Watching the past 1 Y15_Canon_0100to0102 Audio-visual documentation of Meakambut ways of speaking

The Meakambut watching themselves and their deceased ancestors in a video-recording from 1991 The Meakambut are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, numbering about 60, moving between camps and rock shelters in their mountainous territory in East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. As one of very few semi-nomadic groups in Melanesia, they are key for understanding the (socio)linguistic situation which would have prevailed before agriculture. Apart from basic word-lists there has been no prior research on the language. Using observational filming to supplement basic linguistic and ethnographic documentation, this project provides audio-visual documentation and analysis of a variety of Meakambut speech practices, embedded in rich ethnographic data. In these videos the Meakambut are filmed watching and commenting on video footage (recorded by anthropologist Borut Telban who visited the group in 1991) of themselves as children, and their now deceased relatives. age estimated; date of birth estimated age estimated Kanak can speak a little bit of TP and can sing in Enga and Anday, but is not fluent in either. age estimated can sing in Anday, Enga, fluent in TP age estimated. Uriamey recently learnt Tok Pisin. She can iunderstand a bit of Anday and Enga age estimated can understand a bit of Anday, Enga, Awiakay, fluent in TP Darja's mother tongue is Slovene, her working languages are Tok Pisin and English. She is fluent in Tok Pisin and Awiakay, but has only basic knowledge of Meakambut. She's the researcher and filmmaker.