The Riches of Long‐Term Community‐Engaged Documentary Research: The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary as a Legacy Cultural Resource

Review Essay of Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary: Warlpiri yimi-kirli manu jaru-kurlu. By Mary Laughren (Chief Compiler), Kenneth Hale, Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi, Marlurrku Paddy Patrick Jangala, Robert Hoogenraad, David Nash, and Jane Simpson (Co-Compilers). Canberra, AU: Aboriginal Studies Press. 2022. p. xv + 1391. Price: AU$59.99. It is probably not a commonplace to sit down with a dictionary, open it to the first page, and remain captivated through to the end, at points with tears of emotion. Yet this was my experience upon first reading the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary, as the voices of so many old people came through the pages. This gloriously rich cultural and language resource truly lives up to its Warlpiri name – Warlpiri yimi-kirli manu jaru-kurlu (strong Warlpiri words). The volume is a detailed language reference and learning resource, encyclopaedic in its documentation of cultural detail. Most incredibly, this resource draws together contributions from generations of Warlpiri speakers, who have lived across decades of significant social changes within Central Australian communities and the broader globe. This phenomenal volume was produced from ‘Six decades, 210 Warlpiri speakers, 11,000 words’, as The Conversation article published shortly after its launch in April 2023 boasts in its title (see O'Shannessy et al. 2023). Other relevant numbers which help to appreciate its scope are its 1416 pages and 2200 gram weight (a figure important for planning postage and air travel). But these impressive numbers only touch in a small way on the real heart of this work, which beats deeply through its pages with the enormity of the intergenerational contributions of Warlpiri speakers, including both the Warlpiri and non-Warlpiri linguists that have come together so that future Warlpiri generations can keep Warlpiri language strong. Warlpiri people and their communities are immensely proud of this resource. This is due certainly to its brilliance, but also because it is a testimony to two major focuses for Warlpiri community efforts in recent decades: Bilingual Education beginning in the 1970s focused on education for Aboriginal students in their first languages, and the strong and increasing drive for creating legacy resources for the maintenance of Warlpiri cultural heritage. In this essay review, I further explore these two focal Warlpiri interests, which are often central to engagements with researchers. I then conclude with a discussion of the value of the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary – in a context in which speakers today have learned literacy skills and place value on written resources, particularly those documenting language and culture – but also live in contexts in which intergenerational transmission is more dominantly centred on oral modes. To frame this discussion, I begin with an overview of the main features of the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary. The chief compiler, Mary Laughren (Napaljarri), began working in Yuendumu in 1975 as a linguist based at the Yuendumu School. She worked closely with Warlpiri families, researchers, and educationalists across Warlpiri communities over the following decades. Four of the co-compilers of this volume are now deceased, as is sadly a part of a six-decade long project: Jeannie Nungarrayi Egan (1947–2009), Marlurrku Paddy Patrick Jangala (c. 1944–1994), Kenneth Hale (1934–2001), and Robert Hoogenraad (1940–2021). Hale, a talented American linguist, began recording Warlpiri speakers during field trips, particularly in 1959–1960 and 1966–1967, and his transcriptions of these recordings have been drawn on for the dictionary entries. Two Warlpiri co-compilers, Egan and Patrick, wrote many of the definitions of the word meanings and examples of typical usage. Patrick also wrote lists of less commonly used words and articulated meanings through rich oral explanations. Egan wrote many of the storybooks drawn on in the dictionary entries, and which can also be found today alongside many others in the compactus shelves at the Bilingual Resource Development Unit (BRDU) at the Yuendumu School. Both these individuals were passionate Warlpiri educators and were dedicated to the documentation of Warlpiri language and culture. Hoogenraad's involvement over many decades, as a regular contributor to Warlpiri curriculum development through his role on the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT), contributed significantly to education in Warlpiri language and documentation efforts, producing a Warlpiri Picture Dictionary (Hoogenraad and Laughren 2012) among other resources. Additional co-compilers are Australian linguistic powerhouses David Nash and Jane Simpson, both of whom have extensive knowledge and background working on Warlpiri language and with Warlpiri speakers, and who are previous students of the late Ken Hale, having studied with him in Massachusetts (Nash 1980; Simpson 1991). The dictionary's beautiful cover design consists of a collage of portrait photographs of all the people who have contributed to this resource, and is a real treat for all of us who know and love Warlpiri families. Many times when I have sat down with my Warlpiri friends to look through this volume, we have spent significant time immersed in the many faces on the cover before even opening the book. The Preface consists of acknowledgements of these contributors, and gives a sense of the depth of research going on into Warlpiri language, music, education, botany, and other fields. The Warlpiri contributors to the dictionary production are listed in tables in culturally appropriate fashion, organized by community affiliation, gender, and patricouple groupings. There is also a Pronunciation and Spelling guide, a Warlpiri grammar guide, and a guide on how to use the dictionary. The bulk of the 1416-page resource is the Warlpiri to English Dictionary (pp. 24–1213), and it is followed by a Warlpiri to English word finder which references the user back to the larger section. My favourite part of these entries is the numerous example sentences. These show the contributors' deeply engaged process of language and cultural explanation, and are an insight into their translational thought-patterns, and at times their quirkiness and humour. I return to examine further the kinds of intimate details shared in these example sentences and translations later in this essay, demonstrating how the dictionary draws on and documents Warlpiri speakers' detailed environmental, religious, and social knowledge. Two colour photograph inserts have been included with maps of Warlpiri Country, including the regional centres of the different Warlpiri dialects, the main Warlpiri communities, and many of the significant sites across Warlpiri Country. The first colour insert includes photographs of landscape, places, and flora. The second includes photographs of material culture (including many ritual items), diagrams of human body related terminology (also including that of a kangaroo and how to butcher it), and a reproduced diagram of the cardinal directions so central to Warlpiri ways of talking and being in the world (produced by George Jampijinpa Robertson in 1978). There are also a number of useful appendices to this volume including: (1) separate listings of flora and fauna by type; (2) overview of the skin terms and system; (3) descriptions of the Warlpiri specific family relations from both male and female perspectives; (4) a list of suffixes and enclitics; and (5) a chronological overview of the dictionary production process over the decades. The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary was created over the last six decades, during a period marked by profound social change for people living in the remote Tanami desert communities where Warlpiri is mostly spoken. Today, there are around 3000 Warlpiri speakers (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016). The main communities, which are known across the Northern Territory Education circles as ‘The Warlpiri Triangle’, include Lajamanu, Willowra, Yuendumu, and Nyirrpi (Disbray et al. 2020; see also Fig. 1). These communities are united in that their residents speak one language. However, as is marked in the Warlpiri dictionary entries, speakers also associate with particular dialects of Warlpiri, which are nowadays affiliated with these communities, but originated from the land connections across the broader Warlpiri region that families had prior to their shifts to living in the centralized settlements. Warlpiri is also spoken in Alekarenge, Tennant Creek, Ti Tree, and in the larger town of Alice Springs, as well as beyond Central Australia in diasporic communities in Darwin and Adelaide. It is the first language of children growing up in the remote communities, with English mostly learned in children's early school years. Warlpiri is part of the Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family of Australian languages, and is related to other languages spoken to its northwest (Laughren and McConvell 2006). It is one of only a small number of Australian languages which are spoken by all generations, and many Warlpiri people also speak one or more of the neighbouring languages, particularly Pintupi-Luritja, Anmatyerre, Pitjantjatjara, or Gurindji, as well as English. The more recent development of Light Warlpiri is spoken predominantly by younger generations in Lajamanu, and documented by Carmel O'Shannessy (2005:31) as a systematic combination of Warlpiri, Kriol, and English. Source: O'Shannessy et al. (2019:141), based on map created by Brenda Thornley 2019. Yuendumu School was one the four government schools opened in 1950 for Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory – the others being Delissaville, Bagot, and Alice Springs. At this time, the Commonwealth Government was responsible for NT Education. As Brian Devlin's (2025) research has identified, there are reports that ‘… in the “special curriculum” that would be needed, the subjects should include English Language, Native Language (where appropriate)….’, revealing an early recorded commitment to support bilingual instruction for Aboriginal children. Baptist Missionaries were also present across Warlpiri communities, in Yuendumu from 1946 and Lajamanu from 1962, including postings with the Summer Institute of Linguistics focused on bible translation. This meant that a number of key Warlpiri people developed important linguistic and translational skills that they would go on to use in their work in Warlpiri schools. This historical background, set against shifting government agendas and larger national events such as the 1969 Referendum, led to significant developments focused around language documentation work and education in many regions of the Northern Territory. The Whitlam government's election in 1973 had profound impacts on many aspects of remote Aboriginal lives. Adding to the shifts to Aboriginal rights established post-Referendum, this ‘self-determination era’ included important reforms such as the NT Land Rights Act (1976), which saw Warlpiri people for the first time recognized within Australian legal frameworks as the rightful owners of their country. The establishment of Bilingual Education in 1973 was another major initiative of this time. As noted in the Preface to the Warlpiri dictionary, it was under this new program that Warlpiri literacy workers were employed and began to develop materials in Warlpiri for use by Warlpiri teachers in school classrooms (Laughren et al. 2022:vii). Also enabled was the employment of Mary Laughren as a linguist based at the Yuendumu School, and later appointments of other linguists to support Warlpiri language and culture programs. Since these years, there has developed a strong, enduring drive to support the maintenance of Warlpiri language and culture within the Yuendumu School by generations of Warlpiri educators and children. The film Not to Lose You, My Language (directed by Reading 1975) captures some key points of the development of these schools, and features many of the main players in Warlpiri Bilingual Education including Wendy Nangala Baarda, Harry Jakamarra Nelson (deceased), Rex Japanangka Granites (deceased), Robin Japanangka Granites, Kurt Japanangka Granites (deceased), Tess Napaljarri Ross, Jeannie Nungarrayi Egan (deceased), June Napanangka Granites (deceased), and there have been many others since. Another initiative which began with self-determination agendas and took off strongly in Warlpiri Country was the outstation movement of the 1980s, which saw many Warlpiri families move back to their homelands. Some of these outstations became thriving small communities with school buildings, shelters for accommodation, water tanks, as well as educational resources and teachers. Egan (dictionary co-compiler) lived with her family at Wayilinypa outstation during this time, working as a teacher at the school, supported by Wendy Baarda who travelled in from Yuendumu each day. Many Warlpiri people today in their 40s and 50s remember attending school at Wayilinypa. This pinnacle of remote learning came to an end following the death of a senior man and the subsequent requirements for his family to move away from Wayililinypa for a period. The small community of Nyirrpi (southwest from Yuendumu), with a population today of around 300, also began as an outstation in this period and has a highly successful and engaged school community. Nyirrpi School is an important location in the Warlpiri Triangle, has a core group of key Warlpiri educators, and often hosts curriculum development meetings involving other Warlpiri communities. The Warlpiri schools in Lajamanu, Yuendumu, Willowra, and Nyirrpi that were supported through these periods are now epicentres for Warlpiri Bilingual Education and the Warlpiri Dictionary Project. Yuendumu School houses the Bilingual Resource Development Unit (BRDU, previously the Literacy Centre). While there have been a number of government policies in recent decades which may have undermined the initiatives central to these programs (e.g., the ‘First Four Hours’ policy in 2008), the strong base built in these earlier times has allowed ‘The Warlpiri Triangle’ communities to endure with strength. The creation of the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary across these historical periods is a testament to the cohesive, firm, and passionate advocates for strong Warlpiri language and culture, who have remained engaged in this work and associated projects over decades. The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary serves to document Warlpiri language use, but is also a valuable account of traditional knowledge of the environment and cultural contexts in which Warlpiri people live. The dictionary entries contain example sentences provided by Warlpiri people that have been recorded by linguists, wildlife experts, teachers, anthropologists, and many other since the 1950s. The richest documentation is from the oral recordings, transcriptions and fieldnotes of the linguist Ken Hale (co-compiler of the dictionary), who recorded whole series of oral essays from Warlpiri men who had lived a traditional life hunting and gathering food in their country. As such, the dictionaries contain detailed and intimate knowledge of the environments in which these men grew up. In addition, the hundreds of Warlpiri reading books which have been created by the Yuendumu School's BRDU have been drawn on in dictionary entries to provide rich and culturally detailed examples. Some of these reading books centre on Jukurrpa (‘Dreaming’) stories; some document fine detail of the plants and animals that grow in the desert; and some teach culturally specific language, including in domains such as kinship, culturally appropriate behaviours, and ceremonial categories and related social affiliations. Examples of the kinds of information provided in these dictionary entries in the domains of flora and fauna include plant or animal names; descriptions of physical properties; comparison with similar plants and animals; habitat; behaviour; whether the item is edible or non-edible; how to prepare it for eating or other uses; its uses as a food source, tool, weapon, medicine, or ceremonial object; and religious or social values. For example, the entry on the plant kanarlarrampi (Halls Creek Wattle, Acacia cowleana; see Fig. 2) contains intimate details of its physical properties, the type of terrain in which it grows, descriptions of its leaves and seeds, how it is harvested and produced for food, and comparative information about other trees which look similar. This acute detail has been provided by Warlpiri speakers, who have lived on the land throughout their lives, reliant on this knowledge and who have ongoing familiarity and engagements with these environments. Source: Laughren et al. (2022:184). Other dictionary entries give details of animals, many of whom live mostly underground. This is the case in the dictionary entry for warlumirlamirla (Sooth Knob-tailed Gecko Nephrrurus levis, see Fig. 3), which provides information on its habitat, behaviours, and appearance. Source: Laughren et al. (2022:923). The Warlpiri dictionary entries also list many sites on Warlpiri Country, including their locations and the associated Jukurrpa stories, illustrating how a Warlpiri person cannot think about their Country in another way. Take, for example, the entry for Wayililinypa (see Fig. 4), the outstation mentioned above for its large population and school in the 1980s. For this entry, the example sentence includes details of the location of the site, its patricouple affiliation, and a of the related Jukurrpa Source: Laughren et al. These are only a examples of from including other of However, each entry contains this of rich cultural information through examples provided by Warlpiri speakers across of this of the dictionary is a rich legacy resource of Warlpiri culture. This knowledge is for a language and the value of language resources within their cultural These examples are not to one but many voices across time, including acute details known by generations who through Warlpiri Country for periods of their lives. the shifts in Warlpiri culture and wrote this so that the younger can that they can keep this for this that they can this on to other children these and the younger that they can To I touch on the broader of literacy and which in contexts where written resources are into in which language and cultural transmission is In this essay, I have the production of the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary alongside the Bilingual Education which saw Warlpiri school students be in two languages, with a strong on Warlpiri literacy at a As with language, which is spoken in particular ways at points in time and shifts to documentation may old or at for schools of the production of language resources, and the documentation of including and have strongly the of documentation by linguists working with Australian further by who worked with new of at Yuendumu in the 1980s, is that the creation of can sit at with Warlpiri about appropriate cultural In may even cultural Warlpiri people have on their terms for documenting and producing cultural knowledge. This that there is a place for both written resources and of oral transmission in efforts to that cultural knowledge is on with to future In a recent that I with Nungarrayi Granites, and Napaljarri senior Warlpiri we show that Warlpiri with education and literacy across generations has the ways in which other aspects of culture are learned by generations et al. show that it is to from one legacy resource, such as a recording of a because the of music, language, across the engagements with the ways in which this knowledge is produced in social context are for all the information to be together in a But in where legacy resources are this is as there are many of documentation from which one may The school reading books are examples of these kinds of resources through their teach their information about language. strong Warlpiri educators reading these books to Warlpiri school a highly way of these resources for language transmission and development of literacy skills has been The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary, through its numerous example sentences the focal words in real this As such, it is a language documentation and learning resource, the of examples to detail and a language in its cultural It is also an important to the documentation of and It is a centred on together the efforts of generations to resources that not this knowledge to a particular but use of the of these voices to a resource which learning This of resource, and the of research are only through and community engagements with speakers, linguists, and other researchers. The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary particularly as it is so in the efforts of Bilingual Education programs as they have developed across decades.