Patyegarang (c 1780s) was an Australian Aboriginal woman, thought to be from the Cammeraygal clan[1] of the Dharug nation. Patyegarang (pronounced Pa-te-ga-rang) taught William Dawes the language of her people and is thought to be one of the first people to have taught an Aboriginal language to the early colonists in New South Wales.

Contact with the colonists

Patyegarang was aged around 15 when she became a guide and language teacher to William Dawes.[2][3] Dawes, an astronomer, mathematician and linguist, was a lieutenant in the Royal Marines on board HMS Sirius, of the First Fleet, to the Colony of New South Wales.[4] William Dawes met Patye (as he would call her) when he struck up friendships with the local Gadigal people.

Documenting language

William Dawes was the first person to write down an Australian language.[5][6] Patyegarang tutored Dawes in his understanding and assisted in the documentation[7] of the Dharug language spoken by the Gadigal people and other tribes, sometimes referred to as the Sydney language.[3][8] Patyegarang was one of the first people to have taught an Aboriginal language to a non-Aboriginal person.[9][10] Together they made the first detailed study of Australian Indigenous languages, compiling vocabularies, grammatical forms, and many expressions in the language during his three-year stay in the colony.[11][12]

Three notebooks compiled by William Dawes survive.[13] The language notebooks were discovered by Phyllis Mander-Jones, an Australian librarian, while she was working at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).[6][14]

The notebooks include specific terms for the sun, the moon and the clouds leading Indigenous Curator James Wilson Miller to note that Patyegarang had detailed knowledge of the land and sky.[15][16]

Relationship with William Dawes

Patyegarang may have lived with William Dawes in his hut at Observatory Point.[17][18] Some of the expressions she shared with Dawes, such as Putuwá which means "to warm one's hand by the fire and then to squeeze gently the fingers of another person"[19] indicate a close relationship.[17] Australian writer Thomas Keneally describes Patyegarang as the "chief language teacher, servant, and perhaps lover" of William Dawes.[20]

Patyegarang learned to speak and read English from Dawes. It is not clear how long she was associated with him or what eventually happened to her.[17]

Proposal for statue of Patyegarang

In 2020 a motion was put to the Council of the City of Sydney proposing that the council's CEO "work with local Aboriginal groups, including a representative from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC), to identify potential options to commission a public artwork commemorating Patyegarang".[21][22] However, this has been without the consultation of Patyegarang's descendants or Dharug Elders and Community members as Metro Local Aboriginal Land Council does not speak for the Dharug Community.

In 2014, the Bangarra Dance Theatre created a work choreographed by Stephen Page called Patyegarang depicting her life and relationship with Dawes.[23][24][25][26]

I believe Patyegarang was a young woman of fierce and endearing audacity, and a 'chosen one', so to speak, within her clan and community. Her tremendous display of trust in Dawes resulted in a gift of cultural knowledge back to her people almost 200 years later and I feel her presence around us, with us, as we create this new work.

Stephen Page, 2014

Writer Kate Grenville based the characters in her novel The Lieutenant on the historical friendship of Patyegarang, the young Gadigal woman, and Lieutenant William Dawes.[27][28]

Patji-Dawes Award

The Patji-Dawes Award, named after Patyegarang and Dawes, recognises "outstanding achievements in language teaching by an accomplished practitioner in Australia, whether teaching in primary or secondary school, university, language schools or centres".[29] The award was originally an outreach activity of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language in collaboration with the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA). The AFMLTA now administers the award which is presented at its annual international conference.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "First contact". July 2014.
  2. ↑ "Patyegarang". The notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal Language of Sydney. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 First Australians. Episode 1, They have come to stay, Blackfella Films, 2008, retrieved 30 March 2015
  4. ↑ Nathan, David; Rayner, Susannah; Brown, Stuart. "DRH 2007 Proposal abstract Opening Dawes: Organising Knowledge around a Linguistic Manuscript".
  5. ↑ Stuchbery, Mike (25 January 2012). "Embracing those golden moments of understanding". ABC The Drum. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  6. 1 2 Mander-Jones, Phyllis, ed. (1972), Manuscripts in the British Isles relating to Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, Australian National University Press, ISBN 978-0-7081-0450-7
  7. ↑ "The notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal language of Sydney". Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Troy, Jakelin (1994), The Sydney language, J.Troy, ISBN 978-0-646-11015-8
  9. ↑ "Who was Patyegarang?". Deadly Vibe. 208. June 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  10. ↑ Moran, Alexis; McAllister, Jai (11 March 2020). "Patyegarang: Australia's first teacher of Aboriginal language". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  11. ↑ Gibson, Ross (Winter 2009). "Event-grammar: The Language Notebooks of William Dawes". Meanjin. 68 (2): 91–99. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Walsh, Michael; Yallop, Colin L, eds. (1993), Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Aboriginal Studies Press, pp. 45–46, ISBN 978-0-85575-241-5
  13. ↑ Gibson, Ross (30 January 2015). "Cast Against Type". Interventions. 17 (2): 196–210. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2014.993327. S2CID 161621684.
  14. ↑ "Patyegarang Teachers' Resource" (PDF). Bangarra Dance Theatre. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Powerhouse Museum (2008), yinalung yenu=women's journey: teachers exhibition notes, retrieved 30 March 2015
  16. ↑ Stevenson, T. M. (2012). "Observing the Less Visible: Alice takes on Astronomy". Museological (16): 29. ISSN 1354-5825.
  17. 1 2 3 Pybus, Cassandra (2011). "Not fit for your protection or an honest man's company': A transnational perspective on the saintly William Dawes". History Australia. 12 (1). Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  18. ↑ Thomas, Sue (2012). "A transnational perspective on William Dawes' treatment of women". History Australia. 10 (1).
  19. ↑ Dawes, William. "The notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal language of Sydney: Book B, Page 21". Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Keneally, Thomas (2009), Australians. Volume 1, Origins to Eureka, Allen & Unwin, p. 166, ISBN 978-1-74175-069-0
  21. ↑ Minutes by the LM Pro Forma for Council - Patyegarang Statue, cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au, 29 June 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  22. ↑ Alec Smart, "City of Sydney defer Aboriginal woman statue", CityHub, 4 July 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  23. ↑ "Patyegarang's gift". Deadly Vibe. 208. June 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  24. ↑ "Patyegarang". Bangarra Dance Theatre. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  25. ↑ Bangarra Dance Theatre (30 May 2014). "Patyegarang theatre program 2014". Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  26. ↑ Smith, Margaret (17 June 2014). "Patyegarang: first contact's Romeo and Juliet". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  27. ↑ Grenville, Kate (2008), The lieutenant, Text Publishing, ISBN 978-1-921351-78-5
  28. ↑ McKinnon, C. (January 2012). "Writing white, writing black, and events at Canoe Rivulet". TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs. 16 (2): 1–17. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  29. ↑ Australian Research Council. "Indigenous language teachers win Patji-Dawes Award". Retrieved 29 June 2023.

Further reading

  • Gibson, Ross (2010), "Patyegarang and William Dawes: The space of imagination", in Banivanua-Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (eds.), Making settler colonial space: perspectives on race, place and identity, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 245, ISBN 978-0-230-22179-6
  • Lake, Meredith (2008), "Salvation and conciliation: First missionary encounters at Sydney Cove.", in Barry, Amanda (ed.), Evangelists of empire?: missionaries in colonial history, University of Melbourne. School of Historical Studies, pp. 93–97, ISBN 978-0-7340-3968-2
  • "The Notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal Language of Sydney [Home page]". The Notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal Language of Sydney. School of Oriental and African Studies.
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