History
European settlement in the Northern Territory was attempted over a period of about forty years. Settlement finally succeeded in 1870, and an influx of both English and Chinese speakers followed. In order to communicate between these two groups and the local Aboriginal people, pidgins developed throughout the territory based on early Australian Pidgin. By 1900, Northern Territory Pidgin English (NTPE) was widespread and well understood.
NTPE creolised first in the Roper River Mission (Ngukurr), where cattle stations were established and a township developed.
During this period, the relations between the native and European peoples were strained: “a war of extermination” was declared by the settlers, and the Aboriginal people fiercely defended their lands. However, the control of lands was eventually seized by the settlers when a cattle company acquired much of the area. The settlers became more determined to take full control of the land from the native people, and carried out a campaign to do so.
The resettlements and land seizures nearly annihilated the indigenous population, and also provided one major factor in the development of the creole: drastic social change accompanied by severe communication difficulties.
The second requirement for the development of the creole was a new community, which came about when Anglican missionaries set up a refuge in the Roper River region in 1908. This brought together around 200 people from 8 different aboriginal ethnic groups, who spoke different native languages. Although the adults were multilingual, due to frequent meetings and ceremonies, the children had yet to acquire their native language skills, so they used the only common language they had: the NTPE. In their lifetime, these children were almost totally responsible for developing the pidgin into a full language.
Although the relations between the missionaries and Aboriginal people were friendly, the missions were not responsible for the development of Kriol. In fact, they tried to introduce Standard English as the official language for the mission, and although the Aboriginal children used this language in class, and with the missionaries, Kriol flourished.
Kriol was not formally recognised as a language until the 1970s, as it was regarded as a dialect of English rather than a language in its own right.
Read more about this topic: Australian Kriol Language
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