Today’s dispatch is Walalja. Originally dispatched on 30 January 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Walalja is a Warlpiri word, often translated as Family.
Mishpocha is a Hebrew derived Yiddish word, usually translated as Family.
It isn’t the first time I mention that the meaning of Walalja is closer to Mishpocha than it is to Family
Walalja means so much more than just Family. It is everything your extended Family ‘owns’ including your homeland.
I was in conversation with a Jewish-American (U.S.A.) academic working in Yuendumu. When I used the word Mishpocha, the academic got all dewy eyed. The word Family is far less likely to evoke such a strong emotional response.
The Family-Mishpocha-Walalja sequence could be said to increase exponentially in depth and scope of meaning.
At one end of the Family spectrum are the single-parent and nuclear Families. Ranging through various polygamous or extended Families the other end of the spectrum is reached. The Family of Nations.
The stereotypical nuclear Family appears on cereal packets. A man, a woman, a boy and a girl, all with perfect teeth and haircuts. A regular Family in more ways than one.
In fact, in the global experience it is the most irregular Family. In Africa, Asia, the Arab World, Latin America and the 4th world, extended families are the norm.
The No.1 song for 2015 (Wiz Khalifa – ‘See You Again’, featuring Charlie Puth) includes the following words:
….”how can we not talk about family? when family is all we got”….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk
Do a search for Family on Youtube and it is like entering the multi-million dollar Centrelink building in Yuendumu. (Centrelink’s motto: ‘Giving you Options’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMVe_HcyP9Y Sister Slade- We are Family… I got all my sisters with me…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSafdm92NIM Lajamanu Teenage Band- Prisoner …I just want to be free with my friends and family, and family…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxz7CYkQltE Black Fella, White Fella- Warumpi Band-
Are you the one that’s gonna stand up and be counted?
Are you the one who understands these family plans?
We need more brothers, if we’re to make it
We need more sisters, if we’re to save it
The latest socio-political buzz words in Australia are Diversity and Innovation.
Jessica Mauboy singing the National Anthem in a Sydney Aboriginal language on top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge on Australia Day epitomizes this embracing of diversity.
Many new and old words have become commonly used in my life time. Take the verbs: utilize and prioritize (not to mention google).
The Northern Territory government has prioritized the building of prisons and police complexes above the celebration and supporting of cultural and linguistic diversity when it comes to utilizing available human and financial resources.
If you are going to listen to anything on this Dispatch, listen to Missy Higgins’ rendition of Joy McKean’s (Slim Dusty’s wife) composition ‘The Biggest Disappointment’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I51ImqkOAM
They had my future wrapped up in a parcel
And no one even thought of asking me…
And the biggest disappointment in the family was me
The only twisted branch upon that good old family tree
I just couldn’t be the person they expected me to be….
Remote Aboriginal Australia refuses to be what they, the assimilationist authorities, expect them to be. They are the twisted branch, the most diverse section of Australian Society. They are the biggest Disappointment in ‘Team Australia’ (the lovely Australian Family of our collective national psyche)
Until the next time,
Jungarrayi (brother of Jungarrayi and Nungarrayi, father of Japaljarri and Napaljarri, husband of Nangala and so forth…)