Students' cultures and heritage: Indigenous languages

My Own Schooling

Nyurruwiyi ngula kalarna ngaju kuurlurla yukaja kula kalalu-nganpa Warlpiri pina manu ngari wita mipa kalalu nganpa pina manu riiti-maninjaku, wangkanjaku manu yurnparninjaku. Tiija yapa patu wangu-wiyi kalalu nganpa mardarnu. Jalangu-jalangu ngulaju panulku tiijangkuju yapa paturluju kalu jana tiiji-mani Warlpiriji manu kalu junga-nyayirni pina-jarrimi. Junga-nyayirnirli pina-jarriya Warlpiriji yungurlipa pirrjirdi-jiki mardani manu yungunkulu-jana kurdu nyurrurla nyangu pina-mani.

When I was going to Yuendumu School, I can remember that they hardly taught us Warlpiri. Just a little bit of reading, writing and singing. They didn't have any Warlpiri teachers teaching in the classrooms. Nowadays they have Warlpiri teachers teaching Warlpiri in the classrooms. The kids are now learning to read and write in their first language. The teachers are doing a great job teaching Warlpiri. Let's keep the Warlpiri language strong and in the future you could teach your children Warlpiri too.

— Christine Nungarrayi Spencer (1998) Introduction to Junga Yimi Magazine: Warlpiri and English literacy edition no. 3 Bilingual Resources Development Unit, Yuendumu Community Education Centre.

Indigenous languages

In 1788 there were probably about 250 Indigenous language families in Australia with more than 600 discrete languages. Today it is estimated that there are 25 languages with more than 1,000 speakers, 11 with between 500 and 100 speakers and 43 with between 100 and 500 speakers. An unknown number still exist with a handful of speakers, but more than half of those existing two hundred years ago have disappeared forever.

About 50,000 Australians speak an Indigenous language as their first language. For many of these people, English is at best a second or third language and, in the way these matters are categorised, often a foreign language. Many thousand 'top-enders' speak Kriol or Torres Strait Creole, creoles or languages which have developed from interaction between groups who speak differing languages.

Beyond that, many Aboriginal people speak a dialect of English known as Aboriginal (or Koorie or Nunga, etc.) English which has its own rules and referents. As Ian Malcolm writes: 'Aboriginal English phrases sometimes include Indigenous words, but this is not a defining feature. Rather it is the consistent patterns of sounds, grammar, usage and meanings that set it apart from Standard Australian English dialect'.

Why teach them?

Students who have a contemporary and/or traditional Indigenous language as their first language have a right to access formal school programs in those languages for the same reasons English Language Programs are developed for students whose first language is English.

One of the goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy is to 'develop programs to support the maintenance and continued use of Aboriginal languages'.

When a workshop group at the second SRP conference was asked to explain why this should be the case, the answers were strong and immediate: cultural identification, ownership of cultural knowledge, cultural pride, no shame, connection with our land, a sense of personal empowerment and cultural connectedness, they are part of a 'national treasure chest'. Language is fundamental to what you are, what you do, and what is important. It's one area where Indigenous kids have an advantage.

The issue for educators here: how to maintain and support the existence and use of Indigenous languages and to recognise their inherent value and their importance to their users?

Teaching Indigenous languages

Teaching Indigenous languages, especially by non-Indigenous people, may be a highly sensitive issue. Please be alert to this.

Several States/Territories provide curricula for particular Indigenous languages up to senior level. Trained personnel are required to provide these.

There are a number of projects aimed at providing materials in local languages to help develop literacy, and opportunities for much more work in this field.

It is also possible to teach about Indigenous languages, providing powerful insights into more general linguistic and cultural issues. The Senior Secondary Studies Board of South Australia has developed materials for this purpose.

More about these materials…

A reference to case studies of teaching about Indigenous languages…

In other cases, such as the Ganai project, local communities have engaged in work to preserve or reclaim languages.

About the Ganai project…