I like to get this stuff off my chest occasionally. It peeves me a lot.

And David - I am intrigued by the implied contradiction you noticed. We have a solid category in documentary in which a subject is covered by a crew who have fulll authorial or journalistic responsibility. And there’s a group in which the filmmaker is the subject on a personal journey. But there is a hybrid in which the subject is a presenter and has responsibility for what is said and done on camera, but does not have rights over the cut. This can be pretty wobbly, as the presenter may or may not write the script.

(I’ve worked on a version in which I reworked elements of a subject’s book into a script, which he then paraphrased on camera. But the producer controls the cut and owns the project. In this instance, he was scripted to do lots of things in front of the camera, in which he was an experimental subject. But he was NEVER seen to do real research which he hadn’t actually done already. These projects depend very much on the presenter - witness to which is the fact that the project collapsed when he got sick.)

It is possible that the secrecy thing was a visa issue. Crews are not supposed to work on films for any length of time without visas, and T am not sure whether they violated that rule. Which does happen often.

Enduring Voices is at least generating a lot of publicity. CBC Radio noticed it and is interviewing me Monday morning (at 06:30 - the sacrifices we make for the cause….).

I hope some of you may have heard some of the interviews I did this week on various Australian Radio stations, in which I described at length and in detail the fine work of language revitalization, as carried out by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian scholars, that we were privileged to have been invited to observe first-hand in NT and WA. Revitalization efforts, both cultural and linguistic, were the sole theme and focus of our expedition. I have not yet posted my own report on our expedition, in my own words, but I hope to do so soon.

A couple of further responses seem to be required of me by comments posted above:

I don’t use the word “discover”, nor the word “save” in any context, spoken or written. I would humbly request that you please check your sources, clarify, and attribute appropriately.

Any questions about our interactions with people or our behaviour while in the field can be addressed to us directly, or, better yet, by contacting any of the many people we visited (I am happy to facilitate contact).

Requests to share copies of field recordings, notes or metadata can be addressed to me directly, as I’ve already offered to share these (insofar as I am permitted) with interested parties outside the immediate communities that originated and own them.

Opinions about or reactions to what journalists and media people (including at National Geographic) write, or their choice of words to characterize our work, can also be sent to them directly (I am willing to facilitate contact).

Finally, questions about how Tourism Australia arranged our itinerary, journalistic accreditation, visas, logistics, permits, sponsorship, contracts, and conditions of confidentiality, will be gladly answered by the representative who accompanied us: tpascuzzo @ tourism .australia .com), and/or the cognizant consular officer: megan . doughty @ dfat . gov . au.

Thanks for your patience and guidance as we try to do something useful.

David

I could comment on the bigger issues you mob are talking about but thought I’d just sure my little inside story…