{"id":63763,"date":"2022-07-06T00:31:38","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T04:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=63763"},"modified":"2022-07-13T19:15:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T23:15:14","slug":"we-are-on-the-brink-of-losing-indigenous-languages-in-australia-could-schools-save-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/we-are-on-the-brink-of-losing-indigenous-languages-in-australia-could-schools-save-them\/","title":{"rendered":"We are on the brink of losing Indigenous languages in Australia \u2013 could schools save them?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TIWI ISLANDS, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 22: Children play football on the street on December 23, 2007 on the Tiwi Island, Australia. Australian Rules football holds a special position in the lives of people of the Tiwi Islands, which are located just off the coast north of Darwin. At present about 500 or 20% of all Tiwis play in regular football competitions arranged for boys and girls, men and women on both Melville and Bathurst Islands. The Tiwi Islands Football League, which is played during the northern wet season of October through to March, began in 1969. It currently has seven teams, and the grand final in the end of March is one of the largest tourism events in the North. Like Aborigines throughout Australia, the arrival of people to the Tiwi Islands dates back more than 50,000 years. Unlike Aborigines elsewhere in Australia, the Tiwis were spared white incursions onto their land and have retained complete control of their home islands of Bathurst and Melville to this day. (Photo by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of the world\u2019s 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\u00a0two weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the world\u2019s\u00a0fastest rates<\/a>\u00a0of language loss is in Australia. Indigenous languages in Australia comprise only 2% of languages spoken in the world, but represent 9% of the world\u2019s critically endangered languages.<\/p>\n

More than 250 Indigenous languages and over 750 dialects were originally spoken. However, as some experts estimate, only\u00a040 languages<\/a>\u00a0are still spoken, with just 12 being learned by children.<\/p>\n

First Nations educator Jacquie Hunter, who contributed to this article, has worked at One Arm Point Remote Community School in Ardiyooloon in Australia\u2019s northwest for 17 years. She told us \u201ckids know words, but not sentences\u201d of their Bardi language. She estimates within the next few years, \u201cwe won\u2019t have any more fluent speakers around to teach us those full sentences in our language\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is a pattern repeated in Indigenous communities\u00a0nationwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019\u00a0International Decade of Indigenous Languages<\/a>\u00a0(following on from 2019\u2019s\u00a0International Year of Indigenous Languages<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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>\n

Loss of language has significant impacts on Indigenous communities<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,\u00a0has noted<\/a>\u00a0how the threat to languages is a direct consequence of \u201ccolonialism and colonial practices that resulted in the decimation of indigenous peoples, their cultures and languages\u201d.<\/p>\n

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>\n

More than 4,000<\/a>\u00a0of the world\u2019s 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>\n

The relationship between language and culture is complex. Cultural values and ways of thinking can still be conveyed via a\u00a0new language<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 an example is found in\u00a0Kriol<\/a>\u00a0(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, \u201cWe have our culture, a strong culture \u2013 but without language how you supposed to keep it going?\u201d<\/p>\n

Language is also key to\u00a0sustainability<\/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>\n

For example,\u00a0Indigenous ecological knowledge<\/a>\u00a0in Australia includes Aboriginal\u00a0seasonal knowledge<\/a>, and\u00a0traditional uses<\/a>\u00a0of flora and fauna.<\/p>\n

This holds the key to natural resource management, such as cultural burning in\u00a0fire management<\/a>. But such knowledge risks being lost if Indigenous languages do not continue being passed down to the next generation.<\/p>\n

What role does education play?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Globally, the lack of support for minority languages in the mainstream school system poses one of the greatest threats to indigenous languages.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0has found that the more someone is educated in the mainstream system, the less the use of their indigenous language.<\/p>\n

Yet schools can provide rich environments for supporting diversity. Australia has seen some promise here in recent years.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal language programs from pre-school to year 12 are developing in all states \u2014\u00a0Western Australia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0New South Wales<\/a>\u00a0are good examples of this.<\/p>\n

A\u00a02022 poll<\/a>\u00a0of about 650 primary school students found they wanted to learn an Indigenous language – ahead of other, foreign languages.<\/p>\n

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Primary school students want to learn indigenous languages according to a new study released this week. pic.twitter.com\/GuxuPX9Y64<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 PRIME7 News Tamworth (@PRIME7Tamworth) April 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n