SPEAKING UP ABOUT THE NORFOLK LANGUAGE

In a 1914 Memorandum relating to Norfolk Island, Atlee Hunt, Secretary of the Commonwealth's Department of External Affairs, referred to "The Local Jargon" of Norfolk Island as follows:

"It is not picturesque nor effective, and justifies its description as "a barbarous attempt to garrotte the English language". Its use contributes to maintain a spirit of exclusiveness among these folk, and for this reason, as well as because it has no merits to justify its continual existence, it is hoped that its employment may be discouraged in every way."

A new rule introduced in our school in 1915 forbade the use of anything but "the King's English" being spoken during school hours. The penalty for lapsing into Norfolk was to copy out 100's of lines to the effect that "I must not talk gibberish at school." Anderson, the headmaster at the time, predicted the Norfolk language would die out in a few generations.

Fortunately, banning the language could not extinguish it....in fact, it may well have led to its being used more fervently in defiance. Culture is something that not only sustains a people in adversity, but is often stimulated by it. The language was the natural means by which the people of this island communicated and interacted with one another. Only the Norfolk idiom can express those things that are peculiar to the island, both tangible and intangible. They are not easily translated into English.

In 2004 the JSC Committee recommended the preservation of the Norfolk language. (Funny how Australia's policies are always changing, while Norfolkers have steadily stuck with the same aspirations from Day One.) A worthy aim, on the surface. But when Australia takes on a cause like the Norfolk language, it is a bit of a worry, especially when they state that it is "in Australia's national interest". Here is a nation which thinks it understands Aboriginal culture just because it acknowledges traditional owners on public occasions, organises the occasional dance display, and hangs a bit of Aboriginal art here and there. The track record on Aboriginal culture is not good.

Now when people talk about preserving things, I have images of museums, with dinosaur bones, small animal foetuses in bottles, or stuffed animals displayed in their "natural setting." But it doesn't matter how much money you throw at something to preserve and display it, or even to record, document and teach it, you will not breathe life into it.

Language, like other aspects of culture, cannot be kept alive by being isolated, described, analysed, dissected etc or kept in a showcase. It is kept alive by being spoken and used by the people who have grown up with it. It is a living thing, and expresses ideas, personal characteristics, feelings, values, activities, and shared memories that belong to those people.

Now if you succeed in squashing the spirit of those people, changing the way they deal with and interact with one another and altering their social and cultural environment.......

If you make it difficult for them to pursue those activities which have sustained the community for two centuries, and turn the island into a place that their families and young people can no longer call home......

If you take away away their distinct identity and substitute the "Average Australian" one......

Then no amount of documenting or teaching alone will keep that language alive.

The language, and the Norfolk traditions, character, values and activities it describes will just become museum relics, like other aspects of the island's unique culture.

If Australia's plans for property taxes are brought to fruition......

If we lose our control over Immigration.....

If our Norfolk people are displaced by a homogenised Australian community.......

we may no longer have anyone left here who speaks or understands Norfolk...or even cares!