Indigenous languages in this country are at a crisis point. At the time of European arrival there were over 250 recorded Indigenous languages. Today there are 6 to 9 ‘healthy’ languages (as defined in the National Indigenous Languages Survey, 2005, as a language fluently spoken by 3 generations), 25 at various levels of endangerment, while the rest are pretty much gone. This represents the highest rate of language extinction anywhere in the world.
FATSIL has been busy in the last quarter of 2008 and we are looking forward to building on the goodwill established last year for a productive and successful 2009. We have taken a more proactive approach to lobbying policy makers and have made a concerted effort to consult and include our members and other stakeholders in our major initiatives. Our efforts have been directed toward:
Paul Herbert, FATSIL National Manager delivering the keynote address at the WIPC:E 2009 Conference
The FATSIL Languages Forum and Annual General Meeting was held on Yugambeh country on the Gold Coast, Queensland, on October the 29th and 30th, 2008. The theme of this year’s Forum was ‘Same Kinship, Different Languages’. Paul Herbert, FATSIL National Manager, delivered the opening address and talked about the challenges facing FATSIL for the year ahead. He highlighted the work being done by FATSIL to build working relationships with government and key ministers such as Jenny Macklin, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, and Peter Garret, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
School kids from the Bloomfield River Primary School have created a series of artworks for a book written in Kuku Yalangi, the language of the rainforest people north of the Daintree River and South of Cooktown,
in far north Queensland.
Portrait of Jenny Graham, published in The Queenslander in 1935. Courtesy of the Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Centre
This song is taken from the book ‘Yugambeh Talga, Music Traditionas of the Yugambeh People’. The Yugambeh people come from the region that extends from the Logan river in south-east Queensland to the Tweed River on the border of New South Wales. Lottie (Levinge) Eaton remembers her grandmother, Mrs Jenny Graham, singing this song to her when she was a little girl.
English Teaching Poster in Pormpuraaw Kindergarden, 2008
This is the first in a series of four articles by John von Sturmer that will explore different aspects of language including strategies for language maintenance, issues of language learning, and the pleasures of speaking language. John is a writer and artist who has lived and worked all over Australia.
This is a transcription taken from a lecture in October 2008 by Yingiya, the Yolnu Studies lecturer at Charles Darwin University (CDU). He talks about ‘Teaching from Country’, an ICTV-based network for Yolnu on-country research and development of traditional knowledge teaching. This program aims to set up and evaluate distance education in reverse: the Yolnu lecturers are in remote places, while the students are (mostly) on campus in Darwin.
Language is what makes us real. There is something generous about languages,beautiful even. It gives out, it emits. The greedy do not speak properly, they can't give out. Remember the story of the dogs, how they were supposed to guard the kap mari while the people were away. Instead they ate the food and lost the pow
‘Language Makes Us Real’, ink on paper, John von Sturmer, 2009. See page 26 for transcription
Alexander ‘Sandy’ Brown was born in a bough shade on De Grey Station in January 1930. As a boy he learned the Ngarla, Nyamal, and Coastal Nyangumarta languages, and many skills of bush living. These are some stories from his book and CD that were published by Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre in 2003.
This story has been written with the support of the Young Indigenous Writers Initiative, a mentoring program run by FATSIL that helps young Indigenous writers to develop their writing skills and get their work published. The aim of the program is to foster and promote the new generation of Indigenous writers in Australia. Nardi Simpson, a Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay woman, is our Young Indigenous Writers Initiative participant and Voice of the Land contributor for this issue.
FATSIL acknowledges ‘The Towards a Just Society Fund’ for supporting this Initiative.
If you are an Indigenous person between the age of 16 and 35, have a passion for writing and interest in language and culture, you are eligible to apply for the Young Indigenous Writers Initiative. Please email
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to register your interest.
The 2nd PULIIMA NATIONAL INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES & INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FORUM is being held from April 1 st to the 2nd in Melbourne, Victoria. The theme of the Forum is ‘Modern Ways for Ancient Words’.
