First Nations Languages Education Program

The First Nations Languages Education Program opened to applications in March 2024. Since then, communities from across the country have been submitting grant applications detailing projects that will deliver community led language learning opportunities, training to support the development of the First Nations language educator workforce and will create or extend partnerships with schools.

Projects proposed to date represent a diversity of language contexts, with communities designing activities suited to their specific needs. All projects demonstrate a common need for urgency in undertaking this work, as described by one applicant:
“[Our language] programs were once available to school aged children every day after school. The program provided an opportunity for local Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children to learn [our language] from local teachers. There are currently only 2 – 3 fluent speakers and 10 – 15 community members who can speak a small amount of [our language]. We aspire for all [our] people to have access to language lessons, particularly for young people, as we had in the past.”

We anticipate that 20-30 projects will be ready to commence work in the coming months. The outcomes of those projects will be used to make a case for this one-off election commitment to be established as an annual funding source to support projects of this type nationally. We look forward to working with the participants to support their projects and share their successes.