmarabynana demonstrates Maningrida Sign Language in this film. This was made in May 2016, at a sign language workshop during the WANALA meeting in Alice Springs. Cindy speaks her language Burarra while signing.
Here is a great film made by women at Balgo, showing approximately 40 signs that they use alongside their spoken language Kukatja. Some of the signs are similar to iltyem-iltyem, many are different. Read about how this film came about – from Willie Lempert and
Lizzie is very skilled at explaining some of the subtle differences between signs which may share a similar handshape. One example are the signs for two lizards tinka ‘sand goanna’ and ngintaka ‘perentie’. Ngintaka are enormous lizards, highly prized in hunting and fairly rare, goannas
Dorothy Galaledba and Janet Gumbiyarra act out a hunting scenario, their father and uncle are hunting kangaroo. They bring the kangaroo over, they build a fire, butcher the animal, cook it and eat it. Then everyone is thirsty and they call out for water. From
Margaret Kemarre Turner (OAM), also known as MK Turner, is a distinguished interpreter, artist and author who lives in Alice Springs and speaks several languages including Arrernte, Akarre and Akityarre. She is also a knowledgeable signer. In this short film MK explains the importance of
In this film, April Pengart Campbell and Clarrie Kemarr Long use speech and sign to discuss some of the ways that Anmatyerr people use sign language. This film was made by Jenny Green and linked to a story on Indigenous Language projects written by Amanda Burdon
The video work features the Pitjantjatjara Senior Law Woman and artist Tjukaparti James from Docker River, Northern Territory. The hand signs she uses are Pitjantjatjara. She uses hand signs to express: kangaroo, swimming, bush turkey, emu, man, woman…. This work was exhibited by artist Charlotte
This film is called Mwekel mern cake arlkwem ‘Mum eats cake’. Eileen Pwerrerl Campbell demonstrates the signs for CAKE and BISCUIT, along with MWEK / MOTHER, MERN / FOOD and ARLKWEM / EAT. CAKE has a similar handshape to MWEK / MOTHER, but Eileen shows how these