Occasions for Sign Use in an Australian Aboriginal Community

OCCASIONS FOR SIGN USE IN AN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY Joan Kwek Introductory note by Adam Kendon Some form of gestural communication or signing has been noted to be prevalent among Australian Aborigines by European observers since writing about this people began. Indeed, at the time when Europeans first came into contact with Aborigines, the use of sign, when noted, was often a source of amazement, and led to many unfounded myths about the mysterious powers of communication Aborigines seemed to possess. Incertain parts of Australia sign use ishighly elaborated and can be used as a full-fledged alternative to speech. This is especially the case in the northern area of the Central Desert where, among such groups as the Waramungu and the Warlpiri itis the custom for women (but not men) to use signs in place of speech when bereaved of actual or classificatory spouse, child, or son-in-law. The period during which sign replaces speech inthis way may be as long as two years insome cases. Readers interested in a detailed account of this custom are referred to Kendon (1988). However, although speech taboos may account for the complexity of signing in some areas, this must be understood as but a special elaboration within the context of a more general predisposition to use sign that seems to be widespread inAboriginal society. How can this apparent predisposition be accounted for? What has been needed is detailed observation of the use of signs in everyday interaction, coupled with an understanding of the kinds of interaction such usage makes possible and how this tendency to communicate gesturally may relate to the use of other forms of communication. The following paper by Joan Kwek, makes a valuable contribution to an understanding of these phenomena. Although she reports a few observations first hand, and relies largely on what she has been Q1991, by Linstok Press, Inc. See note inside front cover ISSN 0302-1475 143 Kwek told by her sister, who was not herself especially concerned with sign use, what she reports here is consistent with the observations of others, but more detailed. Of especial value, it seems to me, are Kwek's insightful comments. Her central point, that sign can provide a form of communication between people without implying that the social relationship between them is publicly acknowledged is highly illuminating, and, given the nature of social life among Australian Aborigines, inwhich explicit social relationships are so often a matter of continual negotiation, it provides a basis for understanding why sign use should be so prevalent among them. Implicit in her commentary is the idea that the medium of communication not only has consequences for the structure of the code employed (afamiliar point to those involved in sign language research); it also has consequences for the mode of social relationship itcan mediate. Thus, there is a relationship between the communicative modality that mediates interaction and the nature of the social relationships entered into and sustained. The highly indirect style of interaction described in this paper, with an avoidance of direct verbal expression and the preference for quiet, almost self-effacing interchanges, is highly characteristic of Australian Aborigines and has been described by many writers. Readers interested in pursuing such observations further would find it useful to look at Sansom (1980), Myers (1986), and the discussion in Chapter 14 of my own book (Kendon 1988). Those interested in the traditional ethnographic situation of the Western Desert Aborigines, to which the Manjiljarra speaking Aborigines Kwek writes about belong, would find Tonkinson (1978) very useful. An account that deals with their more recent situation may be found inTonkinson (1974). Of the observations reported by Kwek in this paper, probably most interesting to readers of this journal are those concerning the deaf girl. There is almost no information on the place of deaf people in Aboriginal society, and the observations described here seem to suggest that the already prevalent use of sign language may make it easier for a deaf individual to be integrated into the society. We are not provided with enough detail here to know what signing was used with the girl. Some other observations suggest that local "home sign" systems may develop, involving...