tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/aboriginal-languages-16641/articlesAboriginal languages – The Conversation2022-12-15T23:31:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959232022-12-15T23:31:49Z2022-12-15T23:31:49ZA rare disease in the Top End affects muscles for speech. Here’s how we’re designing alternative ways to communicate in Yolŋu languages<p>Machado-Joseph-Disease (MJD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects muscles in the body, including those required for speech. It is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451994422000013?via%3Dihub">prevalent</a> in some remote First Nations communities in the Northern Territory and Queensland. </p>
<p>Yolŋu First Nations people from northeast Arnhem Land are among those disproportionately affected. Yolŋu knowledge is shared through clan songlines, painting of clan designs, ceremonial song, dance, and storytelling. Growing up with a strong clan-based identity is the <a href="http://www.growingupyolngu.com.au/">highest priority</a> for Yolŋu families, and language is paramount. </p>
<p>This is why Julie Gungunbuy, a Yolŋu researcher from Galiwin'ku community, and Balanda (non-First Nations) researcher Rebecca Amery have developed Yolŋu (Djambarrpuyŋu) alternative communication systems. Julie is the principal Yolŋu researcher working on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07434618.2022.2129782">the study</a> exploring communication difficulties for Yolŋu living with MJD, a disease in her extended family.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-we-support-indigenous-people-in-australia-living-with-musculoskeletal-conditions-187068">How do we support Indigenous people in Australia living with musculoskeletal conditions?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is Machado-Joseph disease?</h2>
<p>Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Machado-Joseph disease cause cells in the brain to die slowly over time. Cognitive function is not affected in MJD, but speech gradually becomes more difficult to understand, until eventually it is no longer possible. </p>
<p>MJD results in a slow loss of control of muscles and function that also affects mobility, vision, and sleep. A single copy of the disordered gene from one parent is enough to cause MJD. Children have a <a href="https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/machado-joseph-disease/">50% chance</a> of inheriting the disease from an affected parent and can experience the first symptoms at a young age. </p>
<p>People living with MJD usually require full assistance with daily activities within ten years from the first onset of symptoms. When speech becomes unclear, alternative ways of communicating such as using gestures, pointing to words, pictures, photos, and symbols are helpful. With appropriate medical care, people can live for more than a decade with severe-stage MJD.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rather-than-focusing-on-the-negative-we-need-a-strength-based-way-to-approach-first-nations-childrens-health-187986">Rather than focusing on the negative, we need a strength-based way to approach First Nations childrens' health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Creating Yolŋu communication systems for loss of speech</h2>
<p>For First Nations families and communities, practising culture through their primary language is crucial for health and wellbeing. It’s how deeper thoughts and feelings are expressed and understood, and how families and cultures stay strong.</p>
<p>Six years ago, together with other Yolŋu researchers in Julie’s family, the MJD Foundation and Charles Darwin University, we began to collaborate on developing alternative communication systems to support Yolŋu living with MJD when their speech becomes hard to understand. </p>
<p>Julie’s galay (first cousin) Barbara Rarrapul has the disease and is one of our research participants. She will eventually lose the ability to control and coordinate muscles to speak. She knows five languages: Djambarrpuyŋu (the most common Yolŋu clan language), as well as Gumatj, Wangurri, Warramirri and English.</p>
<p>We developed alternative communication systems with Yolŋu words, grammar, and pictures that Yolŋu can use to communicate by pointing to the words and pictures to share their message when their speech is too hard to understand. The creation of these systems was guided by Yolŋu language, culture, and personal preferences of participants, rather than by modifying existing systems in English. </p>
<p>In collaborative family research sessions, we developed cards with the Yolŋu alphabet, syllables, and words, as well as everyday pictures to explore different ways of representing components of Yolŋu speech. </p>
<p>In planning for inevitable loss of speech, we developed four alternative communication system prototypes for Yolŋu with varied confidence with Yolŋu literacy. </p>
<p>The prototypes include Yolŋu and English alphabets and a core vocabulary of almost 250 Yolŋu words, including common words from daily conversation and core concepts from Yolŋu culture. The systems were designed to emphasise identity and relationships and enable Yolŋu people to communicate in ways that are inviting and familiar.</p>
<p>The Yolŋu research team developed a metaphor to represent and share the research from a Yolŋu perspective: gulaka-buma or “harvesting yams”. </p>
<p>You need to go hunting for yams with experienced people who know the right time of year and what leaves to look for. You have to walk carefully through the jungle, so you don’t break the vines. Follow the vine right down to the head of the yam. Dig right down, all the way to the end and pull out the yam with roots on it. Don’t break it halfway. If you run out of daylight, cover it up and leave it. Come back another day when you have more time and keep digging.</p>
<p>It’s Julie’s hope that this research, and these alternative communication systems in Yolŋu languages, become a major step forward to supporting quality of life for Yolŋu people living with MJD. </p>
<p>This research highlights the importance of collaborating with First Nations peoples in their primary languages to enable meaningful participation in finding their own solutions. </p>
<p>The communication systems are a potential game changer for Yolŋu families, and the localised, collaborative, and respectful partnerships seen in this process are a model for enabling us to continue to develop more equitable allied health services in Australia.</p>
<p><em>Research participant names featured have been published with permission.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Amery received research funding from a Research Training Program scholarship with Charles Darwin University and a Top-Up Industry Scholarship from the MJD Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Gungunbuy works for the MJD Foundation.</span></em></p>Degenerative illness Machado-Joseph disease, which affects speech, is prevalent among First Nations people in northern Australia. Researchers have now created Yolŋu communication systems to help mob.Rebecca Amery, Clinical Education Coordinator - Speech Pathology, Charles Darwin UniversityJulie Gungunbuy, Aboriginal Health and Community Worker with the MJD Foundation, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1847362022-07-05T04:33:15Z2022-07-05T04:33:15ZWe are on the brink of losing Indigenous languages in Australia – could schools save them?<p>Of the world’s 7,000 languages, it is estimated 50% to 90% will no longer be spoken in the next 50 to 100 years. The majority under threat are languages spoken by Indigenous peoples around the world: one is lost every <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/04/Indigenous-Languages.pdf">two weeks</a>. </p>
<p>One of the world’s <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/1500-endangered-languages-at-high-risk">fastest rates</a> of language loss is in Australia. Indigenous languages in Australia comprise only 2% of languages spoken in the world, but represent 9% of the world’s critically endangered languages. </p>
<p>More than 250 Indigenous languages and over 750 dialects were originally spoken. However, as some experts estimate, only <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/1500-endangered-languages-at-high-risk">40 languages</a> are still spoken, with just 12 being learned by children. </p>
<p>First Nations educator Jacquie Hunter, who contributed to this article, has worked at One Arm Point Remote Community School in Ardiyooloon in Australia’s northwest for 17 years. She told us “kids know words, but not sentences” of their Bardi language. She estimates within the next few years, “we won’t have any more fluent speakers around to teach us those full sentences in our language”.</p>
<p>This is a pattern repeated in Indigenous communities <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australias-indigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662">nationwide</a>.</p>
<p>Linguists have long recognised this urgency and policy-makers have recently begun to take action. Most notably, this year marks the start of the United Nations’ <a href="https://en.unesco.org/idil2022-2032">International Decade of Indigenous Languages</a> (following on from 2019’s <a href="https://en.iyil2019.org/">International Year of Indigenous Languages</a>). </p>
<p>It aims to draw global attention to the critical endangerment of indigenous languages, and engage stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalisation, and promotion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/invisible-language-learners-what-educators-need-to-know-about-many-first-nations-children-175917">Invisible language learners: what educators need to know about many First Nations children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Loss of language has significant impacts on Indigenous communities</h2>
<p>The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/04/Indigenous-Languages.pdf">has noted</a> how the threat to languages is a direct consequence of “colonialism and colonial practices that resulted in the decimation of indigenous peoples, their cultures and languages”. </p>
<p>These involved policies of dispossession and discrimination. This is further exacerbated by globalisation and the rise of a small number of culturally dominant languages, such as English.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/04/Indigenous-Languages.pdf">More than 4,000</a> of the world’s languages are spoken by Indigenous People. With their disappearance, we will see a loss of linguistic diversity, and diverse cultures and worldviews. Important connections between Indigenous languages and cultural identities may also be broken. </p>
<p>The relationship between language and culture is complex. Cultural values and ways of thinking can still be conveyed via a <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-languages-matter-but-all-is-not-lost-when-they-change-or-even-disappear-127519">new language</a> — an example is found in <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a> (an English-based contact language with features from Aboriginal languages). Nonetheless, in many communities, language and culture are closely intertwined. As Jacquie Hunter also told us, “We have our culture, a strong culture – but without language how you supposed to keep it going?”</p>
<p>Language is also key to <a href="https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3180612/how-endangered-languages-countries-indonesia">sustainability</a>. Local languages are crucial for collaboration with local communities. And loss of Indigenous languages means loss of much traditional ecological knowledge, including strategies for sustainable living.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.ala.org.au/indigenous-ecological-knowledge/">Indigenous ecological knowledge</a> in Australia includes Aboriginal <a href="https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss2/art12/">seasonal knowledge</a>, and <a href="https://www.perthnrm.com/resource/traditional-knowledge/">traditional uses</a> of flora and fauna. </p>
<p>This holds the key to natural resource management, such as cultural burning in <a href="https://www.nit.com.au/after-one-decade-with-no-traditional-burns-noongar-elders-return-to-denmark-forest/">fire management</a>. But such knowledge risks being lost if Indigenous languages do not continue being passed down to the next generation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/caring-for-country-means-tackling-the-climate-crisis-with-indigenous-leadership-3-things-the-new-government-must-do-183987">Caring for Country means tackling the climate crisis with Indigenous leadership: 3 things the new government must do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What role does education play?</h2>
<p>Globally, the lack of support for minority languages in the mainstream school system poses one of the greatest threats to indigenous languages. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01604-y">Research</a> has found that the more someone is educated in the mainstream system, the less the use of their indigenous language.</p>
<p>Yet schools can provide rich environments for supporting diversity. Australia has seen some promise here in recent years. </p>
<p>Aboriginal language programs from pre-school to year 12 are developing in all states — <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-04/wa-students-learn-indigenous-languages-at-record-rate/101194088">Western Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-11/aboriginal-language-program-western-region-preschools-culture/101142434">New South Wales</a> are good examples of this. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.echo.net.au/2022/04/australian-kids-want-to-learn-first-nations-language/">2022 poll</a> of about 650 primary school students found they wanted to learn an Indigenous language - ahead of other, foreign languages. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1513804973687009280"}"></div></p>
<p>Schools like One Arm Point Remote Community School in WA integrate traditional culture and knowledge into the curriculum through the inclusion of Elders, rangers, and community members. Students create material in the Bardi language, Australian English and Aboriginal English. One outcome was the national award-winning <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2011/08/23/3300282.htm">book</a> Our World: Bardi Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-languages-matter-but-all-is-not-lost-when-they-change-or-even-disappear-127519">Indigenous languages matter – but all is not lost when they change or even disappear</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can we do in the Decade for Indigenous Languages?</h2>
<p>For decades, linguists have been documenting Indigenous languages alongside community, creating digital archives, and producing learning resources. A good example is the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/bardi-dictionary/id1558903169">Bardi app</a>. But teachers and students want to “listen with our ears to the Elders speaking it”, as Jacquie Hunter explains.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-australia-support-more-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-teachers-178522#:%7E:text=The%20severe%20shortage%20of%20Indigenous,only%20program%20of%20its%20kind.">demand for Indigenous language teachers</a> has been a longstanding issue. In recent years, more funding has been allocated. The new federal government has pledged <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/labors-14-million-plan-to-expand-indigenous-languages-education-in-schools/yx2nwmfux">A$14 million</a> over the next three years, to bring First Nations teachers to around 60 schools. In remote Aboriginal schools, like One Arm Point, funding could be used to bring Elders and resources into the school to keep the language going.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1529318364711387136"}"></div></p>
<p>Linguistics researchers also play a role. In collaboration with local schools, we want to work with teachers and students to research the situation of Indigenous languages and ways to broaden their use to protect them from being lost. </p>
<p>We also want to look more at how <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2021.2020811">Aboriginal English and Kriol</a>, as well as using <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362168820938822">more than one</a> language, can be more valued in the classroom. </p>
<p>Greater awareness will — hopefully — bring greater action. Watch this space. Watch this decade.</p>
<p><em>First Nations educator Jacqueline Hunter contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Around the world, one Indigenous language is lost every one or two weeks. Almost 10% of the world’s critically endangered languages are in Australia.Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in Linguistics, Curtin UniversityCarly Steele, Lecturer, Curtin UniversityToni Dobinson, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics/TESOL, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1759172022-02-14T01:05:56Z2022-02-14T01:05:56ZInvisible language learners: what educators need to know about many First Nations children<p>Of the original <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/linguistics/Australias-Original-Languages-R-M-W-Dixon-9781760875237">250-plus languages and over 750 dialects</a> spoken by First Nations peoples before 1788, <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-08/apo-nid307493.pdf">only 12</a> are being learned by children today.</p>
<p>However, widely spoken contact languages – creoles and dialects – have emerged. One example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-aboriginal-australians-made-english-their-own-128219">Aboriginal English</a>, which is a broad term used to describe the many varieties of English spoken by Aboriginal people across Australia. Another example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a>, which is a creole language spoken across northern Australia.</p>
<p>These contact languages are not always recognised as the full languages they are by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-22/calls-for-teachers-to-understand-aboriginal-english/11780094">some educators</a> and society generally.</p>
<p>Because of this, many First Nations children are not treated as second language learners. Their languages are sometimes viewed as deficient forms of Standard Australian English and can be “<a href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/aral.36.3.02sel">invisible</a>” to teachers and education systems.</p>
<p>To improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who do not speak Standard Australian English as their first language, their language backgrounds must be recognised and valued.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australias-indigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662">The state of Australia's Indigenous languages – and how we can help people speak them more often</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are contact languages?</h2>
<p>Contact languages form when communication is essential between speakers of two or more languages. In Australia, this occurred between the speakers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and English speakers after the British invasion in 1788. </p>
<p>A variety of contact languages developed which are both similar to, and different from, each other. Some languages are more closely related to English, while others have more features of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Many of these contact languages are not officially named. </p>
<p>The features of contact languages often reflect the impacts of colonisation for communities across Australia. These factors contribute to their lack of recognition in Australian society, including school systems. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-aboriginal-languages-course-should-count-towards-atars-52138">New Aboriginal languages course should count towards ATARs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>Little is known about contact languages, but many First Nations children all over Australia come to school speaking them as their first language.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2021.2020811?src=">Our research</a> was conducted at three primary school sites in Far North Queensland. One group was made up of monolingual Standard Australia English speaking children. The other two groups were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who spoke Indigenous contact languages. The First Nations groups were located near each other, but despite their proximity, they differed. </p>
<p>One of the two First Nations groups was in a rural town where Standard Australian English is widely spoken and the children had a diverse range of language backgrounds. The other was in an Aboriginal community where one contact language was primarily spoken and exposure to Standard Australian English was limited.</p>
<p>Our research is intended to make the Standard Australian English language learning needs of many First Nations children more “visible” to educators. We identified some of the linguistic differences between Standard Australian English and the contact languages these First Nation children speak for testing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young child does homework with their parent." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Because of language differences, First Nations students’ achievements as Standard Australian English speakers may not be recognised in the classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/father-and-son-working-on-homework-at-the-dining-royalty-free-image/1130189395?adppopup=true">GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, we compared the short-term memory capacities of the three groups. The short-term memory capacities of all groups were the same, demonstrating all the children had the ability to store language in their short-term memories for immediate use.</p>
<p>Next, these students were asked to orally reproduce a range of simple sentences given to them in Standard Australian English to gauge their proficiency. There were 18 simple sentences of different syllable lengths – six, nine and 12. </p>
<p>Sample sentences included: </p>
<p>• The dog barks at the cats (six syllables)</p>
<p>• In the bush, they built houses from sticks (nine syllables)</p>
<p>• He always eats mangoes in the park with his friends (12 syllables).</p>
<p>Each sentence was marked for grammatical accuracy in Standard Australian English. The speaking ability of all three groups differed significantly. On average, the Standard Australian English-speaking group recorded 71.1% accuracy, the group of First Nations children with diverse language backgrounds scored 45.1% and the others who spoke the same contact language and lived in an Aboriginal community scored 29.6%.</p>
<p>We also examined students’ knowledge of four Standard Australian English grammatical features: </p>
<p>• the prepositions “at”, “in” and “on”</p>
<p>• plural “s” on nouns, for example <strong>cats</strong></p>
<p>• simple present tense with a third-person singular “s”, for example, <strong>she runs</strong></p>
<p>• simple irregular past tense, for example, they <strong>ate</strong>.</p>
<p>The Standard Australian English-speaking group and the speakers of contact languages differed significantly in all aspects except for the prepositions “at”, “in”, and “on” where there was no difference. </p>
<p>For the other grammatical features, the difference of accuracy between the Standard Australian English speakers and second group ranged from 12.1% to 20.8%, and for the third from 20.1% to 45%. Simple present tense with the third-person singular “s” was the most difficult feature for the speakers of Indigenous contact languages, and plurals the easiest.</p>
<p>These findings highlight the close relationship that exists between Indigenous contact languages and Standard Australian English, as well as the significant differences. </p>
<p>Speakers of Indigenous contact languages may be proficient in some aspects of Standard Australian English, as demonstrated by their use of prepositions but not others. The findings also showed significant differences between the two groups of First Nations children, which probably reflect their diverse language backgrounds and their differing levels of exposure to Standard Australian English.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teacher in a classroom with children you have their hands raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Language backgrounds of First Nations children need to be recognised and valued in Australian classrooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/aboriginal-elementary-school-teacher-with-the-class-royalty-free-image/909795530?adppopup=true">GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-remote-indigenous-community-where-a-few-thousand-people-use-15-different-languages-107716">Meet the remote Indigenous community where a few thousand people use 15 different languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Our findings showed the Standard Australian English speaking ability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students improved over their primary school years. However, it never reached the levels of their monolingual Standard Australian English speaking peers.</p>
<p>As children progress through school, the Standard Australian English language and literacy demands increase at such a rate that language gains are unlikely to be identified in either classroom-based or standardised assessments. Consequently, students’ achievements may not be visible or recognised in the classroom. </p>
<p>The impact of this can be seen in continued <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-761-0_10">narratives of deficiency</a> surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=/atsia/languages2/report.htm#chapters">educational and social implications</a> of this are considerable, and the educational outcomes for First Nations children who speak contact languages are a national disgrace. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-caring-for-children-can-help-aboriginal-elders-during-lockdown-164628">How caring for children can help Aboriginal Elders during lockdown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>To meet the Standard Australian English learning needs of First Nations students who speak contact languages, their languages must be recognised and valued in the classroom. Contact languages need to be treated with respect and understanding, and not viewed as incorrect forms of Standard Australian English. </p>
<p>To show respect and promote learning, we encourage teachers to learn about students’ first language/s and include them in the classroom. Students should feel free to express themselves in whichever language they choose, recognising their first language/s play an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362168820938822">important role</a> in learning.</p>
<p>All teachers need to understand how language is learned and should be supported to effectively teach Standard Australian English alongside curriculum content. Language skills are the cornerstone of literacy and educational development. Teachers should <a href="https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/tesol/article/view/1421">explicitly teach Standard Australian English</a> and provide students with the opportunity to practise their language skills. </p>
<p>Targeted training needs to be delivered in initial teacher education courses and through professional development for those already teaching. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-1-in-3-teachers-use-research-evidence-in-the-classroom-this-is-largely-due-to-lack-of-time-175517">current climate</a> of heavy responsibilities on time-poor teachers, sufficient funding and time must be given for teachers to gain the skills required.</p>
<p>To provide a fair and equitable education for all, the language backgrounds of First Nations children should be embraced in their education settings and the broader systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carly Steele received funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language to conduct this research as part of her PhD at the University of Melbourne.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Wigglesworth receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) as a Chief Investigator on the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CE140100041) and also holds two Discovery Projects funded by the ARC related to her work with Indigenous children whose first language is not English.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Gower does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Contact languages are widely spoken by many First Nations children. These languages must be recognised and valued in the classroom to better meet students’ learning needs.Carly Steele, Lecturer, Curtin UniversityGillian Wigglesworth, Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, The University of MelbourneGraeme Gower, Associate professor, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275192020-01-27T18:53:10Z2020-01-27T18:53:10ZIndigenous languages matter – but all is not lost when they change or even disappear<p>UNESCO’s <a href="https://en.iyil2019.org/">International Year of Indigenous Languages</a> recently came to an end after a year of celebration of linguistic diversity. And with a “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/building-legacy-2019-international-year-indigenous-languages">decade of Indigenous languages</a>” now under consideration, it’s a good time to review what these celebrations mean. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/four-things-happen-when-language-dies-and-one-thing-you-can-do-help-180962188/">the media report</a> on the crisis of endangered languages, the view there’s an <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-languages-die-we-lose-a-part-of-who-we-are-51825">associated loss</a> of culture, identity and even memory, is widely expressed. </p>
<p>While there are very good reasons to deplore the loss of small languages, assuming this loss condemns cultural identity may be unhelpful and reductive to those who have already shifted away from their heritage language. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Explainer: the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia – Kriol</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To test the claim “losing language means losing culture”, I carried out <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Difference-and-Repetition-in-Language-Shift-to-a-Creole-The-Expression/Ponsonnet/p/book/9781138601352">linguistic research</a> on <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a>, a postcolonial language now spoken by thousands of Indigenous Australians in the north of the country. </p>
<p>I found that regardless of the language they speak, people still find ways to express old ways of speaking in a new language, so language doesn’t fundamentally alter their cultural identity. In other words, their culture can shape their language, not just the other way around. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/315592783" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Yugul Mangi Ranger Maritza Roberts speaking in Kriol, showing the uses of the stringybark tree.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reclaiming suppressed languages</h2>
<p>UNESCO’s year-long campaign has highlighted the role of language in preserving cultural identities: <a href="https://en.iyil2019.org/about/#action-plan">its action plan</a> says languages </p>
<blockquote>
<p>foster and promote unique local cultures, customs and values. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Highlighting the role of language with respect to culture is important to help minorities access the support they need to maintain or reclaim heritage languages.<br>
Many people experience strong emotional attachment to their mother tongue. In Australia and other colonised countries, many Indigenous languages have been actively suppressed. </p>
<p>In such contexts, language maintenance and reclamation constitute responses to historical trauma, as well as acts of resistance. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-australian-indigenous-languages-you-should-know-40155">Some Australian Indigenous languages you should know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, when praise of linguistic diversity does not go hand in hand with nuanced discussion about the complex relationship between language and culture, it can feed the already prevalent misconceptions that language “conditions” culture.</p>
<h2>Post-colonial languages</h2>
<p>In a country like Australia, where more than 80% of the Indigenous population has <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australias-indigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662">adopted new, post-colonial languages</a>, this thinking is oversimplified. </p>
<p>Today, most Indigenous Australians speak <a href="http://www.tesol.org.au/esl/docs/whatis.pdf">Aboriginal English</a>, a form of English with dialectal differences. A few thousand others speak <a href="https://theconversation.com/while-old-indigenous-languages-disappear-new-ones-evolve-32559">creoles or mixed languages</a> – languages that combine English-like forms with some features of older Australian languages. </p>
<p>This means for the vast majority of Indigenous Australians – and perhaps for descendants of migrants as well – singling out language as one of the main ways to maintain culture may be misplaced, and sometimes plainly hurtful. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-old-indigenous-languages-disappear-new-ones-evolve-32559">While old Indigenous languages disappear, new ones evolve</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Under Australian Native Title laws, for instance, Indigenous groups must demonstrate cultural continuity to be granted legal rights over their traditional land. While language isn’t mentioned in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00054">Native Title Act 1993</a>, the ways language can be used as evidence, and how it can influence court proceedings, is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0075424208321142">well-documented</a>. </p>
<p>In this context, putting emphasis on traditional languages is a
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299873235_The_Cost_of_Language_Mobilization_Wangkatha_Language_Ideologies_and_Native_Title">disadvantage</a> for English-speaking Indigenous groups. </p>
<p>This shows that broader colonial ideology is still in play, where Indigenous populations are expected to conform to a static concept of Indigeneity, defined by the coloniser. </p>
<h2>Languages can reflect values</h2>
<p>The linguistic and anthropological literature provides many examples of how <a href="https://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/news-and-media/latest-headlines/article/?id=video-nick-evans-on-the-language-of-poetry-in-indigenous-australian-song">languages can reflect cultural values and knowledge</a>. This often surfaces in the way languages <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-seasonal-calendars-of-indigenous-australia-88471">organise their vocabularies</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, some Australian languages, including Kriol, have a word that means both “feel sorry” and “give”, which fits in well with the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520074118/pintupi-country-pintupi-self">moral values</a> of many Indigenous Australian societies. Other examples of possible correlation between language and culture are metaphors, or the expression of kinship relations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/countering-the-claims-about-australias-aboriginal-number-systems-65042">Countering the claims about Australia's Aboriginal number systems</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While researchers often note such correlations between language and culture, little scientific research has explored <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02105741">what happens to such linguistic properties</a> when people adopt a new language. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Difference-and-Repetition-in-Language-Shift-to-a-Creole-The-Expression/Ponsonnet/p/book/9781138601352">recent linguistic study</a> has shown how <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a> can preserve many of the meanings and convey the same emotions in the older Australian languages it replaces, such as the critically endangered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalabon_language">Dalabon language</a>.</p>
<h2>Language is shaped by culture</h2>
<p>The basic grammar of Kriol and the shape of its words resemble English, and differ sharply from Dalabon. </p>
<p>But many of the meanings of Kriol words match the meanings of Dalabon words, so culturally specific concepts are preserved, even though the words sound different.</p>
<p>For instance, in Dalabon the word <em>marrbun</em> means both “feel sorry” and “give”, as mentioned. In Kriol, we find the word <em>sori</em>, which sounds like “sorry” in English, but its meanings include “feel sorry” and “give”, just like <em>marrbun</em>. Similar adaptation mechanisms occur throughout the grammar.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-remote-indigenous-community-where-a-few-thousand-people-use-15-different-languages-107716">Meet the remote Indigenous community where a few thousand people use 15 different languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What this shows is that language and meaning are highly plastic: they adapt to what speakers have to say. In this way, language is shaped by culture, and even when language is replaced, culture can continue. </p>
<p>This aligns well with the way Kriol speakers perceive their own language. Working with many Kriol speakers in communities near Katherine, Northern Territory, I have learned they regard Kriol as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1918825/_Brainwash_from_English_Barunga_Kriol_Speakers_Views_on_Their_Own_Language">part of their identity</a>. Some wish to maintain Dalabon or other Australian languages, just like they wish to maintain artistic traditions or story telling. </p>
<p>But this doesn’t mean the language they currently speak, although much closer to English, distances them from their own culture and identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maïa Ponsonnet has received funding from the Australian Research Council (Australian) and from the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (France). </span></em></p>People still find ways to express old ways of speaking in a new language, so that language does not fundamentally alter their cultural identity.Maïa Ponsonnet, Senior lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1096622019-01-20T18:55:38Z2019-01-20T18:55:38ZThe state of Australia’s Indigenous languages – and how we can help people speak them more often<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254445/original/file-20190118-100276-dblvb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">November 2016 (left to right) Seraine Namundja, Donna Nadjamerrek, Julie Narndal and Cheryl Nadjalaburnburn preparing a new course in Bininj Kunwok, an Indigenous language in the Northern Territory. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by Cathy Bow</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1788 there were between <a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/about">300 and 700 Indigenous languages</a> spoken across Australia by millions of people, as shown in anthropologist <a href="http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tribalmap/">Norman Tindale’s 1974 map</a>. However in the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20Population%20Data%20Summary%7E10">Australian 2016 Census</a>, only around 160 of these languages were reported as being spoken at home. </p>
<p>And of these, only 13 traditional Indigenous languages are still spoken by children. It means that in 60 years’ time only 13 of Australia’s languages will be left, unless something is done now to encourage these children to keep speaking their language, and to encourage children from other language groups to start speaking their heritage languages.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-so-few-aussies-speak-an-australian-language-109570">Why do so few Aussies speak an Australian language?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the Australian 2016 Census, nearly 650,000 Australians identified as Indigenous. Of these, around 10% (63,754) reported themselves as speaking an Indigenous language at home (they could also be speaking English and/or another Indigenous language). So which languages have the most speakers today? </p>
<p>Even for the 13 traditional Indigenous languages still spoken by children, the total numbers of speakers are tiny. The largest speaker numbers are: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n115">Djambarrpuyngu</a> (one of the large group of Yolŋu languages spoken in Arnhem Land - 4,264 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/c6">Pitjantjatjara</a> (one of the large group of Western Desert languages - 3,054 speakers) </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/c15">Warlpiri</a> (spoken in Central Australia - 2,276 speakers) </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n20">Tiwi</a> (spoken on the Tiwi Islands - 2,020 speakers ) </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n3">Murrinh-Patha</a> (spoken at Wadeye in the Northern Territory - 1,966 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n65">Kunwinjku</a> (one of a group of related languages spoken in west Arnhem Land - 1,702 speakers) </p></li>
</ul>
<p>13,733 people report that they speak a new Indigenous language. New languages have developed since 1788 from contact between English speakers and Indigenous languages speakers. </p>
<p>These include <a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/p1">Kriol</a> spoken in the Katherine region and across the Kimberley, <a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/p2">Yumpla Tok</a> spoken in the Torres Strait and Cape York, and Aboriginal English. Others don’t have widely recognised names, and so the Census under-reports these.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254450/original/file-20190118-100282-hx6dx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anthropologist Norman Tindale’s 1974 map of Aboriginal languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Held at the South Australia Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the 600,000 other Indigenous people, many are actively relearning their ancestral languages. From the 2016 census these include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/w41">Noongar/Nyungar</a> (south-west WA - 443 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/d10">Wiradjuri</a> (central NSW - 432 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/s69">Ngarrindjeri</a> (south-east of Adelaide - 302 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/d23">Gamilaraay</a> (western NSW - 92 speakers)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/l3">Kaurna</a> (Adelaide - 46 speakers)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>However we should be wary of difficulties in counting languages and speakers in the Census. One is drawing boundaries between languages and dialects. </p>
<p>Another is variable names for languages – if Indigenous people don’t have a name for the language they talk (which is common among the world’s smaller languages), or if the Census data analysers don’t recognise that name, then their language will be assigned to “Australian Indigenous languages not further defined” – in the 2016 Census this accounts for 8,625 of the 63,754 people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-australian-indigenous-languages-you-should-know-40155">Some Australian Indigenous languages you should know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A third difficulty is that the Census question doesn’t distinguish between people who speak an Indigenous language as their main means of everyday talk, and people who are actively relearning an Indigenous language, and use English for most everyday talk.</p>
<p>The ambiguities and incompleteness in the Census results mean that it is important to find other ways to supplement it. Later this year the Australian government will release its <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/indigenous-arts-and-languages/2019-international-year-indigenous-languages/national-indigenous-languages-report">National Indigenous Languages Report</a> which will give a more comprehensive picture. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-tasmanias-aboriginal-people-reclaimed-a-language-palawa-kani-99764">Explainer: how Tasmania's Aboriginal people reclaimed a language, palawa kani</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Supporting languages</h2>
<p>Indigenous people who speak English or a new Indigenous language as their first language often want to learn and reawaken their heritage language from old recordings and documents, and sometimes from elderly speakers. </p>
<p>The Federal government is currently supporting many groups in language reawakening, which can be a transformative activity. In some places it has made Indigenous people and heritage visible through signage, welcomes to country and art events. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254457/original/file-20190118-100276-1hdjcon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signage at Hobart’s Mount Wellington using the Tasmanian Aboriginal, palawi kani, name for the mountain, kunanyi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pursuedbybear/20623294233/in/photolist-29sEeEj-5kt1rP-yk2zsA-xqpLSv-nF5W1x-wbbc6R-LC4vPf-28duGDt">Flickr/Pursuedbybear</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The demand to learn these languages at school level is increasing, and the supply of teachers with relevant training can’t keep up. There’s only one public teacher education program that addresses this demand: the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/courses/courses/pc/master-of-indigenous-languages-education.html">Master of Indigenous Language Education</a> at the University of Sydney. </p>
<p>Three reawakening languages are now taught at <a href="https://www.ulpa.edu.au/">university level</a>: Kaurna (<a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/courses/adelaide/">University of Adelaide</a>), Gamilaraay (<a href="https://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/course/INDG2003">Australian National University</a> and <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/courses/units-of-study/2018/indg/indg2005.html">University of Sydney</a> and <a href="http://www.csu.edu.au/handbook/handbook18/subjects/IKC301.html">Wiradjuri</a> (Charles Sturt University).</p>
<p>Other languages still spoken by children and taught at universities include Yolŋu Matha through <a href="https://learnline.cdu.edu.au/yolngustudies/">Charles Darwin University</a>, and Pitjantjatjara through the <a href="https://study.unisa.edu.au/courses/106079/2018">University of South Australia</a>. </p>
<p>In 2019 <a href="https://www.cdu.edu.au/bininj-kunwok">Charles Darwin University</a> and the <a href="https://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/2019/course/INDG2005">Australian National University </a>are combining forces with <a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n186">Bininj Kunwok</a> people to teach <a href="https://bininjkunwok.org.au/">their language</a> online. </p>
<h2>Pressure to speak English</h2>
<p>Indigenous people who don’t speak English as a first language face enormous pressure to switch to speaking English only (even though elsewhere in the world multilingualism is common, and affords social and intellectual advantages). </p>
<p>Things that currently make it hard are that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>all government services are delivered in English as the default</p></li>
<li><p>interpreters and translations are often not available, or only available for serious court cases and serious medical problems</p></li>
<li><p>schools mostly operate in English with inadequate attention to the language needs of the children.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The number of first language speakers of new and traditional language who need language support for access to services is very small - around 60,000. Governments could require at least some of the public servants servicing that area to speak the local language. There are few local Indigenous public servants in remote communities - what if a concerted effort was made to recruit and train more local people? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254456/original/file-20190118-100273-5tibw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jill Seraine doing the Bininj Kunwok course.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by Cathy Bow</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Schooling is another area for support. Governments could say that in communities where the majority of the population speak a language other than English, then the schools should recognise the children’s mother tongue in the initial years of schooling, in order to make the best decisions on how to use languages in their education. Skilled teachers fluent in the local Indigenous language and English are highly valuable in this process. The most cost-effective way of doing this is to make sure local Indigenous people have access to good teacher training.</p>
<p>Having more local Indigenous teachers in remote communities has many other social advantages as well. Properly supporting lessons in Indigenous languages in schools requires rich documentation of the language and society, and so protects cultural heritage. Above all, it shows that the children’s first language is valued by everyone.</p>
<p>A New Year’s Resolution for this International Year of Indigenous Languages: let’s encourage governments to work with Indigenous people to help fulfil hopes for our national languages treasure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109662/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Simpson receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CE140100041), and is working on the National Indigenous Languages Report, funded by the Department of Communication and the Arts.</span></em></p>In 60 years’ time, only 13 of Australia’s Indigenous languages will be left, unless something is done to encourage children to keep speaking their language.Jane Helen Simpson, Chair of Indigenous Linguistics and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1095702019-01-17T19:13:57Z2019-01-17T19:13:57ZWhy do so few Aussies speak an Australian language?<p>Linguistically speaking, Australia is special. With <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/products/report_research_outputs/2014-report-of-the-2nd-national-indigenous-languages-survey.pdf">around 250 languages</a> spoken when Australia was first colonised, Australia was one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world. </p>
<p>But few people speak our Indigenous languages. As of 2016, only <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20Population%20Data%20Summary%7E10">10% of Australia’s Indigenous population spoke an Indigenous language at home</a>. Most Indigenous languages are now “asleep”, waiting to be woken up by language revivalists. </p>
<p>Australian languages did not simply fade away; they were actively silenced by governments, schools and missions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-australian-indigenous-languages-you-should-know-40155">Some Australian Indigenous languages you should know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At most missions through the mid-20th century, Aboriginal languages were to be replaced with English. The Commonwealth Office of Education <a href="https://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/found-in-translation-many-meanings-on-a-north-australian-mission/">explained its intention</a> in 1953:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The policy of assimilation demands a lingua franca as soon as possible – not only for communication between aboriginal and European but between aboriginal and aboriginal. That lingua franca must be English… There is a need everywhere for a planned, vigorous and maintained drive for English. Substitution of a new language for the old is not likely to disrupt the traditional social structure of the people any more than the substitution of Christian religion for their old religion and superstitions. In fact the former might assist the latter process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As linguist Arthur Capell <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/38822274?q=capell+linguistic+change+in+australia&c=book&versionId=51549330">wrote in 1964</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Government policy looks forward to the loss of Aboriginal languages so that the Aborigines may be “assimilated.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In pursuit of this policy, the Commonwealth Government banned Aboriginal languages in schools. It required teachers in mission schools to report on whether and for what reason they used any Aboriginal words. Aboriginal languages were to be forbidden even in the playground. The use of mission dormitories, separating children from families, compounded the attack on language.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254054/original/file-20190116-163262-1043ni8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mission school children on Groote Eylandt in the 1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Groote Eylandt Linguistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This attack was partly based on the idea that Aboriginal languages were deficient and impaired critical thinking. Missionary linguist Beulah Lowe was told in the 1950s that Aboriginal people have “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/210595509?q=harris+%22aboriginal+language+in+church+and+school%22&c=book&versionId=231155411">no real language</a>.” Linguist Robert Dixon remembered being told in 1963 that Aboriginal languages were “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8505606?q=dixon+1983+searching+language&c=book">just a few grunts and groans</a>.” </p>
<p>As recently as 1969, the Commonwealth government presumed the need for “remedial work” in Aboriginal schools due to the supposed “inhibitory influences” of “bilingualism in education”. </p>
<p>Nowadays educators are aware of the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/more-languages-better-brain/381193/">cognitive benefits of being multilingual</a>.</p>
<h2>Translating the Bible</h2>
<p>The few Europeans who did learn Australian languages were mostly missionaries. But their approaches were contradictory. On the one hand they directly contributed to the loss of Aboriginal languages by putting children in dormitories, English-only schools and separating families. On the other, missionaries showed a greater concern for languages than other colonisers, due to their drive to translate the Bible. </p>
<p>These efforts to translate the Bible were slow compared to those overseas. The first Aboriginal Bible was completed in 2007 (in Kriol, spoken in northern Australia). The Maori Bible was complete in 1868 and by 1946 the Bible was in 30 Pacific languages.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-remote-indigenous-community-where-a-few-thousand-people-use-15-different-languages-107716">Meet the remote Indigenous community where a few thousand people use 15 different languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Translation efforts began in 1824 when Lancelot Threlkeld began learning Awabakal of the Lake Macquarie region and, with his Aboriginal co-translator Biraban, completed an Awabakal Gospel. But disease and violence devastated the community. By 1840 only 16 people were left at the mission. </p>
<p>Other small-scale translation projects followed. German missionaries, perhaps due to their Lutheran tradition of Bible translation or their unfamiliarity with English, made significant efforts. Teichelmann and Schurmann, for example, wrote a grammar of the Kaurna language of the Adelaide region in 1840.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254053/original/file-20190116-163280-17ggrtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Missionary Judith Stokes and Gula Lalara work on the Anindilyakwa language in the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Groote Eylandt Linguistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Missionary linguists always depended on Aboriginal co-translators to teach and translate their language. Carl Strehlow at Hermannsburg worked in with Moses Tjalkabota. Strehlow was one of the few who acknowledged his Aboriginal partner; we don’t know the names of others. </p>
<p>In many places, Aboriginal people used missionaries to have their language and knowledge recorded for future generations. Their foresight is being rewarded. Now, over a century later, their work is being used in language revival projects.</p>
<h2>Learning English</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, many Aboriginal people quickly learned English, finding it brought them opportunities to defend their interests. They were often gifted linguists. <a href="https://theconversation.com/search/result?sg=549e8028-bba7-4e09-8529-a52a845824a2&sp=1&sr=1&url=%2Fmeet-the-remote-indigenous-community-where-a-few-thousand-people-use-15-different-languages-107716">Usually already multilingual</a> when the colonisers came, adding English was relatively easy. </p>
<p>Dispossession of land often meant distinct Aboriginal language communities were thrust together, so Aboriginal people used English, or an English pidgin, as a lingua franca. Some thought it best to keep their language secret from colonisers, perhaps to hide their Aboriginality and the associated discrimination, perhaps to uphold their authority over their cultural knowledge. So they spoke English.</p>
<h2>Changing attitudes</h2>
<p>By the 1940s, white Australia was realising Aboriginal people were not doomed to extinction. Instead, they assumed Aboriginal cultures and languages would die out once Aboriginal people assimilated. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-dreaming-of-a-white-christmas-on-the-aboriginal-missions-88381">Friday essay: dreaming of a 'white Christmas' on the Aboriginal missions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Aboriginal linguists and missionaries at Hermannsburg, Ernabella and Milingimbi in central and northern Australia advanced translation in Arrente, Pitjantjatjara and Yolngu Matha and used language in the classroom. Yet <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/38822274?q=capell+linguistic+change&c=book&versionId=51549330">as late as 1964</a>, Capell wrote of recording languages so that they “may be handed down to generations who will see them only as darker members of a European culture”. Linguistic research was still considered a matter of archiving languages on their deathbeds.</p>
<p>Attitudes began changing in the 1960s. In 1963, Yolngu people presented their <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/collections-online/digitised-collections/yirrkala-bark-petitions-1963">Bark Petition</a> to the Commonwealth government. The petition was written first in Gupapyngu with an English translation. Aboriginal languages could no longer be dismissed as “grunts and groans” of little cultural value. </p>
<p>In 1973, the Commonwealth government introduced mother tongue education at select Aboriginal schools. Aboriginal educators increasingly called for and implemented “two-ways” education.</p>
<p>Today it is possible to study <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/courses/courses/pc/master-of-indigenous-languages-education.html">Indigenous Languages Education</a> or <a href="https://www.cdu.edu.au/study/diploma-yolngu-studies-yyols1-2018">Yolngu Studies</a>. Or you could learn a word a day through RN’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/wordup/">Word Up</a>. Communities are “waking up” languages such as <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/index/">Kaurna</a> and <a href="http://www.miromaa.org.au/">Awabakal</a>. But there is a long way to go. Communities wishing to keep language strong still face barriers of policy, prejudice, funding and resourcing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Rademaker received funding from the Northern Territory History Grants Scheme, Australian Research Theology Foundation and Cushwa Centre. </span></em></p>Australia was one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world but today, few people speak an Australian language.Laura Rademaker, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080702018-12-10T18:55:45Z2018-12-10T18:55:45ZRecovered Aboriginal songs offer clues to 19th century mystery of the shipwrecked ‘white woman’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249142/original/file-20181206-186076-1eym76.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An image of the landscape around Bairnsdale in the late-18th century. D. R Long (Daniel Rutter), between 1856 and 1883. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1846 Melbourne was gripped by a panic: a story had spread that a white woman had been shipwrecked off the coast of Gippsland and was living with Aboriginal people. “Expeditions” were sent to “rescue” her. Messages were left for her printed on handkerchiefs, and because some believed she was Scottish, some of these were written in <a href="http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/170023">Gaelic</a>.</p>
<p>The expeditions sent to Gippsland resulted in the massacre of large numbers of Indigenous people from the Gunai/Kurnai community.</p>
<p>For generations, people have argued over whether the “white woman” really existed and if so, what happened to her. In her 2001 book <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/the-captive-white-woman-of-gipps-land-paperback-softback">The Captive White Woman of Gipps Land</a> author Julie Carr recounted a story written in 1897 by Mary Howitt, the daughter of <a href="http://theconversation.com/rediscovered-the-aboriginal-names-for-ten-melbourne-suburbs-99139">A.W. Howitt</a>, an anthropologist and Gippsland magistrate, which told how the white woman later had children with an Aboriginal husband and drowned in <a href="http://www.rivieranautic.com.au/gippsland-lakes-guide-mclennans-strait.html">McLennan’s strait</a>. Carr came to the conclusion that evidence for the existence of the woman was inconclusive; government searches in 1846 and 1847 having failed to find her.</p>
<p>But we have recently identified two short songs in the Aboriginal language of Gippsland (Gunai/Kurnai) about the white woman’s story that provide some clues. These were in the papers of <a href="http://theconversation.com/rediscovered-the-aboriginal-names-for-ten-melbourne-suburbs-99139">Howitt</a> at the State Library of Victoria.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249140/original/file-20181206-186082-cqu97b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A handkerchief for the white woman shipwrecked in Gippsland.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A gift of possum skin</h2>
<p>At the top of one page of Howitt’s notes headed August 23 1868, per J.C. Macleod (the son of an early pastoralist), Howitt wrote the following note:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Blacks told him [Macleod] in the early days the white woman was wrecked in the coast with some men who were killed - the woman being saved. She was a tall woman, young with very long black hair in ringlets (some said the hair was fair). … She was the Miss Howard who was about 16 years of age when the vessel in which she was going to Melbourne was lost. Daughter of Commissary Howard. Part of the vessel was after picked up in the ninety mile beach</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two Gunai/Kurnai songs are written on the same page. Howitt notes that these songs were composed by a “Dinni Birraark”, a senior songster and ritual specialist, where <em>dinni</em> is the word for “old” and the <em>birraark</em> is the name of an expert who was skilled in songs and magic. These men were said to fly and see beyond the physical world. </p>
<p>In the 1840s there were seven surviving men who held the title of Dinni Birraark. The composer of this song was likely to have been a man also known as Bunjil Bamarang from near Bairnsdale. Bunjil Bamarang was not his personal name, but indicated that he was an expert (Bunjil) in something. We do not know what Bamarang refers to, but it may indicate expertise in the use of the “spear shield”, which was called <em>bammarook</em> in Gunai/Kurnai.</p>
<p>One of these songs, written down by Howitt, directly mentions the “white woman”:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249137/original/file-20181206-186058-3ff8bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We have transcribed this as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>U-auda kai-ū Lohan-tŭkan móka kat-teir nŭ́rrau-un-gŭl mūndū wánganna</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Underneath the song, Howitt gives translations for many of the words. For instance, he translates <em>Lohan-tŭkan</em> as “white woman”. The overall meaning of the song seems to be, “Give the white woman from over the sea the possum skin skirt, and that blanket there.”</p>
<p>This genre of song, <em>gunyeru</em>, was traditionally sung with dancing at public gatherings, what might be otherwise commonly referred to as a “corroboree” (although the word “corroboree” originates from the Dharuk language spoken in the Sydney area). The Dinni Birraark was certainly an acknowledged expert in composing this style of song.</p>
<h2>Burning ladders</h2>
<p>On the same page, is a second song that seems to give more information about the Lohan-Tuka, or white woman’s, story:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249138/original/file-20181206-186061-9vt36a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This we have transcribed as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Blaung-a-requa drūraua kŭllŭngŭka
<br>
Wŭrūng-tūnkū bŭdda-tūnkū pŭtta-ngaiu
<br>
tūka-pŭnta kŭrnŭng-ŭka ma-kŭrnung-ita
<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the first line of the song there are three words that Howitt translates as “burn”, “ladder” and “whitefellow”. This would appear to be a sentence meaning, “The whitefellow’s ladder is burning”. </p>
<p>When we remember that ships in the 1840s were sailing ships, we can imagine that the Dinni Birraark used a word that he knew – “ladder” – to represent the rigging on a sailing ship. As Gunai/Kurnai elder, Russell Mullett, pointed out to us, “As a senior man, the Dinni Birraark would have used a ladder in his ritual life.” </p>
<p>The remaining portions of this second song are harder to interpret. It seems that the Dinni Birraark was watching the burning of this ship from the narrow strip of land along the Ninety Mile Beach between the sea and the freshwater of the Gippsland Lakes. </p>
<p>In this place, perhaps a musk duck (<em>Tuka</em>) had a nest, there was a hollow place near to water. Intriguingly the word for white woman, Lohan Tuka, is a compound including the word for musk duck. Perhaps, as Mullett has suggested, the place where the Dinni Birraark watched this had an association with an ancestral musk duck.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249141/original/file-20181206-186058-pkr47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The message printed on handkerchiefs in a bid to find the shipwrecked white woman.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These songs are composed as if witnessing real events: the wreck of a ship and the rescue of a young woman. Nothing is more naturally human than offering a young shipwreck victim a “skirt and a blanket”, and the description of the shipwreck as a “burning ladder” is fully plausible.</p>
<p>These two songs seem to suggest that there was a White Woman, the Lohan Tuka. There is much tragedy in this story – shipwreck, massacre, possible drowning. This history needs to be told and re-told. </p>
<p>What these songs reveal is an Indigenous perspective on it and a glimpse into the rich artistic culture of the Gunai/Kurnai. In the words of Mullett, “taken together these two songs are like an opera composed by the Dinni Birraark”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Morey receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project (LP160100192), entitled 'Howitt & Fison’s anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches'. This project is led by Associate Professor Helen Gardner (Deakin University), with other Chief Investigators, Dr Stephen Morey (La Trobe), Dr. Rachel Hendery (University of Western Sydney, and Dr. Patrick McConvell (Australian National University), </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason M. Gibson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Aboriginal songs found in the notebooks of a Victorian anthropologist shed light on the mystery of a ‘captive white woman’ that has been debated for generations.Stephen Morey, Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe UniversityJason M. Gibson, Research fellow, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077162018-12-04T18:52:12Z2018-12-04T18:52:12ZMeet the remote Indigenous community where a few thousand people use 15 different languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248630/original/file-20181204-126677-2m1ypp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Maningrida, a community on Australia’s remote north-central coast, is a language hotspot.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jill Vaughan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Australia’s remote north-central coast, the small community of Maningrida is remarkable for many reasons. It boasts dramatic coastal scenery, <a href="https://maningrida.com/">world-renowned bark and sculptural artists</a>, skilled weavers and <a href="https://babbarra.com/">textile printers</a>, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-27/maningrida-students-research-diving-floodplain-tarantulas/10430354">unique local wildlife</a>. But Maningrida is extraordinary for another reason: it is one of the most linguistically diverse communities in the world, with 15 languages spoken or signed every day among only a couple of thousand people.</p>
<p>Northern Australia is a “hotspot” for language diversity. But of the more than 250 different Australian languages spoken at the time of colonisation, now only 15-18 are being passed on to new generations of speakers. Perhaps 100 more are still spoken by a handful of elderly speakers. Understanding how the multilingualism of this region works may help us maintain and revitalise other languages.</p>
<p>Abigail Carter, a Language and Culture worker at Maningrida College, has lived in Maningrida for most of her life, and also spends time at Wurdeja, a small outstation community her family calls home east of Arnhem Land’s Blyth River. Like most of her friends and family, Abigail is highly multilingual. Her main language is the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302410">Martay dialect of the Burarra language</a>, and she is a fluent speaker of English. </p>
<p>Through the multilingualism of her family members, she can also understand Djinang, Yan-nhaŋu and Yolŋu Matha from eastern Arnhem Land. As Abigail told us in Burarra:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Minypa Djinang ng-galiyarra ngu-workiya, ngardawa an-ngaypa jaminya gu-nika wengga. Rrapa an-ngaypa ninya rrapa bapapa, jungurda apula yerrcha gun-ngayburrpa wengga Yan-nhaŋu.
<br>
(I hear and understand Djinang, because that’s my mother’s father’s language. And my father and auntie, my father’s father, our language is Yan-nhaŋu.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a Maningrida local, she has also learned to speak Ndjébbana, the language of the Kunibídji land where Maningrida lies, as well as Kuninjku, a dialect of the larger Bininj Kunwok language of western Arnhem Land.</p>
<p>The size of Abigail’s linguistic repertoire is fairly typical of Maningrida, but every individual has a unique constellation of language competences due to differing family networks and life experiences.</p>
<p><a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21466805?selectedversion=NBD2743606">Recordings made in the 1970s</a> show that a shopkeeper at the local supermarket used five different languages across his various encounters with customers throughout the day.</p>
<p><a href="http://link-springer-com-443.webvpn.jxutcm.edu.cn/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-94851-5_8">Recent recordings around the community</a> demonstrate similar levels of multilingualism: at the Maningrida football Grand Final in 2015, commentary from the announcers and among the crowd was recorded in nine languages.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248642/original/file-20181204-126683-1e5q1ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arnhem Land, including Maningrida, has many diverse languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MICK TSIKAS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why so many languages?</h2>
<p>One reason there are so many languages in Maningrida is that it was founded in the late 1950s as a welfare settlement. Later, speakers of many languages moved to access work and resources. </p>
<p>And, unlike other communities where English, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a> or a single traditional language has been promoted – such as those which began as missions – Maningrida has no lingua franca between all the language groups. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-australian-indigenous-languages-you-should-know-40155">Some Australian Indigenous languages you should know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Arnhem Land is a particular “hotspot” for language diversity, and researchers have described <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ijsl.2016.2016.issue-241/ijsl-2016-0029/ijsl-2016-0029.xml">similar levels of multilingualism elsewhere in the region</a>. </p>
<p>Multilingualism among Aboriginal people serves many purposes besides just facilitating ordinary day-to-day conversation. </p>
<p>It may also be used to fulfil social and cultural etiquette, to signal status as a <a href="https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/314060">friendly guest on country</a>, to ensure <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1987.tb02215.x">safety from dangerous spirits</a>, or to enhance <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/30579">storytelling</a> and <a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/122873">song</a>.</p>
<h2>Language matters</h2>
<p>Indigenous Australia is characterised by strong connections between language and land. Through these connections, language is tied to clan groups, dreamings and cultural practice. These come together in origin stories, such as the <a href="http://www.eopas.org/transcripts/190">Warramurrungunji story of north-west Arnhem Land</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248568/original/file-20181203-194956-1rlrlow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Footy games are spoken about in many different languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jill Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are beliefs about how language <em>should</em> be used too. One of these is the priority to use one’s father’s language. An individual is understood to “own” this language, even though sometimes they may not actually be able to speak it. As Maningrida resident George Pascoe said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The person feels very important when you speak your own language. It also identifies your father. In our culture you inherit from your father […] everything the father owns, you inherit that. And that’s the law. That’s based on the Magna Carta, the Indigenous people of this country and even Arnhem Land, they have their own Magna Carta. It’s invisible to the foreign law […] Laws given to us by the creator, languages given to us by the creator. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This pressure can even be strong enough to create conversations where each speaker uses a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530918301381">different language</a>, but is still understood. Beliefs and practices like these, along with high levels of multilingualism, support the viability and ongoing co-existence of many languages, even <a href="https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/306620">very small ones of just a few dozen speakers</a>.</p>
<p>Multilingualism has been the norm throughout human history, but we still know very little about how people use it around the world. The multilingualism of northern Australia is mirrored in other Indigenous language hotspots across the world. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/language-and-communication/vol/62/part/PB">A new collection of research</a> looks at examples in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302203">the US</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302215">Peru</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917303105">northern Amazonia</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302239">Senegal</a>, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302446">the Arctic</a>, as well as in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530917302318">Kimberley</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530918301381">Arnhem Land</a>. The UN has declared 2019 the “<a href="https://en.iyil2019.org/">International Year of Indigenous Languages</a>”, highlighting issues facing these communities around the world. </p>
<p>The threat of language loss poses a serious risk to our nation’s cultural inheritance, and to <a href="http://apo.org.au/system/files/40060/apo-nid40060-46356.pdf">the wellbeing of many Indigenous Australians</a>. Embracing and better understanding multilingualism is one way we can help maintain traditional languages and support Australia’s linguistic diversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107716/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Vaughan receives funding from an Endangered Languages Documentation Program grant. She has previously been funded through the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. </span></em></p>At the Maningrida football Grand Final in 2015, commentary was recorded in nine languages. But elsewhere, the threat of language loss poses a serious risk to our nation’s cultural inheritance.Jill Vaughan, Research Fellow in Linguistics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1050482018-10-23T03:35:33Z2018-10-23T03:35:33ZThe English-only NT parliament is undermining healthy democracy by excluding Aboriginal languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241760/original/file-20181023-169816-1ev2mm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C0%2C2026%2C1161&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yingiya Guyula (seated right) wants to be allowed to use the Yolngu Matha language in the NT Legislative Assembly to represent his electorate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yingiya Guyula</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Yingiya Guyula was elected as a member to the NT Legislative Assembly in 2016, he rose to give his <a href="http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/blog/yingiya-mark-guyula-mla-s-first-speech-in-nt-parliament">inaugural speech</a> and started speaking in his first language, Yolngu Matha. </p>
<p>Yolngu Matha is dominant language of Guyula’s electorate, and the third-most commonly spoken language in the NT. Nevertheless, he was interrupted by the speaker, Kezia Purick, because he wasn’t complying with recently enacted <a href="https://parliament.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/377789/Standing-Orders-21-April-2016.pdf">standing orders</a> that placed barriers on speaking languages other than English in parliament.</p>
<p>A year earlier, another member, Bess Price, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/aboriginal-minister-bess-price-denied-right-to-speak-her-native-language-in-nt-assembly-20160218-gmx9ap.html">was repeatedly told she could not use the Warlpiri language</a> when addressing the Legislative Assembly. The speaker told her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>should a member use a language other than English without the leave of the Assembly it will be ruled disorderly and the member will be required to withdraw the words. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The NT is the most linguistically rich state or territory in Australia, with 70% of Aboriginal residents speaking an Aboriginal language. Despite this, it is the only Australian jurisdiction where parliament has formally enacted standing orders limiting the use of non-English languages and interpreters.</p>
<p>The standing orders prohibit the use of interpreters in parliament and limit the use of non-English languages to pre-prepared remarks when a written English translation has been provided by MLAs in advance. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reviving-indigenous-languages-not-as-easy-as-it-seems-68977">Reviving Indigenous languages – not as easy as it seems</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a result, the Legislative Assembly has become what is effectively an English-only body. </p>
<p>After his inaugural speech, Guyula formally requested changes to allow for extemporaneous bilingual speech and interpreters in the chamber. <a href="https://parliament.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/443563/400-Standing-Orders-Committee-report-to-the-Assembly-August-2017-on-Standing-Order-23A.pdf">But the standing orders committee refused the request.</a> The committee’s single concession was that it would allow further submissions in 2018, but it has given no indication it will reverse its decision.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"832081740604641281"}"></div></p>
<h2>How a monolingual approach stifles democracy</h2>
<p>Australian politicians representing predominantly English-speaking electorates have used Aboriginal languages without restrictions in other parliaments for symbolic purposes. But in the NT, Aboriginal politicians who represent electorates where Aboriginal languages are predominantly spoken are prevented from using their first languages, even for communication purposes. </p>
<p>Purick <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-18/nt-warlpiri-minister-denied-request-to-speak-indigenous-language/7178298">has justified</a> the English-only approach by saying it’s “fair” and that it doesn’t create inequality within the Legislative Assembly. The chair of the standing orders committee has also <a href="https://parliament.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/443563/400-Standing-Orders-Committee-report-to-the-Assembly-August-2017-on-Standing-Order-23A.pdf">questioned </a> whether parliament should have to “tolerate” members who can’t do business in English.</p>
<p>But this approach actually serves to weaken our representative democracy in several ways: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Excluding potential candidates</strong> – This required English proficiency could exclude potential candidates. According to government statistics, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/C73D7CC81CA1FD2FCA258148000A4067?OpenDocument">42% of NT residents speak a non-English language at home</a>. We would not accept parliamentary practices that exclude candidates on the basis of gender, religion or race, so it is not acceptable to exclude candidates from full participation on the basis of language </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Full participation</strong> – Government accountability comes through robust scrutiny and debate. Under current practices, Aboriginal MLAs may not have the same access to information or ability to express themselves as their English-speaking counterparts. The NT needs more Aboriginal input into laws and policy, so we should not create barriers for those who are trying to contribute</p></li>
<li><p><strong>An informed electorate</strong> – Healthy democracies also rely on voters having equal access to information that affects their lives. English-speaking voters are able to understand parliamentary debate on issues, but those not fully fluent in English could be at a disadvantage. </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-more-schools-need-to-teach-bilingual-education-to-indigenous-children-79435">Why more schools need to teach bilingual education to Indigenous children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>An engaged electorate</strong> – Only <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-25/half-indigenous-people-in-nt-not-enrolled-to-vote-aec-says/7446416">half of eligible Aboriginal residents</a> in the NT are enrolled to vote, and voter participation is even lower. The Australian Electoral Commission <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-30/push-to-boost-enrolment-numbers-in-remote-indigenous-community/9927372">has said</a> the electoral system lacks relevance for Aboriginal people. If MLAs were permitted to speak their own languages in the Legislative Assembly, this could help engage Aboriginal electorates and boost voter turn-out.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Recognition</strong> – Rejecting someone’s language means rejecting their identity. In the recent <a href="https://dcm.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/514272/barunga-muo-treaty.pdf">Barunga Agreement</a>, the NT government acknowledged that: </p></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>there has been deep injustice done to the Aboriginal people of the NT, including … the repression of their languages and cultures … which have left a legacy of trauma, and loss that needs to be addressed and healed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rejecting the requests of elected Aboriginal MLAs to use the languages of their electorates seems to be another example of “repression of language”. Reconciliation is not just something parliamentarians should direct others to do, it’s something that needs to happen within parliament itself. </p>
<h2>Multilingualism works in other parliaments</h2>
<p>Dozens of countries around the world have bilingual and multilingual parliaments. In New Zealand, <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018662601/nga-ratonga-reo-maori-parliament-s-language-champs">Maori interpreters </a> have been provided in parliament since 1868 and legislation has been translated into Maori from 1881. Today, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=9-cdeVLd3rM">interpreters are available for all parliamentary sittings</a> and parliamentarians have the absolute right to speak in Maori. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Wīremu Haunui, Maori interpreter in the New Zealand Parliament.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the European Commission uses English, French and German as its working languages, the European Parliament has hundreds of translators and interpreters on hand to <a href="https://europarlamentti.info/en/European-parliament/working-languages/">translate all speeches and documents</a> into the bloc’s 24 official languages. The parliament says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is a fundamental democratic principle that every EU citizen can become a Member of the European Parliament, even if he or she does not speak one of its working languages.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The way forward for the NT Legislative Assembly is not difficult. Each MLA could be given an allowance to use for interpreters in the languages and topics most relevant to their constituencies. Aboriginal-language speeches or questions in the assembly could also be sent to an interpreter service for translation into English and inclusion in the Hansard. </p>
<p>Non-Aboriginal MLAs representing large Aboriginal electorates would also benefit from this provision in order to better connect with their constituencies. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-way-to-recognise-an-indigenous-nation-in-australia-101189">A new way to recognise an Indigenous nation in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Providing interpreters in five Aboriginal languages for every day of parliamentary sittings would cost around A$110,000 per year (based on the <a href="https://nt.gov.au/community/interpreting-and-translating-services/aboriginal-interpreter-service/fees-for-aboriginal-interpreter-service">set rate of A$70/hour</a> paid by the Aboriginal Interpreter Service). Multilingual Aboriginal interpreters are already in use in far more challenging and complex situations, such as in NT courts and hospitals. </p>
<p>And allowing MLAs to give extemporaneous bilingual speeches and questions wouldn’t require interpreters and would therefore cost nothing other than time. </p>
<p>The NT is a rich, multilingual society. How can the Legislative Assembly claim to fully represent the breadth of NT society when it chooses to be monolingual? It’s time to recognise the rightful and beneficial place of Aboriginal languages in places of power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Grimes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The NT is the only jurisdiction in Australia mandating the use of English in the Legislative Assembly – despite the fact 42% of the population doesn’t speak English at home.Ben Grimes, Lecturer in Law, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003182018-08-30T04:51:23Z2018-08-30T04:51:23ZTrust Me, I’m An Expert: How augmented reality may one day make music a visual, interactive experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229214/original/file-20180725-194152-1wy2ytm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could music one day be something we experience through augmented reality, responding to the way we move through the world? Sound supplemented with colours and shapes?
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mavis Wong/The Conversation NY-BD-CC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You probably heard your first strains of music when you were in utero. From then on it’s helped you learn, helped you relax, hyped you up, helped you work, helped you exercise, helped you celebrate and helped you grieve. </p>
<p>Music is ingrained in so many aspect of our lives, but it’s also the subject of a significant body of academic work.</p>
<p>Today’s episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/trust-me-podcast">Trust Me, I’m An Expert</a> is all about research on music. We’ll be hearing from Dr Ben Swift, a digital artist and computer science lecturer from the Australian National University on how technology is changing the way we interact with music. Could it one day be something we experience through augmented reality, responding to the way we move through the world? Sound supplemented with colours and shapes?</p>
<p>And Conversation intern Juliana Yu spoke with Dr Clint Bracknell, a researcher at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music about how he’s investigating the power of song to help address the national and global crisis of Indigenous language-loss. He’s working on this research with <a href="http://wirlomin.com.au/">Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Inc</a>.</p>
<p>And we’ll hear from researcher Dr Hollis Taylor, most recently at Macquarie University, who has been studying, recording, and transcribing <a href="https://theconversation.com/birdsong-has-inspired-humans-for-centuries-is-it-music-79000">pied butcherbird song</a> for 12 years. Taylor produces what she calls “re(compositions)” – musical arrangements that mimic and complement pied butcherbird song. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/trust-me-podcast">Trust Me I’m An Expert</a> is a podcast from The Conversation, where we bring you stories, ideas and insights from the world of academic research. Special thanks today to Shelley Hepworth and Juliana Yu, as well as academics Hollis Taylor, Ben Swift and Clint Bracknell.</p>
<p>You can download previous episodes of Trust Me <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/trust-me-podcast">here</a>. And please do check out other podcasts from The Conversation – including The Conversation US’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/heat-and-light-1968">Heat and Light</a>, about 1968 in the US, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/the-anthill">The Anthill</a> from The Conversation UK, as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a>, a brand new podcast all about the media. You can find all our podcasts over <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts">here</a>.</p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from <a href="https://www.elefanttraks.com/">Elefant Traks</a></p>
<p>Svefn-g-englar by <a href="https://sigur-ros.co.uk/">Sigur Ros</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/taylor-hollis">Green Lake, Victoria</a> for soprano recorder and field recording by Hollis Taylor, Genevieve Lacey, recorder </p>
<p><a href="https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/absolute-bird">Owen Springs Reserve 2014</a> for vibraphone and field recording by Hollis Taylor/Jon Rose, Claire Edwardes, vibraphone </p>
<p>Field recordings by <a href="http://www.piedbutcherbird.net">Hollis Taylor</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/NoLogic/Masters_Remastered/2_Adagio">2 Adagio (Fantasia in C minor K 475 by W. A. Mozart)</a> by NoLogic, from Free Music Archive </p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Marian_Circle_Drum_Brigade/The_Marian_Circle_Drum_Brigade/Procession_1007">Procession</a> by The Marian Circle Drum Brigade, from Free Music Archive </p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Lillehammer/Svela_Tal">Svela Tal</a> by Blue Dot Sessions, from Free Music Archive</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/jhumbucker/sounds/250540/">Critters creeping</a>
Lee Rosevere Shimmering Still Water – Free Sound Archive</p>
<p>Asmodeus Redux by Ben Swift </p>
<p>Elder Brother by Ben Swift </p>
<p>The Illiac Suite by Hiller and Isaacson</p>
<p>Wirlomin members practicing old Noongar songs with the guidance of Henry Dabb, Gaye Roberts and the Wirlomin Elders Reference Group</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Today, we're hearing about a researcher who records birdsong, how tech changes music and why song might help address Indigenous language loss.Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorJuliana Yu, Editorial InternShelley Hepworth, Section Editor: Technology, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/991392018-07-09T20:03:53Z2018-07-09T20:03:53ZRediscovered: the Aboriginal names for ten Melbourne suburbs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226227/original/file-20180705-122271-pquq6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Melbourne in 1846: a view from Collingwood. T. E. Prout. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ten previously forgotten Aboriginal names for 19th century sites and suburbs of Melbourne have been recently unearthed at the Melbourne Museum. These include the names for Fitzroy (Ngár-go), Richmond (Quo-yung), Collingwood (Yálla-birr-ang) and Brunswick (Bulleke-bek). </p>
<p>These names were in a cache of notes made by <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/howitt-alfred-william-510">Alfred William Howitt</a>, an anthropologist and Gippsland magistrate. His jottings appear to be records of conversations he had sometime between 1897 and 1901 with <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barak-william-2930">William Barak</a>, <em>ngurungaeta</em> (leader) of the Wurundjeri-willam, the traditional owners of what is now northern Melbourne, and Dick Richards, Barak’s fellow Kulin countryman. (The Kulin was an alliance of Aboriginal nations in central Victoria.)</p>
<p>Howitt’s palm-sized, leather bound notebooks, written in his barely legible hand, were not precise or verbatim records of these conversations but aides to memory. Held in the museum since the 1950s as a small part of his extensive collection, they are difficult to decipher and require expert scholarship to decode. Throughout one notebook we can see that Howitt has jotted down Aboriginal names, mostly in the <a href="http://www.vaclang.org.au/languages/woiwurrung.html">Woiwurrung</a> language once spoken in the Melbourne area, corresponding to landmarks and municipalities that arose in Melbourne town during Barak’s lifetime. (He lived from around 1824 to 1903). </p>
<p>Although there is no accompanying map, these names identify landmarks and perhaps sites of Ancestral stories on land owned by Barak’s clan and beyond. They add some 10 new locality names and further tantalising details to what is already known from other publications. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226668/original/file-20180709-122259-55bi51.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-importance-of-william-baraks-ceremony-60846">Explainer: the importance of William Barak’s Ceremony</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Aboriginal Melbourne</h2>
<p>Fitzroy, for example, the first suburb of Melbourne gazetted in 1839 and the first municipality beyond the Melbourne borders, is listed in Howitt’s notebook as Ngár-go, meaning “high ground”. Although a Woiwurrung name for the Fitzroy area has not been noted before, the records of colonist Daniel Bunce include “N’gorack”, a similar term to describe a “mountain, peak or hill”. </p>
<p>The suburb of Brunswick corresponds to Bulleke bek, a term that appears to include the suffix “bik” meaning “ground/country/place”, although Howitt’s English gloss for this name is difficult to decipher. His handwriting is so tiny and rushed that he appears to have either written “flat country with scattered trees” or “flat country where scott’s work”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226422/original/file-20180706-122280-ez55m7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An extract from Howitt’s place names notes, including the word for Brunswick, Bulleke bek.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Museum, XM765</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The boundaries of European suburbs or municipalities did not, of course, correspond with the pre-existing Aboriginal conceptions of place. We have to acknowledge that we do not exactly know what Barak and Richards were referring to when they provided Howitt with these terms. Did they refer to areas within a particular clan boundary (usually called an “estate” in anthropological parlance) or were they the names of very specific sites; perhaps a tree, a rock, a bend in the river or a hill? The truth is that in the absence of more precise geospatial information we will never know. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226423/original/file-20180706-122253-3n4a7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An extract from A.W. Howitt’s notebook showing the name for the ‘Collingwood Flat’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Museum, XM765</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These names do nevertheless add further details to an alternative vision of Australia’s fastest growing metropolis. Some names describe land use or vegetation that have in most cases been eradicated, others are suggestive of ancestral stories. </p>
<p>The term for Collingwood Flat, Yalla-birr-ang, for example, is described as “a very old name” that means “the wooden point of a reed spear”. This may reference the place in a story where an Ancestor fashioned a spear point, or fixed one. To complicate things, though, a very similar term, <em>yallanēbirong</em>, was listed by an earlier ethnographer not as a place name, but as a word for “blanket”. </p>
<p>Indigenous words, phrases and place names have been taken up and used in mainstream Australia since colonisation, but often with a limited appreciation of their nuance or complexity. Universities, for example, are eagerly adopting Indigenous names to furnish their meeting rooms and public spaces. Some local councils are keen to source Indigenous names for new parks, river ways and streets.</p>
<p>And while the recuperation of this material is essential for recognising and acknowledging Indigenous presence (deep into the past and ongoing), interpreting this material is not straight-forward, as <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/aboriginal-history-monographs/aboriginal-placenames">linguistic and anthropological literature</a> has shown, especially when it comes from scant archival material. </p>
<p>The Woiwurrung name for “Cathedral”, “Geeburr” in Howitt’s notes is especially intriguing and difficult to decipher. It may refer to the site of one of the two Melbourne Cathedrals that were completed just prior to these conversations taking place. St. Pauls was largely finished in 1891, while St Patricks, situated on the high ground identified as Ngár-go (though further east than the borders of Fitzroy), was consecrated a little later in 1897. </p>
<p>Or, perhaps “Geeburr” is a generic reference to a place recognised as “sacred” by Aboriginal people and not a specific place name at all? The only other name referring to a building rather than a place is the “S.P. Office”, presumably meaning the office of the Superintendent of Police, which Howitt records as “Turrák-gullia arm”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murri-book-club-and-the-politics-of-reading-for-indigenous-australians-89233">The Murri Book Club and the politics of reading for Indigenous Australians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The trials of translation</h2>
<p>Place names throw up many linguistic issues that we need to consider in our analysis. Aboriginal languages in Victoria had sounds not used in English which could easily confuse European scribes. </p>
<p>Take the name for the River Yarra. In 1876, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smyth-robert-brough-4621">Robert Brough Smyth</a> recorded the Woiwurrung name for the river as “Birr-arrung”, but failed to tell us from whom or when it was collected. Most Melburnians will now recognise this in the name for the large green-space located nearby to Federation square, Birrarung Marr. </p>
<p>However many years earlier, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thomas-william-2727">Rev William Thomas</a> made a sketch map of Aboriginal names for the rivers and creeks in the Yarra valley. He wrote “Yarra Yarra or Paarran” next to the outline of the course of the river. Melbourne still uses a derivative of this word, Prahran, for one of its suburbs, although it is not beside the river. </p>
<p><a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/curr-edward-micklethwaite-3301">Edward M. Curr</a>, in his 1887 book The Australian Race, recorded the name for the river as Bay-ray-rung. In fact these four words, Birrarrung, Paarran, Bay-ray-rung and Prahran, are different spellings of the same word. The original word included sounds we can’t write in English, and we cannot be sure of the original pronunciation (as there are no audio recordings of fluent speakers of the Kulin languages). We can at least say though, that this was a place name associated with the river, perhaps related to the word for “mist” or “fog”, that was elsewhere recorded as “boorroong” or “boorr-arrang”.</p>
<p>The more commonly known name “Yarra” however came from surveyor <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wedge-john-helder-2778">John Helder Wedge</a>, who upon asking a Wathawurrung speaker from the Geelong area what the cascading waters on a lower section of the river were called, exclaimed “Yanna Yanna”, meaning “it flows”. Wedge’s mishearing and misunderstanding became the accepted name of Melbourne’s iconic waterway.</p>
<p>Howitt’s scrambled notes conjure the difficulties of precolonial interaction and cross-cultural understanding in early Melbourne but they also highlight the challenges of post-colonial recognition and adjustment. The faint echoes of the conversations between Richards, Barak and Howitt resonate from the 19th century as the citizens of present day Melbourne wrestle with our colonial heritage. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This research is part of a large multi-institutional project on colonial records involving Aboriginal communities, historians, linguists and anthropologists, led by Deakin University in partnership with Melbourne Museum.</em></p>
<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Council for their assistance in preparing this article. Permission for access and use of any cultural information, language, and place names within this article must be obtained by written approval from the Wurundjeri Council.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gibson is currently a Research Fellow with the Australian Research Council funded Linkage project 'Howitt & Fison's anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches' (Deakin University, LP160100192) and Research Associate with the Melbourne Museum. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Associate Professor Helen Gardner is the Lead Investigator for the Australian Research Council funded project in the Linkage Program entitled 'Howitt & Fison's anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches' (Deakin University), LP160100192. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Morey receives funding from the Australian Research Council for several research projects, Australian Research Council Discovery Program grant, for the project entitled 'Tangsa Wihu song: insight into culture through language, music and ritual', ARC DP160103061 as well as Australian Research Council Linkage Program grant, for the project entitled 'Howitt & Fison’s anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches'. Morey is a Chief Investigator on this project led by Associate Professor Helen Gardner (Deakin University) ARC LP160100192</span></em></p>Ngár-go (Fitzroy), Quo-yung (Richmond), Yálla-birr-ang (Collingwood), and Bulleke-bek (Brunswick), are just some of the Woiwurrung names uncovered in the notebooks of a 19th century anthropologist.Jason M. Gibson, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityHelen Gardner, Associate Professor of History, Deakin UniversityStephen Morey, Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/929972018-03-12T19:03:09Z2018-03-12T19:03:09ZThe origins of Pama-Nyungan, Australia’s largest family of Aboriginal languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209678/original/file-20180309-30972-1wy2xwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The spread of Pama-Nyungan was likely influenced by climate. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The approximately 400 languages of Aboriginal Australia can be grouped into 27 different families. To put that diversity in context, Europe has just four language families, Indo-European, Basque, Finno-Ugric and Semitic, with Indo-European encompassing such languages as English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi. </p>
<p>Australia’s largest language family is Pama-Nyungan. Before 1788 it covered 90% of the country and comprised about 300 languages. The territories on which Canberra (Ngunnawal), Perth (Noongar), Sydney (Daruk, Iyora), Brisbane (Turubal) and Melbourne (Woiwurrung) are built were all once owned by speakers of Pama-Nyungan languages. </p>
<p>All the languages from the Torres Strait to Bunbury, from the Pilbara to the Grampians, are descended from a single ancestor language that spread across the continent to all but the Kimberley and the Top End. </p>
<p>Where this language came from, how old it is, and how it spread, has been something of a puzzle. Our research, published today in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0489-3">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>, suggests the family arose just under 6,000 years ago around what is now the Queensland town of Burketown. Our findings suggest this language family spread across Australia as people moved in response to changing climate. </p>
<p>Aboriginal Australia is often described as “the world’s oldest living culture”, and public discussion often falsely assumes that this means unchanging. Our research adds further evidence to Australia pre-1788 being a dynamic place, where people moved and adapted to a changing land. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209235/original/file-20180307-146675-1cp5ky2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of Pama-Nyungan languages, coloured by their main groupings. Compiled by Claire Bowern using data from National Science Foundation grant BCS-0844550.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tracing Pama-Nyungan</h2>
<p>We used data from changes in several hundred words in different languages from the Pama-Nyungan family to build up a tree of languages, using a computer model adapted from those used originally to trace virus outbreaks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209670/original/file-20180309-30979-1ol72q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different related words for ‘fire’ in certain Pama-Nyungan languages. Green dots show languages with a word for ‘fire’ related to *warlu; white has *puri; red has *wiyn; blue has *maka, and purple *karla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chirila files (http://chirila.yale.edu) and google earth for base image.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because our models make estimates of the time that it takes for words to change, as well as how words in Pama-Nyungan languages are related to one another, we can use those changes to estimate the age of the family. </p>
<p>We found clear support for the origin of Pama-Nyungan just under 6,000 years ago in an area around what is now the Queensland town of Burketown. We found no support for the theories that Pama-Nyungan spread earlier.</p>
<p>The timing of this expansion is consistent with a theory that increasingly unstable conditions caused groups of people to fragment and spread. But correlation is not causation: just because two patterns appear related, it does not mean that one caused the other. </p>
<p>In this case, however, we have other evidence that access to ecological resources has shaped how people migrated. We found that, in our model, groups of people moved more slowly near the coast and major waterways, and faster across deserts. This implies that populations increase where food and water are plentiful, and then spread out and fissure when resources are harder to obtain. </p>
<p>You can see a simulated expansion <a href="http://pamanyungan.compevol.auckland.ac.nz/files/2018/02/movie-21nivdy-450x244.gif">here</a>. The spread of Pama-Nyungan languages mirrored this spread of people.</p>
<h2>What languages tell us</h2>
<p>Languages today tell us a lot about our past. Because languages change regularly, we can use information in them to work out who groups were talking to in the past, where they lived, who they are related to, and where they’ve moved. We can do this even in the absence of a written record and of archaeological materials. </p>
<p>For places like Australia, the linguistic record, though incomplete, has more even coverage across the continent than the archaeological record does. At European settlement, there were about 300 Pama-Nyungan languages. Because there are at least some records of most of them we are able to work with these to uncover these complex patterns of change.</p>
<p>There are approximately 145 Aboriginal languages with speakers today, including languages from outside the Pama-Nyungan family. Many of these languages, such as <a href="https://dieriyawarra.wordpress.com/">Dieri</a>, Ngalia and Mangala, are spoken by only a few people, many of whom are elderly. </p>
<p>Other languages, however, are actively used in their communities and are learned as first languages by young children. These include the Yolŋu languages of Arnhem Land and Arrernte in Central Australia. Yet others (such as Kaurna around Adelaide) are undergoing a renaissance, gaining speakers within their communities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lYmSld2oHhg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nathan B. performing “Yolŋu Land” using English and Yolŋu Matha.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, though not the focus of our study, there are also new languages, such as Kriol spoken across Northern Australia, <a href="http://tacinc.com.au/programs/palawa-kani/">Palawa Kani</a> in Tasmania, and <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kalkarindji+NT+0852,+Australia/@-17.4484028,128.5921643,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x2ca09cc4b3196997:0x40217a82a254120!8m2!3d-17.433333!4d130.833333">Gurindji Kriol</a>. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders also know English, and most Indigenous Australians are multilingual. </p>
<p>Without records of all these languages, and without ongoing work to support speakers and communities, we aren’t able to do research like this, and Australia loses a vital link to its history. After all, European settlement of Australia is a tiny chunk of the time people have lived on this land.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Bowern receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Science Foundation (USA). She is vice-president of the Endangered Language Fund, a not-for-profit group which provides grants to linguists and communities for language documentation, revitalisation, and reclamation activities.</span></em></p>The origin of around 300 of Australia’s Aboriginal languages lies in Queensland, about 6,000 years ago.Claire Bowern, Professor of Linguistics, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794352017-06-15T20:06:54Z2017-06-15T20:06:54ZWhy more schools need to teach bilingual education to Indigenous children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173898/original/file-20170614-15456-ekw3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous children can benefit greatly from learning in a language they understand. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neda Vanovac/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">this series</a>, we’ll discuss whether progress is being made on Indigenous education, looking at various areas including policy, scholarships, school leadership, literacy and much more.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/auws/arounduws_home_page/auws_archives/2014/january_to_may/working_in_remote_australia">Nancy Oldfield Napurrurla</a> has taught at <a href="http://www.yuendumuschool.nt.edu.au/early_childhood.php">Yuendumu school</a> for over 30 years. </p>
<p>In her preschool transition class, the children attentively sing along in Warlpiri to <a href="http://brdu.weebly.com/song-lyrics.html">Marlu Witalpa</a> (Little Kangaroo). It’s a seemingly simple children’s song about a kangaroo looking for its mother. But with its complex expressions and traditional <a href="http://iltyemiltyem.com/sign/">hand signs</a>, it’s also an effective tool for learning.</p>
<p>Nancy has introduced generations of children to school routines, literacy, and early years knowledge and skills all in a language they understand: Warlpiri. At the same time, they learn oral English from another teacher in a staged curriculum. As they master some English language, they are introduced to English literacy.</p>
<h2>Learning in a language you understand</h2>
<p>This dual language approach is based on research showing that many concepts are best learned in the language that the learner understands.
And mastery in first language supports second language learning, <a href="http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/fostering-literacy-development-english-language-learners">success in literacy</a> and <a href="https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/goldenberg.pdf">academic achievement</a> in both languages. </p>
<p>Increasingly, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674371105600203">international</a> and Australian <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-010-9582-y">research</a> and <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/framework-for-aboriginal-languages-and-torres-strait-islander-languages/rationale">policy</a> make strong links between recognition and use of first language and cultural knowledge, and student identity, wellbeing and education outcomes. </p>
<p>Teachers in Warlpiri-English and other bilingual schools, such as Yirrkala school, have long worked to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-25/indigenous-education-in-a-modern-world/8555368">innovatively blend traditional</a> and contemporary knowledge.</p>
<p>The overarching aim of this dual language focus is to provide young people with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdCboHjkk5w">skills</a> they will need as bicultural adults in the modern world. This is relevant in sectors such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/joining-the-dots-indigenous-art-and-language-in-the-national-cultural-policy-12806">the arts</a>, <a href="http://www.indigenous.gov.au/news-and-media/stories/first-learning-country-students-graduate">land management</a>, <a href="https://www.naati.com.au/projects/indigenous-interpreting-project-iip/">interpreting</a> in legal and health settings and education, to name just a few.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fdCboHjkk5w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The importance of bilingual education was recognised more than 50 years ago when, in 1961, politician Kim Beazley Senior saw a classroom like Nancy’s at Hermannsburg school in central Australia, where children were learning in Arrernte and English.</p>
<p>The success of this classroom, compared with its English-only counterparts, inspired him. </p>
<p>Later, as education minister in the newly elected Whitlam government in 1972, he oversaw the launch of the Northern Territory Bilingual Education program. These early days and the decades that followed are documented in a new volume, <a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811020766">History of Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory</a>.</p>
<p>At its most ambitious in 1988, 24 remote schools had programs in English and 19 Aboriginal languages. Local people were directly involved in the education of their children, and champions for schooling in remote communities.</p>
<h2>Too few qualified Aboriginal teachers</h2>
<p>The schools desperately needed Aboriginal teachers, and training programs were developed through the establishment of Batchelor College and the School for Australian Linguistics (now combined as <a href="https://www.batchelor.edu.au/">Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education</a>). </p>
<p>Many Aboriginal people, like Nancy, often of the first or second generation in their families to attend school, were supported by their school and the department to obtain professional qualifications and leadership opportunities. </p>
<p>These opportunities were provided by combinations of in-community on-the-job learning, intensive courses at Batchelor College, and support from travelling Batchelor College lecturers.</p>
<p>However, in the intervening years, changes to accreditation regimes and changes to Batchelor College funding have meant that these opportunities are now rarely available to Indigenous people in remote communities. </p>
<p>Sadly, there are fewer qualified Aboriginal teachers in remote Australia today than in the 1980s.</p>
<h2>Team work</h2>
<p>Indigenous teachers worked side by side with non-Indigenous teachers in bilingual teaching teams. This required professional development in the skills of team teaching, and teaching English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD).</p>
<p>Non-local teachers were trained, supported on the job and/or accessed professional learning in these skills. </p>
<p>This support was not only essential for young non-local teachers to acquire these skills, it also provided them with social and intellectual support that helped them stay longer on communities. </p>
<p>The need for trained English language teachers and structured EALD programs in remote schools has been raised in virtually every report since the 1990s. </p>
<p>The lack of these skilled professionals continues to hamper Aboriginal students’ learning English and <a href="https://theconversation.com/infographic-are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-78253">academic success</a> across the Northern Territory.</p>
<h2>Bilingual language approach creates jobs</h2>
<p>The dual language focus created jobs in remote communities, not just in teaching.</p>
<p>With a great need for written materials to support the program, Literacy Production Centres were established, with a prodigious output of books. These included fiction, history, science and reference works in Aboriginal languages. Recently much of this has been made digitally available in the <a href="http://www.cdu.edu.au/laal/">Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages</a>.</p>
<p>Despite efforts to promote the dual language focus and its importance to communities, it remained controversial, and subject to shifts in policy and resourcing. Ideological disagreements often drowned out evidence and the opportunity to review and improve practice.</p>
<h2>Importance of community involvement</h2>
<p>While much has changed since 1972, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19290693/WHY_LOCAL_STAFF_MATTER_IN_VERY_REMOTE_SCHOOLS">recent research shows</a> the continued importance of community involvement in schools. </p>
<p>Now in 2017, the Northern Territory Education Department is <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/382499/DiscussionPaper-Keeping-Indigenous-Languages-and-Culture-Strong.pdf">preparing policy</a> and developing curriculum for teaching Aboriginal languages, including the remaining bilingual programs, based on the new National Curriculum. </p>
<p>These moves recognise the value of Aboriginal languages in education and employment.</p>
<p>But policy and curriculum on their own are not enough. Aboriginal classrooms need more Nancy Oldfields, more trained teachers from their own communities who speak their own languages. The Western Australian <a href="http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/detcms/school-support-programs/curriculum-support/news-items/expressions-of-interest-for-2017-aboriginal-languages-teacher-training.en">Department of Education</a> has a practical and innovative model to achieve this. </p>
<p>Classrooms need more trained teachers who are skilled in teaching oral and written English to children who speak other languages. And they need these teachers to be skilled in working together as professional teams. </p>
<p>This is where Australia needs to invest in <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">Aboriginal education</a> - in teacher education, professional learning and team-teaching, and excellence in languages education.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>• <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">Read more articles</a> in this series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Disbray is a Research Fellow with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, ANU, and is associated with the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University.
She is co-editor of History of Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory along with Brian and Nancy Devlin, both of Charles Darwin University.
This work was funded in part by the Remote Education Systems Project, Co-operative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation <a href="https://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems">https://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems</a>
</span></em></p>Research shows many concepts are best learned in the language that the learner understands.Samantha Disbray, Senior linguistics researcher, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/689772016-11-17T18:54:26Z2016-11-17T18:54:26ZReviving Indigenous languages – not as easy as it seems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146345/original/image-20161117-13361-ldwrob.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reviving languages is no easy task – it needs teachers, a staged curriculum and resources.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The NSW government has announced it will <a href="http://www.aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au/recognising-and-protecting-nsw-aboriginal-languages">propose legislation</a> for protecting and reviving NSW Aboriginal languages.</p>
<p>NSW Aboriginal languages are part of the heritage of NSW Aboriginal people, and part of Australia’s heritage. </p>
<p>Recognising this should lead to greater understanding of the people and history of different parts of NSW, to greater respect for Aboriginal people, and, in turn more reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. </p>
<h2>How to revive a language</h2>
<p>But protecting and reviving languages is no easy task. Here are a few things to consider.</p>
<p>NSW has a lot of languages. There are at least 35 distinct languages, and many of those languages have <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/43617">different dialects</a>. </p>
<p>For many of these languages, only a few words have been handed down. The last few years have seen activity in mining archives and libraries for these words. </p>
<p>But it takes considerable practice to interpret how a word should be pronounced from reading the old spellings, and comparing them with other word-lists and what is known of closely related languages. </p>
<p>The next step is to interpret the sentence structure and reconstruct the grammar of the language. <a href="http://www.muurrbay.org.au/">Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative</a> (Nambucca Heads) have done outstanding work in working with linguists to create short grammars for some of the 35 languages. </p>
<p>As it stands, only a few languages (eg Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Muruwari, Paakantyi, Wiradjuri, Yandruwandha, Yuwaalaraay/Gamilaraay) currently have enough material in a useable form for adults to begin learning the languages.</p>
<p>NSW Aborigines bore the brunt of first settlement, and so it is sad, but unsurprising, that NSW no longer has communities where children grow up speaking a traditional Aboriginal language every day. And many Aboriginal people in NSW live away from their traditional country. </p>
<p>This has major consequences for reviving the languages. The first step is for enough adults to learn the languages, so that they can help the children learn the languages.</p>
<p>Revitalising a language needs first and foremost the interest and engagement of the community. This is the easy part. </p>
<p>Then it needs teachers, a staged curriculum and resources, for children and for adults. Here, it is all too easy for things to go wrong, and for communities to be deeply disappointed.</p>
<h2>Lack of Indigenous language teachers</h2>
<p>We simply don’t have enough teachers who speak NSW Indigenous languages to cover all the schools in all the communities where people want to revitalise their languages. </p>
<p>This was identified as a major problem in a recent national workshop hosted by <a href="http://www.firstlanguages.org.au/">First Languages Australia</a>.</p>
<p>There are local initiatives to learn languages, but whereas German and French teachers would be expected to have university-level qualifications in the language, only two NSW languages, Gamilaraay and Wiradjuri, are offered at <a href="http://ulpa.edu.au/">university level</a>.</p>
<p>Little training in language teaching methods is available - the University of Sydney offers a <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/courses/master-of-indigenous-languages-education">Masters of Indigenous Language Education</a> for trained teachers, but there aren’t enough trained teachers who are Aboriginal in the first place. </p>
<p>NSW could consider the model offered by Western Australia, where the state education department offers a course especially designed for Indigenous people who want to teach their own language. Successful completion allows them to apply for a limited authority to teach the languages. </p>
<p>Once we have the teachers, we need back-up and succession planning. Programs often flounder when a brilliant teacher gets sick or retires. So one teacher per school is not enough. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146335/original/image-20161117-13367-1xcx5or.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zeke Kay at Winanga-Li Aboriginal Child and Family Centre in Gunnedah, beginning Gamilaraay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Hilary Smith. Not to be republished.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Need to design a curriculum and resources</h2>
<p>Teachers need a framework for teaching languages. A generic curriculum for teaching Indigenous languages, with a pathway for language revitalisation programs, has been developed through the <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/framework-for-aboriginal-languages-and-torres-strait-islander-languages/rationale">Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)</a>. </p>
<p>That curriculum needs fleshing out for each language, and that will take time, as teachers need first to understand the grammar and vocabulary of the language, and then break it down into learnable lessons that build up logically.</p>
<p>Lastly, teaching a language needs lesson plans and activities that engage learners. </p>
<p>Languages such as French and German have vast numbers of accessible, beautiful and exciting learning materials. </p>
<p>They are the products of many years’ experience and of a very large market. Only a few Indigenous languages in NSW have teaching resources like <a href="https://gamilaraayguwaala.wordpress.com/">Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay</a>. </p>
<p>NSW will have to be very clever in sharing and creating re-usable resources. Unfortunately Australia has a dreadful track record in wasting money on well-meant but ill-thought-out projects. </p>
<p>For example, in 2003, the Federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts spent <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20050722055619/http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_4-2_4008-4_116619,00.html">nearly half a million dollars</a> on paying a developer (Multilocus) to build language learning programs for five Indigenous languages. No one appears to have done an evaluation of the effectiveness of the CDs as a learning/teaching aid. </p>
<p>The software was not open source, was not updated, and appears to exist now only as archived relic CDs, one of which contains no more than 230 words. That’s a lot of dollars per word. </p>
<p>That’s why we need the accountability framework that is proposed. And we need one that has teeth.</p>
<p>The state government has taken an important first step in recognising NSW Aboriginal languages. Reviving the languages will be a giant step.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Simpson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for projects with components on Indigenous language education. </span></em></p>The government’s plan to prioritise the revival of Indigenous languages in New South Wales is a welcome first step. Truly achieving it will take several more.Jane Helen Simpson, Chair of Indigenous Linguistics and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/686412016-11-16T13:26:50Z2016-11-16T13:26:50ZRed, yellow, pink and green: How the world’s languages name the rainbow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146234/original/image-20161116-13506-10ayrig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=307%2C71%2C3877%2C2628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How many colors in your language's rainbow?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-130215719.html">Eye image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is striking that English color words come from many sources. Some of the more exotic ones, like “vermilion” and “chartreuse,” were borrowed from French, and are named after the color of a particular item (a type of mercury and a liquor, respectively). But even our words “black” and “white” didn’t originate as color terms. “Black” comes from a word meaning “burnt,” and “white” comes from a word meaning “shining.” </p>
<p>Color words vary a lot across the world. Most languages have between two and 11 basic color words. English, for example, has the full set of 11 basic colors: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, pink, gray, brown, orange and purple. In a 1999 survey by linguists <a href="http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/%7Ekay/">Paul Kay</a> and <a href="http://terralingua.org/">Luisa Maffi</a>, languages were <a href="http://wals.info/feature/133A#2/22.3/153.7">roughly equally distributed</a> between the basic color categories that they tracked.</p>
<p>In languages with fewer terms than this – such as the Alaskan language Yup'ik with its five terms – the range of a word expands. For example, for languages without a separate word for “orange,” hues that we’d call “orange” in English might be named by the same color that English speakers would call “red” or “yellow.” We can think of these terms as a system that together cover the visible spectrum, but where individual terms are centered on various parts of that spectrum.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146097/original/image-20161115-31138-1hotkg5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a color system with 20 hues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MunsellColorWheel.svg">Thenoizz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Does that mean that speakers of languages with fewer words for colors see less color? No, just as English speakers can see the difference between the “blue” of the sky and the “blue” of an M&M. Moreover, if language words limited our perception of color, words wouldn’t be able to change; speakers would not be able to add new distinctions. </p>
<p>My colleague <a href="http://hannahhaynie.com/">Hannah Haynie</a> and <a href="http://campuspress.yale.edu/clairebowern">I</a> were interested in how color terms might change over time, and in particular, in how color terms might change as a system. That is, do the words change independently, or does change in one word trigger a change in others? <a href="http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613666113">In our research, recently published in the journal PNAS</a>, we used a computer modeling technique more common in biology than linguistics to investigate typical patterns and rates of color term change. Contrary to previous assumptions, what we found suggests that color words aren’t unique in how they evolve in language.</p>
<h2>Questioning common conceptions on colors</h2>
<p>Previous work (such as by anthropological linguists <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520076358">Brent Berlin and Paul Kay</a>) has suggested that the order in which new color terms are added to a language is largely fixed. Speakers begin with two terms – one covering “black” and dark hues, the other covering “white” and light hues. There are plenty of languages with only two color terms, but in all cases, one of the color terms is centered on “black” and the other on “white.”</p>
<p>When a language has three terms, the third is one is almost always centered on hues that English speakers would call “red.” There are no languages with three color terms where the named colors are centered on black, white and light green, for example. If a language has four color terms, they will be black, white, red and either yellow or green. In the next stage, both yellow and green are present, while the next color terms to be added are blue and brown (in that order). Cognitive scientists and linguists such as <a href="http://lclab.berkeley.edu/papers/tics2-published.pdf">Terry Regier</a> have argued that these particular parts of the color spectrum are most noticeable for people.</p>
<p>Berlin and Kay also hypothesized that language speakers don’t lose color terms. For example, once a language has a distinction between “red-like” hues (such as blood) and “yellow-like” ones (such as bananas), they wouldn’t collapse the distinction and go back to calling them all by the same color name again.</p>
<p>This would make color words quite different from other areas of language change, where words come and go. For example, words can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01105-6">change their meaning</a> when they are used metaphorically, but over time the metaphoric meaning becomes basic. They can broaden or narrow their meanings; for example, English “starve” used to mean “die” (generally), not “die of hunger,” as it primarily means now. “Starve” has also acquired metaphorical meanings.</p>
<p>That there’s something unique about the stability of color concepts is an assumption we wanted to investigate. We were also interested in patterns of color naming and where color terms come from. And we wanted to look at the rates of change – that is, if color terms are added, do speakers tend to add lots of them? Or are the additions more independent, with color terms added one at a time?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146236/original/image-20161116-13506-15zf4h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone sees them all, but languages divide them into different color terms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=300363659&src=lb-29877982">Colors image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modeling how a language tree grew</h2>
<p>We tested these ideas using color words in Australian Aboriginal languages. We worked with Australian languages (rather than European or other languages) for several reasons. Color demarcations vary in Indo-European, but the number of colors in each language is pretty similar; the ranges differ but the number of colors don’t vary very much. Russian has two terms that cover the hues that English speakers call “blue,” but Indo-European languages have many terms.</p>
<p>In contrast, Australian languages are a lot more variable, ranging from systems like Darkinyung’s, with just two terms (<em>mining</em> for “black” and <em>barag</em> for “white”), to languages like Kaytetye, where there are at least eight colors, or Bidyara with six. That variation gave us more points of data. Also, there are simply a lot of languages in Australia: Of the more than 400 spoken at the time of European settlement, we had color data for 189 languages of the Pama-Nyungan family, from the <a href="http://pamanyungan.net/chirila">Chirila</a> <a href="https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/24685/bowern.pdf">database</a> of Australian languages.</p>
<p>In order to answer these questions, we used techniques originally developed in biology. Phylogenetic methods use computers to study the remote past. In brief, we use probability theory, combined with a family tree of languages, to make a model of what the history of the color words might have been.</p>
<p>First, we construct a tree that shows how languages are related to one another. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pama_nyungan">contemporary Pama-Nyungan languages</a> are all descended from a single ancestor language. Over 6,000 years, Proto-Pama-Nyungan split into different dialects, and those dialects turned into different languages: about 300 of them at the time of the European settlement of Australia. Linguists usually show those splits on a family tree diagram. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145959/original/image-20161115-30749-1mlxf6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family tree of Australian languages with their color terms and reconstructions of color systems for major subgroups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Haynie and Bowern (2016): Figure 3</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then, we build a model for that tree of how different features (in this case, color terms) are gained or lost, and how quickly those features might change. This is a complicated problem; we estimate likely reconstructions, evaluate that model for how well it fits our hypotheses, tweak the model parameters a bit to produce a different set of results, score that model, and so on. We repeat this many times (millions of times, usually) and then take a random sample of our estimates. This method is due originally to evolutionary biologists <a href="http://www.evolution.reading.ac.uk/">Mark Pagel and Andrew Meade</a>.</p>
<p>Estimates that are very consistent (like reconstructing terms for “black,” “white” and “red”) are highly likely to be good reconstructions. Other forms were consistently reconstructed as absent (for instance, “blue” from many parts of the tree). A third set of forms were more variable, such as “yellow” and “green” in some parts of the tree; in that case, we have some evidence they were present, but it’s unclear. </p>
<p>Our results supported some of the previous findings, but questioned others. In general, our findings backed up Berlin and Kay’s ideas about the sequential adding of terms, in the order they proposed. For the most part, our color data showed that Australian languages also show the patterns of color term naming that have been proposed elsewhere in the world; if there are three named colors, they will be black, white and red (not, for example, black, white and purple). But we show that it is most likely that Australian languages have lost color terms, as well as gained them. This contradicts 40 years of assumptions of how color terms change – and makes color words look a lot more like other words. </p>
<p>We also looked at where the color words themselves came from. Some were old in the family, and seemed to go back as color terms. Others relate to the environment (like <em>tyimpa</em> for “black” in Yandruwandha, which is related to a word which means “ashes” in other languages) or to other color words (compare Yolŋu <em>miku</em> for “red,” which also sometimes means simply “colored”). So Australian languages show similar sources of color terms to languages elsewhere in the world: color words change when people draw analogies with items in their environment.</p>
<p>Our research shows the potential for using language change to study areas of science that have previously been more closely examined by fields such as psychology. Psychologists and psycholinguists have described how constraints from our vision systems lead to particular areas of the color spectrum being named. We show that these constraints apply to color loss as well as gain. Just as it’s a lot easier to see a chameleon when it moves, language change makes it possible to see how words are working.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Bowern receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council. She is Vice-President of the Endangered Language Fund. </span></em></p>New research investigates how people sequentially add new color terms to languages over time – and the results hold surprises about assumptions linguists have made for 40 years.Claire Bowern, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647352016-10-05T19:15:57Z2016-10-05T19:15:57ZTaking Indigenous languages online: can they be seen, heard and saved?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140450/original/image-20161005-15903-12ku8s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A billabong on SBS website My Grandmother's Lingo, which takes viewers on an interactive journey through the Marra language.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">My Grandmother's Lingo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With our digital world dominated by English, minority and endangered languages struggle to be seen and heard. A new interactive documentary launched online today by SBS, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/mygrandmotherslingo/">My Grandmother’s Lingo</a>, attempts to add one more language to the mix and raise awareness of the plight of small languages.</p>
<p>In a beautiful, poignant digital installation, Angelina Joshua of Ngukurr guides participants through a sensory-rich tour of her heritage language, Marra, now spoken fully fluently by only three very elderly people. </p>
<p>Angelina explains that she didn’t have the opportunity to learn her own language but is now realising that long-held desire. Her story is enmeshed with her ancestry, and learning Marra as an adult clearly brings Angelina a sense of joy and pride:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was pretty cool when I first learned my first sentence… My dad if he would’ve been alive and my grandmother, they would have been over the clouds. ‘Gosh, my baby girl can speak Marra’. It’s an amazing feeling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A strength of My Grandmother’s Lingo is its interactivity, inviting viewers to learn and say a selection of Marra words, evoking the act of breathing life into this imperilled language. Watching a crow soar, we learn its name in Marra: <em>wanggarnanggin</em>. As we repeat the word for house – <em>radburr</em> – we build a community. A new community of Marra speakers, perhaps. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140390/original/image-20161004-27269-17f40lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angelina Joshua, who tells the story of her family and language in My Grandmother’s Lingo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Angelina Joshua’s grandmother was one of the last people to learn Marra as a first language. She grew up on her traditional country in the Limmen Bight River district of the Gulf of Carpentaria with little contact with Europeans. At around twelve years of age, in the 1940s, she was brought to the Roper River Mission knowing no English but went on to have a long career as a community health worker. She never forgot her mother tongue. </p>
<p>After her retirement, I, along with a number of her own family members, had the privilege of working with her to document and learn some of her language Marra before she passed away in 2013. </p>
<p>Despite there now being only three people in the world who can tell a story in Marra in expressive detail, Marra and other endangered languages in the area are not disappearing out of sight. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ngukurr-Language-Centre-170332173098441/">Ngukurr Language Centre</a> – where Angelina works – is a local Aboriginal organisation doing what it can to support the community’s seven or more threatened Aboriginal languages. </p>
<p>As someone who is already attached to the language and the language group, I’m not ashamed to say that I was so emotional on my first viewing of My Grandmother’s Lingo that I could not speak back to my computer until my tears were under control. How will those less attached receive My Grandmother’s Lingo? I’m interested to know.</p>
<h2>Can technology really save a language?</h2>
<p>With so much of the planet’s linguistic diversity under threat, what role do technology-based projects like My Grandmother’s Lingo have in mitigating the loss of Indigenous languages? It’s a difficult question to answer. </p>
<p>One parameter is resource distribution. When funding to support Indigenous and minority languages is <a href="https://theconversation.com/muting-indigenous-language-support-only-widens-the-gap-27105">scarce</a>, allocating resources to one project or language means another misses out. How do you prioritise? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140395/original/image-20161004-20235-1noq3x7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A campfire in My Grandmother’s Lingo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is paying a linguist to spend a year compiling a basic dictionary more useful than a year of oral language lessons in a local school? Is a carefully designed commercial publication that took a year to make more useful than a stapled black and white reader run off an office computer that took a week to produce? </p>
<p>Likewise, evaluating project outcomes is tricky. Is quantifying the number of new words and sentences learned the key outcome? Or the skills developed via the process? How can the intangible be assessed, such as the sense of pride and strength a community gains via a great grassroots project? </p>
<p>The glossy end-product of a language project may not reveal much about how community stakeholders benefited from the process. If you come across an article with claims that a language will be “saved” by a new app or website, keep in mind that “<a href="https://blogs.crikey.com.au/fullysic/2012/09/21/our-land-our-languages-and-preserving-our-heritage/">apps don’t save languages. People do.</a>” </p>
<p>(Note: headlines like those are likely to be examples of journalists inflating the value of the story, not overstated claims made by project participants.)</p>
<h2>Finding a place in the digital domain</h2>
<p>There is no disputing that Indigenous and minority languages need a place in digital domains if they are to remain vital. The proliferation of social media – including in remote communities – may not be as detrimental to small languages as you may immediately think. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140398/original/image-20161004-12464-3vvywq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portal in My Grandmother’s Lingo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How we communicate on Facebook and messaging apps is similar to how we talk face-to-face, more so than traditional writing genres of letter-writing and emailing. So Tweeters and Facebookers naturally produce writing that is like spoken language and, hey presto, many people instinctively use their first language on social media. <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201815356/a-vanuatu-language-adapts-to-social-change">Recent research</a> found, for example, that Nkep speakers in Vanuatu are using technology to extend the use of their language, rather than limit it. </p>
<p>Twitter users can voyeuristically follow global social media activity in small thanks to the ingenious <a href="http://indigenoustweets.com/">Indigenous Tweets</a> site. Its catalogue of languages and those who tweet in them lets you see who is tweeting in <a href="http://indigenoustweets.com/mi/">Māori</a>, <a href="http://indigenoustweets.com/tet/">Tetun</a> or <a href="http://indigenoustweets.com/iu-Latn/">Inuktitut</a> to name just a few. </p>
<p>Technology-based developments for minority languages are not always reliant on well-meaning outsiders. In Nigeria, for example, millions of Yorùbá speakers are faced with their language being <a href="https://medium.com/@baroka/my-indigenous-language-interest-is-abiding-95c417802faf#.c7fpl0ekn">dropped from formal education</a> in favour of English. </p>
<p>Technology is a crucial issue for the ongoing health of Yorùbá because computers and devices cannot create the tone markings above and below Yorùbá letters to allow the language to be written properly. Yorùbá writer and linguist <a href="https://twitter.com/baroka">Kọlá Túbọsún</a>, is leading the <a href="http://www.yorubaname.com/about-us">YorubaName.com</a> project, which has, among other things, <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2016/09/23/a-specially-designed-keyboard-allows-yoruba-and-igbo-speakers-to-type-their-languages/">created keyboards</a> allowing Yorùbá speakers to easily type their language. </p>
<p>But what does a project like My Grandmother’s Lingo mean for the Marra language? It can’t replace the community-embedded work that Angelina does at her local language centre, nor can it claim to be an community-led project like YorubaName.com. It features only five Marra words, so the language learning aspect is largely symbolic. Its main function is to raise awareness of the plight of Marra and other endangered languages, and it does so marvellously. </p>
<p>As a linguist and academic, my preoccupations are with clinically representing and analysing knowledge. My Grandmother’s Lingo’s approach is different. It focuses on making users <em>feel</em> something. By the end, visitors to the site will likely share Angelina’s desire to see the Marra language exist long into the future, in any medium.</p>
<p><br></p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can see My Grandmother’s Lingo <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/mygrandmotherslingo/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Dickson receives funding from the ARC via a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. He provided in-kind advice to the My Grandmother's Lingo project and intermittently contributes to the work of the Ngukurr Language Centre.</span></em></p>A beautiful interactive SBS online documentary puts the spotlight on Marra, an Indigenous language spoken fluently by just three people.Greg Dickson, Postdoctoral Fellow (Linguistics), The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562862016-04-26T04:34:21Z2016-04-26T04:34:21ZExplainer: the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia – Kriol<p>It’s not a trivia question I’ve come across. But if someone asked: “which language, only found in Australia, is spoken over an area the size of Spain and is the <a href="http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/7?opendocument&navpos=220">second most common language</a> in the Northern Territory?” would you get it right?</p>
<p>The correct answer – Kriol – is not a traditional Indigenous language, but refers to the creole language spoken across swathes of northern Australia. No one really knows how many people speak it, but the 2011 census figure of 4,000 is certainly an under-representation. Linguists put the number of Kriol speakers closer to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6532767/2013._Kriol">20,000</a>, knowing that census data <a href="http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/simpson-final-short-ilc07.pdf">struggles to accurately capture</a> high levels of multilingualism in remote Aboriginal communities. </p>
<p>Kriol is now even a language of Shakespeare. The critically acclaimed King Lear adaption <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2013/oct/17/shadow-king-melbourne-review">The Shadow King</a> (2013) was partially translated into Kriol by Aboriginal actor and musician <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507835/">Tom E Lewis</a> (main image). It will debut internationally in London this June, coinciding with <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/malthouse-theatres-the-shadow-king-to-make-international-debut-20150330-1mayup.html">celebrations for Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary</a>. </p>
<p>But what is Kriol? Well, Kriol is (not surprisingly) a creole language. Some may immediately associate the word “creole” with southern USA, which is home to French-influenced <a href="http://lacreole.org/">culture</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Creole_cuisine">cooking</a> and <a href="http://www.louisianacreoledictionary.com/Default.aspx">language</a>. But that association is a red herring. </p>
<p>Creole, as a linguistic term, is a type of language typically born out of abrupt and often brutal colonisation processes. Creoles are generally based on the dominant language of the colonisers, such as French (as in creoles spoken in Haiti, Louisiana or Mauritius), English (as in Solomon Islands, Belize or Hawai'i), or even Portuguese (in Cape Verde). </p>
<p>The lexicon and grammatical structures of creole languages are largely derived from the dominant language, called the “lexifier”. But speakers of creole languages adapt and innovate upon the lexifier to such an extent that the creole becomes incomprehensible to people who only speak the standard form of the lexifier. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116506/original/image-20160327-17835-luiril.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As you enter Minyerri community, an old sign reads in Kriol ‘Minyerri is our place’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The emergence of Kriol</h2>
<p>The genesis of Northern Australia’s creole language is attributed to a combination of factors, including the expansion of the pastoral industry into the Northern Territory and Kimberleys, the <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2009/november/1330478364/tony-roberts/brutal-truth">violent frontier deaths</a> that swiftly diminished the numbers of speakers of local Indigenous languages, and the establishment of missions.</p>
<p>At the Roper River Mission (now <a href="http://ropergulf.nt.gov.au/our-communities/ngukurr/">Ngukurr</a>), established in 1908, Aboriginal children from various traumatised language groups were placed into dormitories with reduced parental contact. Bound together by a Pidgin English developed in New South Wales, they developed it into a fully-fledged creole: a language in its own right with a distinctive vocabulary, sound system and grammatical rules.</p>
<p>Over the course of a century, Kriol has spread or emerged in many other northern remote communities and where it has, it dominates daily life. English is usually reserved for dealings with white people and traditional languages so endangered they are barely heard. </p>
<p>In the fringes of Kriol country, some communities have recently created new languages, like <a href="http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/linguistics/article01161-light-warlpiri-language-australia.html">Light Warlpiri</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/while-old-indigenous-languages-disappear-new-ones-evolve-32559">Gurindji Kriol</a>, that systematically mix Kriol with the original language of the community. </p>
<p>The label Kriol is now used uncontroversially in many (but not all) places, but it took several generations to be legitimised. In the 1960s and 70s, linguists challenged the idea that creole languages were unsophisticated, lacking rules and a poor imitation of English.</p>
<p><a href="http://aboriginalbibles.org.au/Kriol/Conc/root.htm">Bible translation</a> and academic research began to demonstrate that what was dismissed as Pidgin English was actually a language. The name Kriol was introduced and, fifty years later, it remains. </p>
<h2>Gaining recognition</h2>
<p>In legitimising the language, linguists and Kriol speakers showed that it was rule-governed and distinct from English. For example, Kriol speakers use the English word <em>we</em> (spelled <em>wi</em>) but the Kriol <em>wi</em> and English <em>we</em> are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend">false friends</a>. Kriol has finer distinctions and its speakers use four pronouns to cover what English speakers use only <em>we</em> for. </p>
<p>Sometimes, a word might be a recognisable English form, but the meaning is unique to Kriol. <em>Drand</em>, from “drowned”, simply means to go underwater. Death is not implied. <em>Spilim</em>, from “spill”, means to pour liquid intentionally. You can <em>spilim ti</em> to make your cuppa once the billy has boiled. But if you knocked it over, you might use the verb <em>dilbak</em>.</p>
<p>While most of Kriol’s lexicon is derived from English, words like <em>dilbak</em>, from traditional languages, make a small but important contribution to distinguishing Kriol further from English. In Ngukurr, you <a href="https://youtu.be/nzfqgd77fDI"><em>ngarra</em></a> when you look surreptitiously. A few hundred kilometres away in Beswick, the word <em>roih</em> is used to describe the same thing. Words like <em>roih</em> and <em>ngarra</em> that differ based on geography also exemplify how different dialects have evolved across the large area where Kriol is spoken. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/71Ve57TmqzI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Kriol version of Waltzing Matilda.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kriol is a fully-functional, expressive language and can be used in all facets of life. Internationally, some creoles are national languages, as with <a href="http://www.bislama.org/">Bislama</a> in Vanuatu or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krio_language">Krio</a> in Sierra Leone. Australia, with its <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-wouldnt-be-mourning-lost-languages-if-we-embraced-multilingualism-55028">monolingual mindset</a>, has struggled to afford prestige to Kriol, <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/fullysic/2016/02/18/i-am-determined-to-be-tenacious-in-relation-to-the-use-of-my-language-bess-price-and-breaking-the-english-hegemony-in-nt-parliament/">as it has with traditional languages</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, in the space of fifty years, Kriol has gone from an unnamed creole, to a language that has been used in government <a href="http://laal.cdu.edu.au/browse/language/450799/">education</a>, <a href="http://aboriginalbibles.org.au/Kriol/Conc/root.htm">liturgy</a>, in <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/december/1385816400/christine-kenneally/indigenous-king-lear">stage</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/71Ve57TmqzI">popular music</a>, is interpreted widely, and now heard daily in <a href="https://soundcloud.com/darwinabc/sets/kriol">ABC News</a>.</p>
<p>The emergence and growing acceptance of Kriol is not without issues. Not everyone who a linguist would say is a Kriol speaker is comfortable applying that label to themselves. Kriol speakers typically place greater cultural importance and prestige on traditional languages, and those languages are declining rapidly. </p>
<p>For Aboriginal people who are concerned about the loss of traditional languages, Kriol is an obvious scapegoat, seen by more than a few as a language killer. Counter-arguments can be made that the same forces of colonisation and inequity have caused both phenomena: the loss of traditional languages and the emergence of Kriol. </p>
<p>Actor Tom E Lewis, who grew up speaking Kriol at the Roper River Mission, says Kriol is a “double-edged sword”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re proud to speak Kriol. But it kinda backfired, because our [traditional] language is gone. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether you see Kriol as a positive or a negative, it deserves to be more widely known, if only because it is the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia. In its short history, it is now a significant part of Australia’s rich linguistic fabric. Kriol is a growing language, heard across much of Northern Australia, yet remains under-recognised and unfortunately is still sometimes stigmatised.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Greg will be on hand for an Author Q&A from 11am to noon AEST on Wednesday, 27 April 2016. Post any questions you have in the comments below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Dickson receives funding from the Australia Research Council via a postdoctoral fellowship with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. He is an accredited Kriol-English interpreter and registered with the Northern Territory Government's Aboriginal Interpreter Services. </span></em></p>It’s spoken by up to 20,000 people, but most Australians have never heard of Kriol. The creole of North Australia has evolved into a distinct language – but is it helping or killing Indigenous dialects?Greg Dickson, Postdoctoral Fellow (Linguistics), The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/521382015-12-11T01:26:16Z2015-12-11T01:26:16ZNew Aboriginal languages course should count towards ATARs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105170/original/image-20151210-7447-pi8568.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The focus on teaching anything about Australian languages in our universities has declined over the past decade.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From 2016, high school students will be able to study any one of the 70 or more Aboriginal languages of New South Wales.</p>
<p>Teachers, academics and the wider community have fought hard for this policy shift in this state. </p>
<p>But it’s disappointing that the course will only count towards the Higher School Certificate (HSC) and <a href="http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/index.cfm/2015/12/4/New-Stage-6-Aboriginal-Languages-Content-Endorsed-Course-Syllabus-and-Consultation-Report">not contribute</a> toward a student’s Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).</p>
<p>By not making the subject ATAR-accredited to help students gain entry to university, it acts as a disincentive to study Aboriginal languages.</p>
<p>This decision effectively places a further barrier between students wishing to genuinely understand Aboriginal languages, and their desire to pursue further study through the higher education system.</p>
<h2>Will students actually study Aboriginal languages?</h2>
<p>The new subject offers students the opportunity to engage in a meaningful way with Australia’s first languages and to learn to communicate, speak, read and write an Aboriginal language. </p>
<p>Schools will work with communities to help design a course for the language they’ve chosen that will fit the local community vision.</p>
<p>In most cases communities will choose a language of their area, but in some big centres like Sydney, a language from off country, out of the area, might be chosen.</p>
<p>The focus on teaching anything about Australian languages in our universities has declined over the past decade. This is partly due to the dwindling funding available for any research or documentation of our languages.</p>
<p>The sad statistics of the decline in the everyday use of Aboriginal languages speak for themselves. </p>
<p>The 250 languages of Australia are <a href="http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/products/report_research_outputs/2014-report-of-the-2nd-national-indigenous-languages-survey.pdf">now reduced to only 13</a> that are still being actively spoken on a daily basis as the main language of communication by all age groups in their communities. </p>
<p>This figure represents a loss of five languages over the <a href="http://arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/nils-report-2005">past decade</a>. At this rate our Australian languages will all cease to be active first languages within the next 25 years.</p>
<h2>How will the syllabus work?</h2>
<p>The Aboriginal languages course syllabus, developed by the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW, relies on schools to create the teaching program. </p>
<p>It gives schools the opportunity to actively engage with their local Aboriginal community in developing a language program. </p>
<p>The thinking behind this was to support community engagement while ensuring the broadest possible uptake for the syllabus.</p>
<p>Reading between the lines of the syllabus, it’s impossible to ignore a certain mindset from the board - a view that developing board-endorsed courses that would count towards a student’s ATAR would be too hard and too expensive, and possibly a bit scary. </p>
<p>It would mean going the next step and creating a syllabus that sets standards for content and assessment that schools would then use to develop a language-specific curriculum. Or an even larger piece of work for the board – to develop separate syllabuses for all the languages of NSW.</p>
<p>It would certainly be possible to do this for many, right now. About a dozen NSW languages have been taught in schools for years at primary level. These would make great candidates for their own HSC subjects.</p>
<p>What the new syllabus is doing is putting the work back onto the schools, with little in the way of additional resourcing.</p>
<h2>Who will teach Aboriginal languages?</h2>
<p>Another major issue will be who can actually teach these languages. </p>
<p>It is time that universities took seriously the need to train teachers in Aboriginal languages education. </p>
<p>The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is about to release a nation-wide framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages within the Australian curriculum. </p>
<p>This is another opportunity for all schools in Australia to teach an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language. </p>
<p>However, without immediate government support to train teachers, support language revival programs and assist communities to engage in language development programs, it will be difficult for any school to gain real traction in teaching Australia’s first languages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jakelin Troy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From 2016, students will be able to study Aboriginal languages in high schools in New South Wales – but a clause in the design of the course means grades will not contribute towards ATARs.Jakelin Troy, Director of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Research Office, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/454322015-07-30T20:16:20Z2015-07-30T20:16:20ZWe all know and admire the Haka … so why not one of our own?<p>The first I heard of the Adam Goodes Bumala-y Yuurrama-y (war dance) I was in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aotearoa">Aotearoa</a>/New Zealand. I had been watching my son play rugby. It was a carnival (under 12s) and they had just lost the grand final. After leading for the entire game, players and parents alike watched helplessly as the opposing team swept down the field from sideline to sideline, much like the legendary Mark Coyne try in State of Origin.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pnddny19p-M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Mark Coyne’s match-winning try after an end-to-end passage of play is part of State of Origin folklore.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Every tackle was made but players kept offloading the ball and passes were sticking until a boy went over the try line, taking the corner post with him. We all paused, waiting, before the referee blew the whistle and raised his hand – the try had been scored.</p>
<p>Our players slumped to the ground as whānau (family) and teachers alike from the opposition ran onto the field to celebrate. </p>
<h2>An inclusive cultural identity</h2>
<p>A young man then screamed a war cry in Māori. That was the signal for parents and teachers to separate in preparation for the children to perform a Haka. As the winners approached our boys, slapping their chests and screaming to their ancestors, our boys raised to take on this second challenge. </p>
<p>The game was over; now it was about “Te Reo Māori”, each school’s representation of the local Iwi (tribe).</p>
<p>Each school has its own Haka and our boys rose to the occasion. Supported by our whānau and teachers as mobile phones immediately uploaded images to Instagram and Facebook, I watched with mana (pride) as my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamilaraay">Kamilaroi</a> First Nation Aboriginal Australian boy participated in a celebration of Indigenous culture denied back in his homeland.</p>
<p>These were Pākehā (European), Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island, Indian, Chinese and Māori expressing the culture of Aotearoa as one inclusive cultural identity. It was inspiring and heartbreaking. As a Kamilaroi Aboriginal father, I was left wondering if we will ever see such inclusive cultural practice back in my own traditional homelands.</p>
<p>We drove home and I jumped on Facebook to discover the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/afl/sydney-swans/sydney-swans-adam-goodes-celebrates-goal-with-indigenous-war-dance-ruffles-feathers-20150529-ghczbr.html">reaction to Adam Goodes’</a> Bumala-y Yuurrama-y. That was almost two months ago … but it’s <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/racist-boo-row-rages-as-adam-goodes-sits-out/story-fnca0u4y-1227462430166">still making headlines</a> around Australia while the celebration of Te Reo Māori by 12-year-old schoolchildren has faded into the cultural landscape of Aotearoa.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p5-ZVXE-LGw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">When Adam Goodes performed his Indigenous war dance, the responses exposed a divided Australia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Richer for embracing Indigenous culture</h2>
<p>Māori culture is embedded in the cultural fabric of New Zealand – it is in evidence everywhere you look, 24 hours a day. Yet, in Australia, no matter what side of the political or culture divide you sit, we all have to admit one thing – ours is a divided nation.</p>
<p>In Aotearoa, presenters, no matter what colour, continually introduce and close shows in the Māori language. My Aboriginal boys think they are in an Indigenous Heaven … or should I say an Indigenous Dreaming. The school handbooks are written in both English and Māori and “Te Reo Māori” <a href="https://theconversation.com/embracing-indigenous-languages-the-kiwis-just-do-it-better-42045">is taught</a> in both schools my boys attend.</p>
<p>In Australia, we often hear that Māori speak only one language and that it would be too difficult to implement Aboriginal languages throughout Australia. That is simply not true – Māori has a <a href="http://www.maorilanguage.info/mao_lang_faq.html">number of dialects</a> associated with various regions. The differences are overcome with the introduction of a pan-Māori that is spoken and understood throughout the country.</p>
<p>As Aboriginal children, we are taught that when on other people’s land you respect the local culture. Therefore, the fact that many <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-australian-indigenous-languages-you-should-know-40155">Aboriginal languages</a> are spoken is not problematic; you teach the local language of the region. And with language comes history and place – not just for Aboriginal people but for non-Aboriginal too. Rather than divide the culture, you all become richer.</p>
<p>It’s this easy … having returned from Aotearoa, I have made a conscious decision to speak an Indigenous language as often as I could. I end emails with many Kamilaroi terms and begin with Yammaa, which in my language means welcome. I do this with a translation after these words in English.</p>
<p>Work colleagues return in kind. I now have a collection of phrases in German, Greek, Italian and many other languages from colleagues. This builds solidarity and respect, thereby furthering understanding in the workplace. </p>
<p>Rather than Brisbane I now say <a href="http://dakibudtcha.com.au/Turrbal/index.php/history/">Meanjin</a> and instead of Sydney I say <a href="http://naabawinya.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/sydney-warrang-or-warrane-or-ngurang.html">Warrang</a>. Melbourne is <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/voice/a-different-way-of-knowing-the-world-20150105-3nlca.html">Narrm</a> and Perth is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth#Indigenous_history">Boorloo</a>. How and why is becoming educated within the local Indigenous culture so threatening?</p>
<h2>Ancient culture can find new expressions</h2>
<p>To return to Adam Goodes and that contentious dance of pride and defiance, there is a final important point to be made. Some argue that a major difference between the Haka and the Bumala-y Yuurrama-y is that the Haka has a long history and that the Bumala-y Yuurrama-y is a <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-30/proud-goodes-stands-by-war-cry-celebration">recent invention</a>.</p>
<p>It was only ten years ago that senior All Blacks voiced serious reservations about whether the Haka was a tradition worth preserving. The issue was that some felt the Haka had become divorced from its original significance and meaning in the 21st century as Aotearoa had so many cultures represented within the All Blacks.</p>
<p>All Blacks management and the senior leaders, led by team captain Tana Umaga, held a series of discussions on how the Haka could be maintained and kept relevant. Consultations were held with the Ngāti Toa tribe to whom <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka_Mate">Ka Mate Ka Mate</a>, the older Haka, belongs. It was decided to commission Derek Lardelli, an expert in Māori customs, to compose a new Haka tailored specifically for the All Blacks.</p>
<p>And so <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka_(sports)#.22Kapa_o_Pango.22_2005">Kapa o Pango</a> was born. This was less than ten years ago.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4Gbj_ig09WQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Haka in its modern incarnation, Kapa o Pango, as performed by the All Blacks on special occasions such as the 2011 World Cup final.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Aboriginal Bumala-y Yuurrama-y went through this exact some process, so why is it being dismissed as not having the same cultural standing? The bottom line is that when the All Blacks do the Haka it is as an entire country: Black, White, Polynesian, Māori and Asian all standing together as one. The one time we do our Bumala-y Yuurrama-y, it is in the Aboriginal All Star games of AFL and NRL and it’s our mob against the rest.</p>
<p>Cultures, no matter how ancient, are allowed to adapt and evolve, but that will not happen in Australia while we remain so divided and our Aboriginal culture excluded from mainstream education and popular culture. All Australians have a right to engage in informed discussion, but this opportunity is denied to people when the 60,000-plus years of Aboriginal occupation and culture was excluded from their formal education.</p>
<p>In finishing, I just received a phone call informing me that NRL stars Johnathan Thurston and Greg Inglis <a href="http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=9013318">will perform</a> a traditional Aboriginal Bumala-y Yuurrama-y at matches this weekend in a rally cry of support for Adam Goodes. Now that is culture!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Woolombi Waters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While AFL player Adam Goodes polarised Australians by performing an Indigenous war dance, New Zealanders unite in celebration of the Haka. The difference in approach to Indigenous culture is telling.Marcus Woolombi Waters, Lecturer, School of Humanities, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/432362015-06-15T02:04:52Z2015-06-15T02:04:52ZLinguistic paranoia – why is Australia so afraid of languages?<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84960/original/image-20150615-1973-1eraz4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>About 20% of the Australian population speaks a language other than English. In fact, around 250 languages are spoken in homes around the country. This would seem to be cause for celebration. After all, successive governments have spent millions trying to increase the numbers of students studying languages in schools. However there is little connection between the languages taught in schools, and the languages spoken in homes. </p>
<h2>Foreign language learning in schools</h2>
<p>In 2001 the Howard Liberal government set a target of 25% of Year 12 students studying a foreign language. The same target was set by the incoming Rudd Labor government in 2007. In 2014, the new Abbott Liberal government upped the ante <a href="http://ministers.education.gov.au/pyne/opening-address-adelaide-language-festival">to 40% of Year 12 students</a> studying a foreign or classical language within the decade. This was ambitious given that the previous targets of 25% had never been reached. </p>
<p>Barely 10% of Year 12 students study a language. Yet 20% of the population speaks a language other than English in the home. How does that add up? The answer is governments pay little heed to the languages spoken in Australian homes; they prefer “foreign and classical” languages to “local and community” ones.</p>
<h2>Not all languages are equal</h2>
<p>There is a clear hierarchy of languages in Australia. English is at the top. Next are the “classical” languages like French and German, particularly when learned at school. These are followed by languages deemed useful for Australia’s economic prosperity - e.g. Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese - but only if they are being learned as “foreign” languages. Because that is quite clever, learning a foreign language. </p>
<p>But if they are languages already spoken in the home, they slip down the hierarchy of languages, into the community languages pile along with about 245 other languages. Somewhere towards the bottom of that community languages pile are the Indigenous languages of Australia, about which <a href="https://theconversation.com/embracing-indigenous-languages-the-kiwis-just-do-it-better-42045">most Australians know nothing</a>. </p>
<p>The chances of those 245 community languages surviving in Australia are remote. Australia is remarkably adept at wiping out languages. Of the 250 Indigenous languages in existence at the time of British colonisation, only around 20 remain viable today. The languages immigrants bring with them are usually dead within two generations.</p>
<p>It seems remarkably odd policy to pour millions of dollars into setting consistently unachievable targets for learning foreign languages at school, while simultaneously watching community languages slide into oblivion. </p>
<h2>Is it just linguistic snobbery?</h2>
<p>We always seem more impressed by a native English speaker who has managed to learn another language at school than we are by those who learn their languages at home. </p>
<p>Everyone was quite impressed by <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/rudd-wows-chinese-audience-with-standup-20121021-27zm9.html">ex Prime Minister Rudd’s proficiency in Mandarin</a>, but I expect Senator Dio Wang’s Mandarin runs rings around Mr Rudd’s. I’m guessing Belgian born Finance Minister Mathias Cormann speaks German, Flemish, and perhaps also French. I suppose Senator Nick Xenophon speaks Greek, but perhaps he doesn’t. Maybe his Greek language heritage has been lost, which would be ironic as his surname means “foreign voice”. Does Deputy Opposition leader Tanya Plibersek speak Slovenian? Does the Malaysian born Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong speak Malay and Mandarin or Cantonese or Hakka? </p>
<p>I don’t know. I’ve never heard any of them speak another language, or be reported admirably in the press for their linguistic prowess. They don’t note their bilingualism in their biographies on their websites. Perhaps they’ve lost their heritage languages - or perhaps it’s just not “Australian” to say you speak another language in your home or to your mum and dad. Either scenario is a sad indictment.</p>
<p>It seems, in Australia, if you learned your second language at school or at university - that’s clever and admirable. If your bilingualism comes from your heritage, we’d prefer to ignore it.</p>
<h2>Multicultural but monolingual</h2>
<p>Australia is generally happy to be multicultural, as long as that just involves some tasty food, and a bit of dance and music at an annual festival. We are definitely not comfortable with being multilingual. We are a country where you are free to speak another language, but preferably in the privacy of your own home or on an overseas holiday. It seems we like our foreign languages to stay that way - foreign. </p>
<p>Australia is currently in a social and political space where “unity” has overtaken “diversity” as the preferred political discourse. A country that speaks multiple languages in its everyday life seems somehow harder to manage. After all, who knows what they’re saying? A community that speaks foreign languages to foreign people in foreign lands is much more secure. </p>
<p>It is odd we should be so determined to keep our multilingualism in the closet. For most other countries speaking more than one language is the norm. With so many economic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-kill-languages-and-fail-our-cleverest-children-29137">cognitive</a>, social and political advantages to multilingualism it seems simultaneously extraordinarily wasteful and absurdly paranoid to not celebrate and nurture the languages spoken in homes all around the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou has received local government funding to investigate the implementation of teacher standards. She sits on the Board of Directors for TESOL International, an international association representing teachers of English.</span></em></p>About 20% of the Australian population speaks a language other than English. However there is little connection between the languages taught in schools, and the languages spoken in homes.Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/401552015-05-07T19:54:28Z2015-05-07T19:54:28ZSome Australian Indigenous languages you should know<blockquote>
<p>How many Indigenous languages exist in Australia? Who knows this shit?! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>exclaimed Milly, the receptionist at an Indigenous radio station on ABC’s new program 8MMM, reading out a question on a cultural awareness training form.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80280/original/image-20150504-29612-2k9jns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milly, the receptionist in the ABC’s new comedy series 8MMM.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed – who does know? As an ice-breaker, I often ask my linguistics students to name an Australian Indigenous language. Some are able to name <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlpiri_language">Warlpiri</a>, <a href="http://yolngulanguage.blogspot.com.au/">Yolngu Matha</a> or <a href="https://iadpress.com/shop/eastern-and-central-arrernte-picture-dictionary/">Arrente</a>, but most cannot manage the name of a single language. That is astonishing given there are 250 to choose from. </p>
<p>Yet the same students can usually name Native American languages such as Mohawk, Apache, Cherokee and Mohican, largely thanks to classic westerns.</p>
<p>Awareness about Australian Indigenous languages is very low. Most Australians still believe that there is <em>an</em> Aboriginal language and have no idea about the extent of linguistic diversity across the country. </p>
<p>The myth of the single Aboriginal language has allowed for filmmakers’ uncritical use of Djinpa, a Yolngu language of Arnhem Land spoken by <a href="http://www.gulpilil.com/">David Gulpilil</a>, in films based in other regions of Australia, for example <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tracker">The Tracker</a> (2002) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgKrVaECok">Australia</a> (2008).</p>
<h2>Indigenous words in Australian English</h2>
<p>In fact, most people in Australia know more about Indigenous languages than they realise simply because they are speakers of Australian English. One of the earliest words to be adopted by English speakers was kangaroo. The word comes from <a href="http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/ilq/2014/12/16/guugu-yimithirr-language-revival/">Guugu Yimidhirr</a>, a language of north Queensland, which was first documented during James Cook’s 1770 mapping expedition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80277/original/image-20150504-29572-16mrm7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early drawing of a kangaroo done by Arthur Bowes Smyth in 1788. State Library of New South Wales.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australian English is dotted with words from Indigenous languages. For example, dingo, <a href="http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2009/01/the_wombat_trail_1.html">wombat</a> and boomerang all come from languages in the Sydney area.</p>
<p>Many of these words hitch-hiked their way across Australia via the English-based pidgin (a simplified version of a language), which the Sydney people and the non-Indigenous colonists used to communicate with each other from 1788 onwards. The pidgin was a scaled-back version of English and later expanded to form Kriol, which is spoken across northern Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1337&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80278/original/image-20150504-29566-10b8kl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1337&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Coke can from Darwin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bob Gosford/Crikey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This pidgin also acquired new words from other languages as it spread across Australia. For example, Yagara, a language of the Brisbane region, bequeathed <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/engage-learn/schools/classroom-resources/multimedia/interactives/aussie_english_for_the_beginner_html_version/indigenous_languages">bung</a> (broken) to Pidgin and ultimately Australian English.</p>
<p>The semantics of many of these words have changed since they were borrowed into English. A great example is the <a href="http://ausil.org/Dictionary/Gurindji/">Gurindji</a> word budju, which means vagina but is now used by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike in parts of the Northern Territory and Queensland to mean something quite different! </p>
<p>It was originally adopted in English to refer to a spunky woman and has since come to mean any attractive person (in fact, spunk was originally a vulgar term for semen in English). </p>
<p>Coke was clearly unaware of the origins of budju when it brought out a localised version of Coke cans in Darwin during its “Share a Coke” promotion.</p>
<h2>Australian languages and visibility</h2>
<p>It is surprising that most of us are not able to name an Australian language given that at least 40 languages are spoken on an everyday basis around the country. Some of the better-known languages are Arrente, Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri in Central Australia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/while-old-indigenous-languages-disappear-new-ones-evolve-32559">Kriol</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murrinh-patha_language">Murrinh-patha</a> in Wadeye, and Yolngu and Gunwinyguan languages in Arnhem Land. </p>
<p>Other languages are less well known but are quietly thriving such as <a href="http://www.anindilyakwa.com.au/groote-eylandt-linguistics">Anindilyakwa</a> on Groote Eylandt, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maung_language">Maung</a> on Goulburn Island and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuuk_Thaayorre_language">Kuuk Thaayorre</a> in Cape York.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80281/original/image-20150504-23505-y2yvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Promotional poster for Ten Canoes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Palace Cinemas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of these languages suffer from a lack of visibility, but some have become better known because Indigenous organisations have been increasing our awareness of them. </p>
<p>For example, one of the reasons that many Australians have heard of Warlpiri is due to the popularity of <a href="http://www.bushmechanics.com/home.htm">Bush Mechanics</a> in the early 2000s, which was filmed in Warlpiri. </p>
<p>The profile of Yolngu Matha was also raised with the release of <a href="http://www.palacefilms.com.au/tencanoes/">Ten Canoes</a> in 2006. It is one of the first feature films to make extensive use of an Australian language.</p>
<p>The use of language in the performing arts and media has done a lot to raise the profile of Indigenous languages. Gumbayngirr, a NSW language, enjoyed a moment in the spotlight in 2009 when singer-songwriter <a href="http://www.blackarmband.com.au/artist/emma-donovan/">Emma Donovan</a> released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KXVE3c5CSA">Ngarraanga (Remember)</a>, which went on to win Donovan Best Female Artist and Best R&B Single at the 2009 BUMP Awards. </p>
<p>Well-known lawyer and land rights activist Noel Pearson has also done much to promote his language, Guguu Yimithirr, in <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/noel-pearson-native-tongues-imperilled/story-e6frg6zo-1111113127158">political commentary</a>. </p>
<h2>Get to know the language of your local area</h2>
<p>The visibility of Australian languages in public space is on the rise. In many parts of the country, signage now greets the visitor. For example, “<a href="http://www.murunangamai.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=152447501">Welcome to Ngunnawal</a>” signs can be found at entry points into the ACT and surrounds.</p>
<p>Signage is powerful. In the past it was common for interpretive signage in national parks and other public spaces to display statements such as “this word is from Aboriginal”. </p>
<p>Now there are increasing examples of signage that name the language of the region, for example <a href="http://www.muurrbay.org.au/gathang-flavour-to-new-campus-signage/">Gathang signs</a> at the Great Lakes campus of TAFE in NSW, and the <a href="http://www.vaclang.org.au/blog/vacl-s-talented-mandy-nicholson-state-park-signs-tell-wurundjeri-story.html">Wurundjeri Stories Indigenous Signage Trail</a> in Warrandyte State Park in Victoria. </p>
<p>Probably the Australian capital that has done the most to increase awareness of their local language is Adelaide. As well as the extensive use of Kaurna place names in signage, the solar-powered buses have been called <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/adelaide-creates-worlds-first-solar-powered-public-transport-system-32530">Tindo</a>, which is the Kaurna word for sun. Nowadays it is hard to miss the fact that Adelaide is located on Kaurna country. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80279/original/image-20150504-29612-1riyhcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tindo, Adelaide’s solar-powered buses.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of the language projects that have been increasing the visibility of Australian languages are instigated by Indigenous-run language centres. Examples include <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/">Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi</a> at Adelaide University, The <a href="http://www.muurrbay.org.au/">Murrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-op</a> in Nambucca Heads and the <a href="http://www.vaclang.org.au/">Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages</a> in Melbourne. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/atsi/languages">State Library of Queensland</a> and <a href="http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/">NSW</a> also offer excellent resources and links for learning about other Indigenous languages on the east coast of Australia.</p>
<p>For Indigenous people wanting to reconnect with their languages or non-Indigenous language-learning enthusiasts, many universities now offer Indigenous-led language learning and awareness courses and activities. For example, Charles Darwin University provides courses in <a href="https://learnline.cdu.edu.au/yolngustudies/">Yolngu Matha</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.unisa.edu.au/Education-Arts-and-Social-Sciences/David-Unaipon-College-of-Indigenous-Education-and-Research/Pitjantjatjara-Language-Summer-School/">Pitjantjatjara</a> can be learnt at the University of South Australia. Other languages offered through universities are <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/">Kaurna</a> at the University of Adelaide and <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/courses/uos/KOCR2605/speaking-gamilaraay-1">Gamilaraay</a> at the University of Sydney.</p>
<p>It is important that we know that Australia is a nation of over 250 Australian Indigenous languages, not just one. It is also important that all Australians are able to name some of these, particularly the ones in our local areas. Increasing the visibility and awareness of Indigenous languages will help our nation understand the rich cultural pluralism that existed before the arrival of Europeans and continues today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felicity Meakins receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Aboriginals Benefit Account (ABA). She is also a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).</span></em></p>Most Australians cannot manage the name of a single Indigenous language which is astonishing given there are 250 to choose fromFelicity Meakins, ARC Research Fellow (DECRA) in Linguistics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.