Prof. Dr. Rob Amery

Prof. Rob Amery held the Dr. R. Marika Visiting Chair of Australian Studies in the winter semester 2010/2011.

Prof. Amery completed a Masters by research in 1985 at ANU on Dhuwaya, a new koine variety of Yolngu Matha that has arisen at Yirrkala, northeast Arnhemland and a PhD at the University of Adelaide in 1998 (published in August 2000) on Kaurna language reclamation. He serves as consultant linguist to the Kaurna language programs in schools and various community projects which incorporate the Kaurna language and has been consulted about numerous placenaming initiatives and other Kaurna naming activity. He works closely with members of the Kaurna community to reclaim the language from historical materials and to develop the language for use in a range of contemporary contexts. This includes convening the Kaurna Warra Pintyandi (KWP) group, a small Kaurna language planning group consisting of Kaurna people and others involved in the teaching and development of the language. The KWP group meets monthly to address requests for names and translations and to work on Kaurna language projects.?? In 2009 he assumed leadership and management of the Mobile Language Team, a new Commonwealth funded initiative supporting community-based Aboriginal language work across South Australia. Prof. Amery has previously worked in Aboriginal Health as a nurse in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, at Batchelor College (now Batchelor Institute) and at Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University) teaching linguistics. In 1993-94 Prof. Amery worked as Project Officer for the Australian Indigenous Languages Framework (AILF) project at the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA) to introduce Aboriginal languages as accredited programs at senior secondary level. In 2010 he served on a panel of experts to advise on inclusion of Australian Indigenous languages within the new National Curriculum.

 

Publications:

please see list of publications at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/robert.amery