Kevin Lowe has been a major force in NSW Aboriginal language work for many years. When on the Board of Studies he was the driving force behind the Kindergarten to Year 10 Aboriginal languages syllabus, and he organised many support activities for language programs.
More recently he has been working on a PhD. That long process is nearing completion, and he sent an email:
John, can we translate this thesis title? Even if it was the first part.
Standing their ground: Honouring Aboriginal standpoint to affect teachers’ professional knowledge .
Below are some thoughts on this. John Giacon.
Warray is stand, and warraylanha is ‘are standing’.
Walanbaa is ‘hard, solid, strong, tough’
You could do Walanbaa warraylanha or warraylanha walanbaa. ‘are standing strong’
Standing your ground could mean standing and looking at someone else. Think of the All Blacks at the Haka.
A number of Gamilaraay verbs incorporate –mi-li, which means looking is involved. It is related to mil ‘eye’.
ngamili ‘see is likely related to ngaa ‘feel’ and –mi-li.
The suffix –mili is also probably found in gunmi-li ‘look at greedily’, wuumi-li ‘peek’,
dhurraami-li ‘wait for’, yuuwaanmi-li ‘lose’ and probably elsewhere;
Wangaaybuwan, which has many similarities to Gamilaraay, has a similar verb suffix –mi-y, also related to mil ‘eye’ ; It is used to show that someone is looking while sitting/lying/standing.
We could adapt warra-y to warra-mi-li [not previously found] which would mean something like
‘standing and looking at’.
Using this adapted verb would give:
Walanbaa warramildanha or warramildanha walanbaa. ‘are standing strong and looking at someone/something’
or leave walanbaa out.
For the rest of the title here is a suggestion which is not exactly a translation.
Mariguwaay ngamila, maarubala dhirraldaygu.
Look/see the way a murri does, so that you teach better.
Gamilaraay 