Attendees at the Endangered Languages Project meeting, Sydney, May 2013
Linking with languages from around the world was the focus of a meeting hosted by First Languages Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members in Sydney recently.
Lurleen Blackman with her grandchildren, recording in Nywaygi for a national Aboriginal language promotion project, with Michael Bromage (ABC Open). Photo credit: Faith Baisden.
Media Release
The Queensland Government’s discussion paper on the Development of a Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Early childhood, school education, training, tertiary education and employment action plan has been welcomed by Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee (QILAC).
Linguist and QILAC member Bridget Priman says she is pleased to see the Government initiating discussions toward a new approach to Indigenous Education from ‘crayon to workforce’.
The Discussion Paper acknowledges that though there has been much invested in indigenous education this investment has not yet shown significant changes in the situation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Bridget believes that Indigenous languages are a key area that has been overlooked to date. “Research shows great links between the provision of high quality home language programs and educational participation and attainment for Aboriginal students.” she says.
These programs can be based in regions of language revitalization (where languages might not be spoken much in the community) as well as in areas where English is the second language.
“It doesn’t matter on the context.” says Bridget. “A good language program with appropriate community participation results in our students being more interested in school and doing much better in all their school subjects.’
QILAC is providing a detailed response to the Discussion Paper and is keen to be involved in the development of the proposed Action Plan.
Bridget believes that though language is not the only factor which effects our students participation in school but it is a key tool which should be used in any effort to ‘close the gap’.
“QILAC will work hard to ensure that our languages are not overlooked once again in planning for greatly improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.” She says.
Half of the world’s estimated 6,000-plus languages will likely die out by the end of the century without urgent efforts to protect minority communities and their languages, a United Nations independent expert said today, noting also that minority languages have often been a source of tension for governments whose obligation it is to protect them.
“Language is a central element and expression of identity and of key importance in the preservation of group identity,” the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák, said as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Read more: Protection of minority languages is a human rights obligation, UN expert says
Post by Greg Dickson for Crikey's language blog Fully (sic). There was a bit of hoo-hah in Parliament House this week when Julia, Tony and co. made a minor song and dance about constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their languages.
Greg Dickson writes that it’s good news but actually kinda old news… with shiny branding. He explains the recommendations and the clever work that was done by the expert panel over twelve months ago.
Languages have featured in the WTFs series Lost and Found which aired on the History Channel.
The First Languages Australia congratulate the Producers, the Mitchell library and the participating language workers for their efforts in highlighting indigenous languages in this way.
Lost and Found from First Languages Australia on Vimeo.
An article by Aidan Wilson published on Fully (sic), Crikey's language blog.
A report in The Australian claims that the 2011 census showed that the Aboriginal language “crisis” has been overstated, that indigenous languages are not in danger of dying out. Aidan Wilson looks into the data to find out what’s going on.
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/fullysic/2013/01/21/census-data-misleading-languages-still-at-risk/
Post by Aiden Wilson for Crikey.
We often hear statistics like “a language dies every two weeks” and predictions that by the end of the century half of the world’s 7000 languages will no longer be spoken. Having worked on endangered languages over the last seven years, I can say from my own experience the situation is critical and is not being overstated.
So how could the census possibly reveal that there isn’t a problem?
Key Sydney Festival guest composer and director Heiner Goebbels said he was unaware for eight years that he should seek permission to use the indigenous Australian title of his Sydney Festival show Eraritjaritjaka, despite its themes of how language, colonisation and the power of hierarchy can oppress people.
A new year and a new logo for QILAC members, who met in Brisbane recently to work on the development of Language Induction Programs. The set of workshop guidelines will be used to help organisations and businesses identify any ways that language diversity could impact on the services they provide. The workshops will also help organisations create a tailored policy statement around recognition of traditional languages within their unique business environment.
A Canadian language program is hoping to add more mid north coast Aboriginal languages to its website next year.
The FirstVoices online portal launched it's collection of Gathang pictures and recordings yesterday.
A key challenge posed in attempting to provide assistance to Indigenous women experiencing domestic violence is providing services in the languages spoken by clients.
Ms Oscar says several different Indigenous communities reside in the Fitzroy Crossing area, meaning that as many as four different languages are spoken.
"It helps to have an understanding of the languages spoken and to employ local people into the positions so that the spoken communication isn't a barrier. Sometimes there's no need for any spoken communication when it comes to people seeking support at the refuge. They just may need to be left alone for a while until they're ready to speak."
By ABC's Ben Collins, for The Drum
Most Australians are completely oblivious to the fact that our nation is home to some of the world's language diversity hotspots. Indigenous languages hold important stories of human history, but they are sadly in decline. As ABC's Ben Collins writes, it is now hoped that digital technology will preserve these languages and the secrets they hold.
Read more: Aboriginal language decline: the digital intervention
Review: VIEWS OF THE STARBURST WORLD: William Dawes at Sydney Cove 1788-91. By Ross Gibson. UWA Publishing. 304pp. $29.95. Reviewer: STEPHEN WILKS
This book is largely structured around Dawes's two remarkable notebooks on the language of the Eora people of the Sydney region. He recorded words that have transmuted into icons of Australian English - dingo, corroboree, cooee, waratah and woomera. Not that his notes are dull word lists reminiscent of one's year eight French text. They are the most extensive record of this language, and their coverage of complex grammar and transcripts of short conversations testify to his probing of an alien culture.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/lieutenant-of-all-trades-looked-to-both-sea-and-stars-20121115-29fcn.html#ixzz2Cl0GgXMh
By ABC Open Producer Paul Bray
The Yindjibarndi language has been spoken around here for a long time. A hill kangaroo is a marndanyungu, an emu a jarnkurna, a goanna an aurrumanthu and an echidna a jirriwi.
Students at the Peg's Creek school have also been busy learning the Yindjibarndi language.
Lynda Ryder (aka Mrs Ryder), a local Yindjibarndi Elder, teaches LOTE classes throughout the week with primary students of all ages.
Peg's Creek students are currently learning some new vocabulary (this week words describe the local Pilbara environment), family relationship words, sentences, prefixes and much more.
So how about some Yindjibarndi counting?
1 - Gunjirri 2 - Gulharra 3 - Jarrwurdi 4 - Gulharraulhamba 5 - Maru Many more - Marnuwarra
An article for the India Country Today Media Network.
A new smartphone language app has been launched to change the way the Iwaidja language is being recorded and to help save it.
Ma! Iwaidja is the first phone app for an Australian indigenous language, one that is spoken by less than 200 people on Croker Island, off the coast of the Northern Territory of Australia, according to the Iwaidja Inyman, also known as the Minjilang Endangered Languages Publication, project website.
Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/14/smartphone-app-created-to-increase-use-of-endangered-aboriginal-language-in-australia-145521 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/14/smartphone-app-created-to-increase-use-of-endangered-aboriginal-language-in-australia-145521#ixzz2Cl1paAtO
Article by John Piatt for the Mother Nature Network.
The Iwaidja language is currently spoken by fewer than 200 people.
Around the world nearly 3,000 languages are facing extinction. At least 100 of those endangered languages are in Australia, where one, Iwaidja, now has fewer than 200 fluent speakers. The language is only used on Croker Island, a 130-square-mile island off the coast of Northern Australia that is home to a regional group of indigenous Australian Aboriginals.
Losing a language like Iwaidja can rob a people of their culture and the world of their history and accumulated knowledge. But saving a language can be a time-intensive project, involving recording equipment and the presence of a trained linguist. That takes both money and labor, which are in short supply. Read the full article.