Recent tradition in Australia

Adolfo Gentile | Monash University

This report offers a diachronic view of the concept of Translation in Australia from the time of British colonisation. It traces the events in Translation practice which have led to the current, broadly instrumental view of Translation. From the attempts at Bible translation into indigenous languages, to the provision of a telephone interpreter service, Translation was first an instrument of colonisation, then of religious conversion and, since World War 2 in particular, part of the armoury in the nation-building efforts through the migration program.

Keywords: Australia, indigenous languages, migration, interpreting services, accreditation, attitudes to Translation

Published online: 05 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.145.02gen

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics

2002 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands population Year Book Australia 2002.

Australia. Committee on Overseas Professional Qualifications. Working party on Interpreters

1977 The Language Barrier: a report. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Australia. Senate Standing Committee for Education and the Arts

1984 A National Language Policy Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Carey, H. M.

2009 Death, God and linguistics: conversations with missionaries on the Australian frontier 1824–1845 Australian Historical Studies 40 (2), 161–177.

Cook, M.

2002 Indigenous interpreting issues for courts Carlton: Australian Institute of Judicial Administration.

Dixon, R. M. W.

1980 The Languages of Australia New York: Cambridge University Press

2002 Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development New York: Cambridge University Press.

Girola, S.

2010 The Italian Connection: New Historical sources on European-Aboriginal Relationships. The Australasian Catholic Record 87 (1), 92–106.

‘Grey, Sir George. 1812–1898’

, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/grey-sir-george-2125/text2691, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 13 April 2016.

Gunson, N.

(1967) Threlkeld, Lancelot Edward 1788–1859. In D. Pike (Ed.), The Australian Dictionary of Biography (Vol. 2). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Johnston, Trevor and Adam Schembri

2007 Australian Sign Language New York: Cambridge University Press.

Jupp, J., & Kabala, M.

(eds.) 1993 The Politics of Australian Immigration. Canberra: AGPS.

Keary, Anne

2009 Christianity, colonialism, and cross-cultural translation: Lancelot Threlkeld, Biraban, and the Awabakal Aboriginal History 33, 117–155.

Martin, J. I.

1978 The Migrant Presence Hornsby NSW: George Allen & Unwin Australia

McCarthy, F. D.

1966 ‘Bungaree (?–1830)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bungaree-1848/text2141, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 14 April 2016.

National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI)

Annual Reports.

Pizzini, R.

(ed.) 2010 Nagoyo: la vita di don Angelo Confalonieri fra gli Aborigeni d’Australia Trento: Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino.

Roberts, D. A.

2008 Language to save the innocent: Reverend L. Threlkeld’s linguistic mission. Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 94 (2), 107–125.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography

1966 Vol. 1 Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Threlkeld, L. E.

‘Specimens of a Dialect of the Aborigines of New South Wales: Being the first attempt to form their speech into a written language’, Sydney 1827 http://andc.anu.edu.au/australian-words/vocabulary/borrowings-from-australian-aboriginal-languages- accessed 29/03/2016