Apmere Angkentye-kenhe, which translates as - a place for language - was a social language project created through a collaboration between local artists and senior Central/Eastern Arrernte language custodians & families. It worked to support Arrernte language speakers aims in maintaining language and promoting Central/Eastern Arrernte - Central Arrernte being the first language of Mparntwe. The project opened a social learning space in a yellow shed in the Alice Springs CBD as a place where people could come together and learn from each other, putting Arrernte knowledge first. The project produced a range of resources and things to take home which promote language learning and encourage people to think about who’s country they are on. The project at its core was about listening.

In its best instances, the project operated by simultaneously engaging my interests around unknowing coloniality and being attentive to local knowledges, and Arrernte people’s interests in passing on language knowledge – primarily within Arrernte families and communities, but also to a broader public. The project positioned Arrernte language learning and the necessary associated listening as a potential site for critical reflection on the ways settler and Arrernte cultures encounter one another. Apmere Angkentye-kenhe required new relationships to be made, and was expressly about the generation of new relationships – people, things and ideas in proximity, being tested. It relied on some old alliances, and revealed some new alliances. And some old divides.

APMERE ANGKENTYE-KENHE MAKERS, ADVISORS & KEY VOLUNTEERS

Alana Aldous, Alison Ferber, Amelia Kngwarraye Turner, Anne-Marie Palmer, Benedict Stevens, Beth Sometimes, Bryan Phillips, Caddie Brain, Caitlin Coulston, Cathy Turner, Edan Baxter, Felicity Hayes, Gabriel Kngwarraye Turner, Gerard Rice, Helena Buzzacott, Jack Batty, Jacquita Palmer, Jodie Clarkson, Joel Liddle, John Cavenagh, Julie Hayes, Kate Lawrence, Kumalie Riley, Lorrayne Gorey, Magdalene Marshall, Mali Cavenagh, Margaret Carew, Margaret Kemarre Turner, Mervyn Rubuntja, Michael Gorey, Natassia Furber-Gorey, Peter Coco Wallace, Phyllis Stevens, Shaun Angeles, Sharon Alice, Shirley Kngwarraye Turner, Stephen Kernan, Steve Anderson, Tam Hanson, Theresa Alice, Therese Ryder, Veronica Dobson, Veronica Kngwarraye Turner, William (Nookie) Lowah, Wyonna Palmer

Apmere Angkentye-kenhe was hugely supported in it’s first two years by Watch This Space. Thank you to the immense trust placed in me by the organisation, especially Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts. Watch This Space maintains a small-scale DIY aesthetic to its practices and was the ideal organisation to honour a commitment to avoiding the tropes of the powerful. The project went on to be supported by Arrernte organisation Akeyulerre Healing Centre, who still sell some of the language resources produced by the project, and in 2023 will move into new premises incorporating a small cultural centre which will house the 3D place name speaking map produced by Apmere Angkentye-kenhe.

In it’s final year, the project produced an app to house some of the resources produced, including a new sound work, Akertne-ntyele awetyeke - a generous audio ‘walk’ to be listened to atop Untyeyetwelye or Anzac Hill. We invited sound artist Bryan Phillips to work the group to produce what eventuated as ten tracks comprising sound and voice.

The following people lent their knowledge and thoughts to the recordings: Alison Ferber, Amelia Kngwarraye Turner, Benedict Stevens, Edward (Arranye) Johnson (d), Felicity Hayes, Gabriel Kngwarraye Turner, Julie Hayes, Lorrayne Gorey (d), Magdalene Marshall, Margaret Kemarre Turner, Mervyn Rubuntja, Michael Gorey, Peter Coco Wallace, Shirley Kngwarraye Turner, Stephen Kernan, Veronica Kngwarraye Turner, William (Nookie) Lowah and Wyonna Palmer.

The work involves discussion of altyerre - the travels of creation beings through the land, protocols for engaging with and management of land, local Arrernte history, experiences of living in town vs out of town, language and local greetings.