Paper short abstract:

Understanding how Aboriginal people in Timber Creek (NT) perceive (or do not perceive) climate change through an examination of how language encodes their worldview, which is cyclical and permanent - a worldview that is not fixed in time: it was, and is, everywhen.

Paper long abstract:

It is estimated that Aboriginal people have been living in Australia for 40000 to 60000 years. They often depict themselves as 'custodians' of the land (Leonard et al. 2013). This paper focuses on Communities in the Northern Territory where the geographic distribution of the population and the location of the Indigenous 'estates' make them especially vulnerable to climate change.

Over
the
past
fifteen
years
a
substantial
effort
has
been
undertaken to identify climate risks and the impact of climate change in Australia (www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au). However, the very concept of climate change is somewhat elusive for many Aboriginal people. Better communication would ensure their fuller participation in developing and implementing policies and
programmes. We argue that a significant step in establishing this communication is to understand Aboriginal people's worldview through their language which is the basis of an ontology that posits a direct relationship between land, language and people (Merlan 1981). Going beyond discourse analysis, we will examine how the cyclical worldview of speakers of Jaminjung/Ngaliwurru, spoken around Timber Creek, is expressed in language. We will show how narratives of the Dreaming, still unravelling, are repositories of knowledge; and how the categorisation of plants and animals reflects this interconnected world and encompasses all dimensions of life (Stanner 2011). For people who have seen their way of life radically disrupted since the advent of white settlement, climate change is but another of the manifestations of 'the wild times' (in in their words).