The FATSIL NEWSLETTER AUGUST, 2003
THE FEDERATION OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER LANGUAGES CORPORATION
VOLUME 25
Schooling is deadly for Nyoongar students
Aboriginal students in Perth's eastern suburbs cannot wait to get to school since the gates of Moorditj Noongar Community College opened in 2001.
The Middle Swan primary school is the only Department of Education school purpose-built with ab Aboriginal vision in the metropolitan area. With 140 students from kindergarten to Year 5, acting deputy principal Barbara Clayton said the Moorditj Noongar was working towards having a Year 7 class in 2005.
Three school buses collect students from their homes in suburbs such as Midland, High Wycombe, beechnara, Maylands and Bellevus. Ms Clayton said attendance had improved dramatically among students who transferred from mainstream schools, along with leteracy and numeracy. nyoongar language plyed a big part in the curriculum and gave both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students a sense of pride.
They love it when they can go home and sing a song to their parents and their parents say the kids know more language than they do,' Ms Clayton said.
Photograph and article courtesy The West Australian Newspaper
IT'S an exciting time for FATSIL to be finally putting into place the new election procedures for Governing Committee members. Because it's important at the same that all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed before the whole process begins, the committee has decided to delay the AGM and National Languages Forum till February, to make sure that the new procedures are run in smoothly.
THE previously reported amendments to the FATSIL Constitution, relating to elections and financial membership, have now been accepted by the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations.
As a result of the changes, a $5 annual membership fee is now payable for all new FATSIL members as well as all existing members who wish to have voting rights.
A FATSIL delegation recently visited Canberra to discuss the Commonwealth Government's announcement of a $108 million budget over four years for language education in schools, and for a new language teaching fellowships programme.
In order to accommodate the new procedures for the election of FATSIL Committee members, the FATSIL AGM and Indigenous Languages Forum will now be held in Melbourne next February. The theme of the conference will be Youth, Language and Education and the Committee is asking language project teams to look at sponsoring a younger community member to attend, For- more information, contact the FATSIL office on 08 8342 2081 or email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
FATSIL is to undertake the development of a community derived model contract for indigenous language projects, which will provide a legal framework for the protection and copyright of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
Sisters Angelina George and Betty Roberts (right), teach pupils Marra Language at Ngukurr School.
WHILE initiatives to support Indigenous languages in Australia are being taken by Governments in NSW and Queensland, programs already in place in the NT, where Indigenous languages are still being spoken, have been severely threatened in recent years, especially in the Katherine Region.
A cross media proposal for Online and Television focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, languages and cultures.
Introduction:
For sometime the ABC Indigenous Programs Unit and Indigenous Online have discussed the possibility to undertake a major media project with important archiving outcomes.
In recent developments in NSW, the aspiration of Aboriginal communities to revive their languages, using living knowledge in conjunction with archival sources, is being supported by the formal (though non-mandatory) introduction of the study of Aboriginal languages into the NSW school curriculum. To this end the Aboriginal Curriculum Unit (ACU) in the Office of the Board of Studies NSW has been developing the Aboriginal Languages K- 10 Syllabus. The aims of the syllabus are to enable students to gain language proficiency, focus on the study of languages as systems and understand the relationship between land, language, culture and identity.
The experiences and models of these language programs have made a significant contribution to the design and development of the new Aboriginal Languages K-10 Syllabus, as have successful language revival programs in other parts of Australia (eg the Kaurna language program in Adelaide) and Indigenous language communities in other countries.
THIS new volume of oral histories from Koorie Elders is an honest and powerful retelling of the important stories that have shaped the history and culture of Aboriginal people in Victoria.
THE Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) recently sponsored a week long visit by an Indigenous language researcher, Ms Bridget Priman.
REPRESENTATIVES of language groups from around the state met in Sydney in June to discuss the establishment of an Advisory Board for the NSW Aboriginal Languages Research and Resource Centre. Manager of the centre, Dr. Jaky Troy invited the delegates to consider the future role of the organisation and the responsibilities to be addressed by the elected committee. Jaky is assisted by Gayle Caldwell at the language centre, which was established in conjunction with the NSW Government's State Aboriginal Languages Policy.
