Who is Dukepa?
I’m the guy in the Hawaiian shirt below.
…
(…for those who don’t know me, there’s a bit more on my story at the bottom of this page…)
What motivates you?
My main motivation for starting this business is personal.
Over the 5 years I spent based in the East Pilbara working with Martu, there were a number of people who really took a lot of time to teach me – particularly to speak their languages Manyjilyjarra/Martu Wangka. Some of the same people are still keen to work with me, and see it as valuable to do so.
These relationships are important to me. I really value the experiences I’ve had with these same people, and am keen to keep working with them. It would seem a let down – rude even – to just bail and not put my language skills and what people have taught me to good use. Hence I’m going to keep making myself available to be of value where we reckon I most can.
This is also a multi-layered question.
A frustration with and drive to change Western Australia’s, Australia’s, and the world’s systemically flawed ways of interacting with and valuing indigenous cultures, and to make these places I identify with (eg. WA) a bit less racist, was a huge motivator to come and work here in the first place.
I’ve also learnt a lot about, and invested a lot in helping raise awareness and consideration of, how strong language, culture, identity, wellbeing, connection, place, society, and community development are all inextricably interwoven of the same thread. In our monolingual Australian society, a lot of people don’t get this. So I’ve tried explaining a little bit of a theoretical intro below…
Why should I care about language?
THE CONCEPTS
Think of a game, any game, eg. football. Without rules for a game, there is no field, there is no ball, there are no teams, there are no players, there is no objective. There’s nothing. The game doesn’t exist. It’s the rules that constitute the very game into existence. And the rules only make sense as a system, because they all refer to each other.
Language is similar, but for thought, values and cultural worldview. Language forms a knowledge system of concepts that only make sense relative to each other – also known as an ontological system. This system of concepts ultimately constitutes our sense of meaning, values, purpose, society, and belonging.
Language defines our understandings and observations of a place and of what’s in that place, as well as our understandings of our purpose and of our connections to everything and everyone in that place.
Because the knowledge system by means of which we understand and communicate, brings our very sense of meaning, purpose, values, society, and belonging into existence, undermining a culture’s language and communication can quickly undermine these unique aspects of identity, knowledge, and social fabric within that culture. Strong language, culture, country, and community wellbeing are all critical to one another.
Language is, thereby, a strength to be maintained and proud of, not a problem to be managed!
Language is also thus the first key to properly understanding cross-cultural perspectives and concepts.
THE (inter)ACTION
What we really mean when we act, communicate and interact in a certain way within each certain context – is mutually understood specifically within each culture.
Think of a well-known practical example: an indigenous Australian person in court might bow their head and remain silent. They might understand this as respect, deference, humility and part of the proper acknowledgement of a highly held cultural value of reciprocal deference. Exemplary behaviour. Unfortunately, a mainstream jury would interpret the same bowed head and silence as an expression of guilt. Not good.
This is because of something known as ‘cultural scripts’. Communication only works because we use it together, and by using it we form and reinforce mutual understandings of what we really mean when we communicate and act as we do with each other in different contexts. Martu have their own rich culture and rich tradition of communicating, understanding and enacting their values, identity and social fabric, in specific, idiosyncratic ways and contexts. Every culture does, and it’s part of the beauty of humanity. It’s also a powerful marker of identity, and can have profound significance within distinct cultural belief systems – something that is certainly the case from Martu perspectives. When we communicate, we interact with and act upon those around us.
THE LINGUISTIC LENS
Being able to observe and understand why we communicate and interact as we do – provides an illuminating lens into the unique expression of every society’s unique culture and values.
What I seek to do is to turn that lens around.
We need to value diverging ways of perceiving, understanding and valuing what’s around us, if we are to achieve and benefit from real cross-cultural security as we walk and learn together. Not doing so is like looking through a telescope from the wrong end. You don’t see or learn anything.
In order to see and value the perspective from the other side of the cross-cultural gap, we need to learn what people “really mean”when they act and communicate in different ways. We need to examine what we ourselves “really mean” when we act and communicate in different ways. And then we need to learn what we all really understand when we see each other acting and communicating differently across cultures.
This routinely requires creativity, openness, and a readiness to see the bigger picture and try fresh approaches, rather than imposing your own norms and values onto others.
It has the power to transform interactions in ways that we often don’t realise are possible – in ways that redefine and set new and better standards for us all. And it provides us all with unique challenges and unique opportunities for growth.
Sound cross-cultural communication requires, as a starting point, a recognition of the need and a genuine desire to do better – for ourselves and for those with whom we work.
I hope to help you to relish the complexity of the unique challenges and opportunities for growth with which multilingual and cross-cultural spaces provide us – and look forward to us all learning and working together.
Okay, cool. What hole did Dukepa crawl out of though?
In mid-2016, I moved to Newman for a 3 month internship with Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ) to learn to speak Martu Wangka and to try to make friends with Martu. 5 years on – it’s been quite a ride!
I was lucky enough to receive extensive tutelage from the inimitable Manyjirr “Nana May” Brooks, as well as from a host of very kind and patient teachers across all the Martu communities. Being in the position of student was a formative one for teaching humility and respect. One gains a real appreciation of the poetry with which people express themselves, when one can’t do so eloquently oneself. One also naturally has respect and gratitude for those patient enough to teach and look after them. Finally, one learns about a different knowledge system.
My role at KJ centred on integrating the mutually contingent aspirations of sustainable Martu community development, and sustainable Martu language revitalisation. It involved a huge variety of experiences working cross-culturally, and being accountable to stakeholders in both Martu and mainstream cultures. Working together to integrate Martu languages into all of our work, we achieved a great deal to keep Martu languages strong. Momentum to do so remains sustained and strong across the Martu community today.
For anyone interested in my story before coming to the desert…:
I’m originally from Perth, Western Australia. My parents moved overseas for work, so I finished highschool at an international school in Zurich, and got to learn to speak a few European languages. I then majored in Philosophy and PolSci, dropping PolSci for Spanish before graduating with 1st Class Honours in Language Studies at the Australian National University in 2015 – having researched and written about Bolivian Indigenous Language Education Policy.
My parents came from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Australia in 1985, and instilled in me at a young age a sense of social justice and disdain for social injustices. As someone descended mostly from European colonials, brought up amidst the unfairness of white Australia, and educated in a country that’s a glorified tax haven, I’m aware I’m quite lucky, I benefit from a lot of injustice and suffering of others, and I feel a need to be an active part of positive change to this current state of affairs rather than part of the problem.
For a few other FAQ’s, see the Services section of this website.