The Federal Government’s new Creative Australia policy includes an announcement of nearly $14 million in new funding for Indigenous languages support, over four years. While it’s a welcome announcement, Greg Dickson isn’t quite jumping up and down about it.
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Putting language documentation in the hands of the speakers
Linguist Bruce Birch reports on the recent work of the Minjilang Language Team who are pioneering the use of mobile devices to document Australian languages.
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Federal Government ready to “Recognise” Indigenous languages (but it’s kinda old news)
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.
READ MORECensus data misleading; languages still at risk
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.
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Maintaining Indigenous languages: revering a distant past or contributing to a better future?
Special guest Dr. Bill Fogarty argues that Indigenous language maintenance and education is not about reverence for some distant past for esoteric reasons. Rather it is an important asset that can play a role both in developing a future for Indigenous communities and in benefiting the socio-economic fabric of the Australian Nation.
READ MOREOur Land, Our Languages and Preserving Our Heritage
It’s pretty rare that Indigenous languages (IL) get a day in the sun in such a spectacular way. The bread and butter of IL reporting most months is along the lines of “here’s a new phone app that’s going to save a language.” Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, but phone apps don’t save languages, people do. Specifically, speakers do: the only way to “save a language” is to make it easier for people to learn and speak it, and that requires actions which are integrated through a community.
READ MOREFirst language education is a matter of common sense
The Our Land Our Language report unequivocally calls for the reinstatement of bilingual education programs in remote areas, for compulsory English as an Additional Language training in teaching degrees, and for changes to be made to how NAPLAN testing is carried out. But what do these measures mean and how effective will they be in ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote areas get the best education we can provide?
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How not to report on Indigenous education
Greg Dickson writes… On Monday I got a phone call out of the blue from a journalist from The Australian. Initially, I felt a bit chuffed being cold-called by a big newspaper. I soon realised however that the journo was asking me about stuff that wasn’t really my area of expertise. She wanted to know [...]
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Ngurrju! Manymak! Pupuni! NT drops First Four Hours in English policy
Over three years ago, the Northern Territory government introduced a policy mandating English-only lessons for the first four (out of five and a bit) hours of school per day, despite widespread criticism. But as Greg Dickson has discovered, the government may have finally retracted the policy.
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Karri-borlbme kun-wok ~ Learning language
Greg Dickson writes: We’re very happy to spread the word about a great new initiative from Western Arnhem Land that gives us all the chance to learn a bit of an Aboriginal language: Bininj Gunwok*. Through the Bininj Gunwok Language Project, you can now subscribe to an email list and receive regular bits of vocab, grammatical info [...]
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