Two weeks on Goulburn Island

In September, I spent just over two weeks in a community called Warruwi, on Goulburn Island, which is just off the coast about 300km east of Darwin. My purpose in going was to accompany my new colleague Anne, while she did language learning with Mawng speakers. Anne moved to Darwin to work with us in July, and her role involves supporting language groups in West Arnhem Land to translate and use Scripture in the languages spoken in their communities. Her main focus is on Mawng, a strong language which has only one whole book of the Bible translated.

Our time on Goulburn Island went really well. One of the four Aboriginal translators was away, but at least one of the others came over most days to teach Anne some Mawng. Anne did well learning new words, and making recordings and flashcards so that she can continue learning when she's back in Darwin.

I joined in learning some Mawng songs, and was able to make a video about Jesus calming the storm using a recording of the book of Mark. I also had time to continue working on the Plain English Version Bible translation, and even got to check some with Mawng speakers.

I loved the slow pace of being in a small community with very few scheduled activities, giving me plenty of time in the evenings for crosswords, and Zooms, and holiday planning. I also loved having wild horses wander by constantly, and beautiful beaches everywhere.

Anne will continue making trips for language learning and relationship building, and I will likely join her on another one next year.

Give thanks for such a good trip to Goulburn Island, and pray for the local church as they think about what activities and resources can help people grow in their faith, and how Anne can support them.

Learning (about) Mawng

While Anne focused on trying to learn new words and about 100 verb prefixes (kind of like English suffixes -s and -ed, except way more complicated), I enjoyed getting some insight into how the language works (without actually having to memorise anything).

Below are some of the things that fascinated me. Please excuse any mistakes or simplifications. 

Numbers 

Mawng only has words for numbers up to 2. Then you have to count:

3 = two and one

4 = two and two

5 = hand

6 = hand and one

Just note that there are 10 forms of the number "one" depending if the thing is you, me, masculine, feminine, land, vegetation, edible etc. 

Time frames

Day = sleep

Week = [none]

Month = moon

Years = rains

Body parts

Hand = yurnu

Foot = yurnu

Hand = the yurnu we wave with

Foot = the yurnu we walk with