The Wihu Singing of the Tangshang / Tangsa Naga
Date Monday 27th May 2019
Time 5:30 pm for 6pm start
Venue La Trobe University, City Campus, Board Room, Level 20, 360 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000.
Register here http://eventbrite.com.au/e/61218549329 by 24th for catering purpose.
No charge, but GOLD COIN DONATIONS requested to cover costs.
The presentation, which will be illustrated by video and audio examples, will discuss and analyse traditional songs of the Tangsa or Tangshang Naga, a community of perhaps 100,000 living on both sides of the India-Myanmar border, mostly in the north of Sagaing Region and in Arunachal Pradesh on the India side. There are around 80 ‘sub-tribes’ of the Tangsa/Tangshang, each of which has its own linguistic variety. Some of these are fully mutually intelligible, effectively different dialects, but some are so different as to be not mutually intelligible. They represent a significant part of the many 100s of Naga languages and dialects.
Stephen Morey is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University. He has researched smaller, underdescribed languages on both sides of the India-
Myanmar border, belong to the Tai, Singpho and Naga language groups. This work has included a detailed documentation and study of traditional songs. He also researches the historical materials relating to the indigenous languages of Victoria.
Jürgen Schöpf studied musicology, linguistics, and anthropology at the Universität Göttingen, Germany. He worked as a recording engineer while preparing his doctoral dissertation in Ethnomusicology. He is now at La Trobe University, documenting minority cultures in the Northeast India/Myanmar border area.
Vong Tsuh Shi is a post graduate student in Latrobe University. Her study focuses on Wihu song of Tangsa / Tangshang Naga. She did her Masters degree in Linguistics in Payap University, Thailand, later working with a prominent linguistics NGO. Before resuming her doctoral study, she volunteered to help more than fifty ethnic language groups in writing language guides for language teachers in a UNICEF (Myanmar) project.
A question and answer session will be conducted after the talk.
There will also be a quick update on preparations for the conference to be held in January 2020
For more information about AMI, please visit: aummi.edu.au/.