AUSIT NEWS
21–23 November, RMIT University (City Campus), Melbourne, on Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung country
There were a record 505 registrations for AUSIT’s 37th Annual National Conference – theme: Linguistic equity and access: translating and interpreting – connecting our communities and the world – and related events. In Touch’s Editorial Committee have put together this overview of another highly successful and well attended conference.
DAY 1 (THURSDAY)
The conference, held over three sweltering (≈37 °C) days, was opened by AUSIT’s outgoing Acting National President Erika González and RMIT’s Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Ralph Horne, with a video welcome from the Honourable Julian Hill MP, Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.
The three-day program of keynotes, roundtables, presentations, workshops and more explored a wide range of subthemes, from how AI can power information access to educational partnerships and collaborations, and from bridging language diversity via plain language and translation to translation as a creative practice.
And it all kicked off even before the opening, with a program of free events: open-to-all language-specific meet-and-greets and an info session by the union that supports T&I industry members, Professionals Australia; plus several workshops reserved for conference attendees.
Jill Blewett Memorial Lecture 2024
This year’s JBML – delivered by Ali Mond (Assistant Secretary for Migrant English and Language Services, Dept of Home Affairs) – touched on the activities of the Department and the T&I sector’s issues. What made it special was that Ali shared her personal history. Hearing about her formative years, her family, and where her love for languages and the multicultural society comes from, attendees could truly believe that she cares about our industry, giving us hope for positive collaboration between the T&I sector and the Department in the future.
Welcome Drinks
As usual, it was great to catch up with old T&I friends – and make some new ones – over drinks and canapés on the Thursday evening.
DAY 2 (FRIDAY)
Keynote speakers
International Keynote Dr Holly Ann Silvestri (head of the T&I program at the University of Arizona and chair of a committee advocating for fair and ethical AI in interpreting), speaking on ‘Adoption of AI Principles in Interpreting’, gave an insightful and thought-provoking summary of how AI is currently being used in T&I.
Forensic linguist Alex Bowen, Aboriginal Interpreting WA (AIWA)’s co-Chairs Robert Nanala Tjapaljarri and Valma Banks, and senior NT interpreter and translator Valda Napurrurla Shannon Warntaparri spoke on ‘Understanding our cultural way: Aboriginal interpreting on country with our people and our cultural protocols’.
Some of Friday’s sessions
The audiovisual stream was particularly well received. All three presenters – Nicholas Angiers (A.I. Subtitle Translation: Pitfalls & Pratfalls), Andy Lima (Creative Synergy: Collaboration between Interpreters and Directors in Film and Audio Production) and Patricia Rosemberg (Subtitles: A unique approach to translation) – were very engaging, and there wasn’t enough time to get through all the questions!
The short play ‘A date with impartiality’ – based around the ethical principle of impartiality – was written and performed by Road is Liquorice, a group of practitioners from different disciplines. Featuring characters including ‘Impartiality’ and ‘Advocacy’, it was creative, clever and amusing and, for some, a highlight of the conference!
Conference Dinner
Attendees agreed: it was a great night! The entertainment – mesmerising undulations from Turkish belly dancer Desert Rose, plus stirring Japanese taiko drumming from Wadaiko Windo – followed a meal of top tastes to match the quality of the company around buzzing tables.
A fun highlight was the crowning of outgoing Acting National President Erika González as Miss AUSIT 2024 (a reference to the volunteers’ sashes)!
And as usual, many of us took the chance to let their hair down to the multicultural DJ set (the brief: a song in each language registered!), filling the dance floor with energy and enthusiasm until the evening came to a close.
During dinner, the winners of the AUSIT Translation Competition 2024 were announced (see page 10).
First Nations practitioner presence
This year’s event had the highest number of Australian First Nations attendees to date. Listening to Susan Greenaway (see below), NAATI Indigenous Interpreting Project Officer Lavinia Napaltjarri Heffernan was struck by the similarity between her and her colleagues’ childhood experiences and those of migrant and refugee children, with both groups growing up interpreting for non-English-speaking relatives.
DAY 3 (SATURDAY)
Keynote speaker
Susan Greenaway, a Senior Adviser in the federal Department of Health and Aged Care, spoke on ‘Multilingual Health Communications’.
Some of Saturday’s sessions
Although Wei Teng – in his exploration of the use of community reviewers in translation processes titled ‘Yes. We should work with them, but in what way?’ – made it clear that he had no answers, he struck a chord with translators who have sometimes struggled to find a balance between the reviewers’ feedback and requests and their own approaches to translation.
In their session ‘Language Services Program Framework Development: lessons learnt’, Angel Bogićević and Melanie Nicholls strongly recommended to language service providers that they should support the interpreters and translators who they employ or contract to gain NAATI certification.
AUSIT National Annual General Meeting
The NAGM 2025 took place on the Saturday after the conference closed. The minutes are available on the AUSIT website (Members Only area).
Thank you for making it happen!
On behalf of all the attendees, a huge ‘Thank you!’ to this year’s Organising Committee (OC):
Erika González, Jess Shepherd, Fatih Karakas, Elvira Bianchi, Ken Nagato and Karine Bachelier.
The OC, in turn, would like to extend its thanks to this year’s sponsors, listed here on AUSIT’s website; to OzParty Events, for their professional assistance in delivering the conference; and to the many AUSIT members who volunteered to help out in a variety of ways throughout the event.
AUSIT National Conference 2025
will be hosted by the ACT Branch
Watch this space!
