What Do I Call You? - A guide to kinship and address

This is No. 1 in a series of guides to the language and culture of the Iwaidja-speaking people of northwestern Arnhem Land.

The guide is produced for non-Indigenous people visiting or working in communities in the region. The aim is to help them understand the kinship system of Iwaidja-speaking people and learn their language, so reducing any cultural gap that may exist.

Readers are guided step by step in learning how to become fluent enough in Iwaidja to engage in simple conversations about kinship.  

As with the other guides in the series, it is organised partly as a phrasebook and partly as a cross-cultural handbook. The introduction contains a guide to the pronunciation of the sounds of Iwaidja, which can be heard on the audio CD.

Iwaidja is a highly endangered language spoken mainly at Minjilang on Croker Island. It will be easy to transfer the knowledge gained from this guide into the neighbouring languages Mawng and Kunwinjku as they all share a similar cultural background.

The book is published by Iwaidja Inyman, a community project funded by the Australian Government through the Maintenance of Indigenous Languages and Records (MILR) program.

All profit from sales of this book will go to the Iwaidja language team for recording and publishing their endangered cultural knowledge. Your support will help maintain the linguistic and cultural diversity of northwestern Arnhem Land.

Authors: © Khaki Marrala, David Minyimak, Joy Williams Malwagag, Rae Giribuk, Bruce Birch, Sabine Hoeng
Editor: David Webster
Design: © David Lancashire Design
Project and Publishing Coordinator: Sabine Hoeng
This production auspiced by: West Arnhem Shire Council.
Specifications: 54 pp. in two-spot color with illustrations and accompanying audio CD