Page 3603 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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By way of context, some 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, with over 600 dialects, covered the continent in the late 18th century. Of these, 145 languages are spoken in Australia today. One hundred and ten of those are considered endangered, and only 60 Aboriginal languages are considered truly alive and in use as a first tongue today. A total of 10 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians identify as speaking an Indigenous language at home. That means there are almost 64,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who speak an Indigenous language within their families and communities. As I said during NAIDOC Week and reaffirm now, we must work together and treasure those remaining languages.
The ACT has three major languages spoken within the region: Ngunnawal, Walgalu and Ngarigu. There have also been a number of other dialects identified. Through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2015-18, under the focus area “cultural identity”, the “strong cultural Identity” and “feeling empowered to promote their identity at home, at work and in their communities” are two actions that mean that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are comfortable to identity and practise culture through language.
Cultural heritage and knowledge is passed on throughout each generation by language. As such, language is integral in affirming and maintaining wellbeing, self-esteem and a strong sense of identity. Languages contain complex understandings of a person’s culture and their connection with their land.
In 2012 the United Nations held a forum on the study of the role of languages and culture in the promotion and protection of the rights and identity of Indigenous peoples. The importance of language is summed up in the following quote from that forum:
Language is an essential part of, and intrinsically linked to, Indigenous peoples’ ways of life, culture and identities. Languages embody many Indigenous values and concepts and contain Indigenous peoples’ histories and development. They are fundamental markers of Indigenous peoples’ distinctiveness and cohesiveness as peoples.
To be able to teach an Indigenous language there is often a need to reconstruct it, as most language, as I have said, on the eastern seaboard of Australia was lost. As Aboriginal people were banned from speaking their language due to previous government policies, the languages disappeared. The ANU has been successful in progressing this work locally, through the linguistics faculty and the work of Dr Harold Koch and others.
As the Leader of the Opposition noted, AIATSIS, a gem we should be very proud to have hosted in our national capital here in the ACT, has been working with local traditional custodians who have been reviving the Ngunnawal language and teaching it to others. We applaud their efforts and continue to promote and value the learning and use of mother languages in our diverse and inclusive community.
Another way the ACT government works to preserve and protect the languages of our culturally and linguistically diverse communities is through our library services across
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