Home2024 Melbourne Symposia

VASTA Regional Symposium 2024

Melbourne, Australia

Join us from 27-29 June 2024, for VASTA’s first Australian gathering. We will meet in Naarm (Melbourne) for 3 days of knowledge exchange, practical play, and lively discussion

Innovative Voice

In an age of significant cultural, political, and scientific progress, where do voice practitioners fit in? As digital technology and AI rapidly develop, how can we innovate our practice to remain relevant? How can our work include all voices? We invite you to consider what must we cut loose, and what principles and practices remain integral to our work going forward.

Venue

The symposium will be held at the Victorian College of the Arts in the vibrant arts precinct of Melbourne,so South bank. VCA is one of Australia's leading creative educators and research spaces. The campus is home to trainee actors, theatre-makers, directors, visual artists, film-makers, dancers and more. Within walking distance to Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, the Arts Centre Melbourne, and the National Gallery of Victoria, VCA is buzzing with creative energy and excellent outing opportunities!

Melbourne

Melbourne is known for both its mainstream and fringe theatre, visual arts, live music, and excellent coffee (just ask any Melbournian). Voted the ‘World's Most Liveable City’ for seven years running, Australia's ‘garden city’ also boasts stunning architecture and beautiful parks in and around the business centre. There is ample accommodation in the Southbank region (walk to VCA), in the Melbourne CBD, and in surrounding suburbs. Melbourne boasts an excellent public transport system, so getting around is fast and efficient. Rideshare options are also popular.

For questions about the symposium, please email melbourne@vasta.org.

Keynotes

Hearing the voices: Embracing diversity in the study of language in society

Celeste Rodríguez Louro & Glenys Collard
The University of Western Australia / Mallee Aboriginal Corporation

Celeste Rodríguez Louro

Dr Celeste Rodríguez Louro is Chair of the Linguistics Discipline and Director of Language Lab at The University of Western Australia. Trained in Argentina, the USA, and Australia, her award-winning research tracks language change across time. Celeste is also interested in decolonisation, standardisation, and multilingualism. Her publications have appeared in top international outlets, and she has raised over four million dollars in funding. Celeste has taught Linguistics to more than 1,500 students – winning two Teaching Excellence Awards in the space of three years. She presents the weekly segment Language Lab which has featured on RTR FM 92.1 radio since early 2022. Celeste works with the Heart Foundation to decolonise the production of medical media for First Nations communities. She has also recently partnered with Google on a significant project which will ensure inclusive AI-operated technology for First Nations people in Australia.

Glenys Collard

Glenys Collard is a Nyungar woman who has been working for and with the Nyungar people for over 35 years. She is an Honorary Research Fellow and a member of Language Lab at The University of Western Australia. Glenys has contributed extensively to understanding history, language, and culture in Nyungar country and beyond. She was the first to record the Nyungar language with elders Mr Humphries and Mr Bennell and has chaired multiple state-level and national committees. She is a published author and has taught workshops to thousands of teachers and university students across Australia. Glenys works closely with the Heart Foundation to decolonise the production of medical media for First Nations communities. She is also working with Google on a project that will ensure inclusive technologies for First Nations people in Australia.

We have all heard or read about “embracing diversity” in our professions, but what does this look like in practice? In this presentation, we will take you on a journey through our First Nations-led collaboration to study Australian Aboriginal English, an Indigenised variety of English spoken by approximately 80% of First Nations people in Australia (Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2020,2021a,b). Our sociolinguistic research into Aboriginal English as spoken in Nyungar country, Southwest Western Australia allowed us to record and analyse the way that people use language in everyday contexts. Our use of “yarning” as a method of data collection made it possible to engage with community in a culturally safe fashion (Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2021c). We also applied a diversity lens when we worked with the Heart Foundation to decolonise medical media for First Nations communities (Collard & Rodríguez Louro, Submitted; Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2021d). In this presentation, we demonstrate how working together can ensure that we “hear the voices” of those at the margins of mainstream practice and how, with every minute decision in the right direction, we can make the world a better place.

References

Collard, Glenys & Celeste Rodríguez Louro (Submitted). From spark to flame: Decolonial linguistics and the creation of First Nations medical media. In Ndhlovu, F. & Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Decolonisation. London: Routledge.

Rodríguez Louro, Celeste & Glenys Collard (2020). Ten ways Aboriginal Australians made English their own. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/10-ways-aboriginal-australians-made-english-their-own-128219

Rodríguez Louro, Celeste & Glenys Collard (2021a). Australian Aboriginal English: Linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. Language and Linguistics Compass 15(5): 1–12.

Rodríguez Louro, Celeste & Glenys Collard (2021b). Teaching and learning guide for Australian Aboriginal English: Linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. Language and Linguistics Compass.

Rodríguez Louro, Celeste & Glenys Collard (2021c). Working together: Sociolinguistic research in urban Aboriginal Australia. Journal of Sociolinguistics 25(5): 785–807.

Rodríguez Louro, Celeste & Glenys Collard (2021d). Yarns from the heart: The role of Aboriginal English in Indigenous health communication. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/yarns-from-the-heart-the-role-of-aboriginal-english-in-indigenous-health-communication-163892