Comments on: Aboriginal languages matter – but to who?

By: Kaniz Rahman

Kaniz Rahman — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 05:24:00 +0000

It is really sad that monolingualism is being obligatory for the Northern Territory. It reminds me about my presentation and I can really connect to the situation how they might feel! I feel sorry about the whole thing. Their language is their birth right and taking that away is frustrating. I had a house mate who told me the story how their kids used to be stolen away and I thought he was just making things up, but after doing some research I found out that it’s true and it makes me feel disgusted. Their story are so alarming. Their language should matter to everyone. I mean our world is not about one language its about a lots of language and culture. But the behavior we see now it’s so barbaric.

By: Ka Ho Lawrence HO

Ka Ho Lawrence HO — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 21:36:00 +0000

Dear Professor Piller and fellow classmates,

I do appreciate how Australians preserve the culture of Aboriginal languages. After reading this post, I did a mini online research on how Australians work to achieve this aim. I found a journal article which include some interesting findings. Mamtora, Godfrey & Bow. (2016) illustrate a joint participation between university academics, project staff and staff from Charles Darwin University (CDU) Library to develop an innovative online resource to sustain and preserve Aboriginal languages and cultures in Australia. To achieve this, Aboriginal residents in the Northern Territory have to receive education in their own language before they start their English learning. However, as some of the teaching materials have been lost or damaged. There is an urgent need to protect those valuable resources and therefore, CDU Library collaborates with other parties and with the financial support from the Australian Research Council, they establish an online repository in 2012 called the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (cdu.edu.au/laal). It presently includes about 3,000 items in 50 various Aboriginal languages, which are in the form of scanned PDFs and searchable text files.
In contrast, the local government Hong Kong is trying to demolish the icons of its colonial history, such as removing posting boxes established during the colonial era, especially those with the British crown emblem. The government also tries to not maintain the statues of Queen Victoria and King George VI.

Just some thoughts,

Lawrence

References

Mamtora, J., Godfrey, N. & Bow, C. (2016). LAAL: The living archive of aboriginal languages. Incite, 37 (5/6), 18-19.

By: JZzzz

JZzzz — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 08:16:00 +0000

Thanks for this insightful article! Languages do matter since I believe behind every language there is the history, the identities, the culture and the way of living, which deserves respect and protection. Before I came to Australia, I didn’t know much about the relationship between English and aboriginal languages. However, I gradually find that in terms of multi-culture, China and Australia actually shares many in common. China also promotes bilingual education in ethnic minority areas, along with a series of policy benefits to minority speakers. Recently I read about a case of bilingual education in one minority group in China, in which children are taught in their mother tongue before learning the official language. The results turn out to be quite successful in that students perform better than other who only taught in one single language. This coincides with your finding that “bilingually educated Aboriginal students were outperforming Aboriginal students who were taught in English only”. I think bilingual education is more appropriate instead of monolingual or submersion education because variety is what makes a multi-culture society.

By: Long leg

Long leg — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:11:00 +0000

Language could bring more meaning than serving the communicative purpose of human. A language presents a particular culture, attitude, history, and identity of citizens of that language community. That’s the reason why Aboriginal communities have worked hard to maintain and revive their languages. The recognizable benefit of bilingual education for Aboriginal students in the NT in 1973 could be worth changing respective of policy makers, educational institutions and other services in Australia. Australian Federal Government should put more effort into Aboriginal language preservation.

By: rajni jaishi

rajni jaishi — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 13:32:00 +0000

The language we speak establishes our identity- political, social and cultural. The NT government must adopt a balanced policy to keep these aboriginal languages alive. The current state of affairs is quite ironical as the government seems to be promising to support and protect the identities of aboriginal communities but on the other hand, it has failed to do anything substantial in the past two decades to uplift their culture and language. The languages spoken by the aboriginal groups and communities must have a fair share in the mainstream education they receive. English is undoubtedly important but a monolingual approach is not doing any good either as the students are not being able to perform well and dropping out of school early. Their culture must be preserved and to do so, their languages need to be given recognition.

By: Dee

Dee — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 02:46:00 +0000

During NAIDOC celebrations at my school, aboriginal students enthusiastically demonstrated pride in their culture. The theme this year was ‘our languages matter’; however, the students were not able to demonstrate their ancestral language due to it no longer existing. At another NAIDOC celebration that I attended it was brought to light that the word ‘digeridoo’ is not in fact a word from an aboriginal language; it is a word that white people ascribed to the instrument. Both these recent experiences highlight that we need to go a long way to show respect to our history, additionally to preserve the historical sources that are available to us. I personally think that our policy makers ought to be working towards preservation of aboriginal languages throughout Australia and thinking of ways to introduce languages into the school curriculum; this could be possible in the early years of schooling through subjects such as CAPA or HSIE.

By: Thi Lam Tra DINH

Thi Lam Tra DINH — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:53:00 +0000

I think the monolingual education policy is also common in different parts of the world. Of course, it might be challenging for the implementation of bilingual/multilingual education due to educational ideologies or inadequate various contextual parameters such as qualified teachers, teaching material affordance. However, it is apparent that minority ethnic groups may confront a range of hurdles when they have to acquire the target language and the content knowledge simultaneously. Piller (2016) pointed out cognitive, academic, linguistic, behavioural and economic disadvantages that policy makers should take into consideration. Take Vietnamese minority ethnic education as an example. Every year, after Tet holiday ( Lunar New Year festival), teachers at mountainous regions have to go to students families to encourage them to get back to school because there is a dramatic fall in the numbers of students. Various reasons have been identified. Submersion education might be one of the explanatory factors.

Reference:
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

By: EM

EM — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 02:57:00 +0000

It is quite heartbreaking to note the accuracy of this post in all ways: that the native Indigenous Australian languages are very endangered, that the NT government is being forced to encourage monolingual education due to budget cuts, and that the identities of many Indigenous Australians is tied to their native languages which should matter to all Australians. I reside in NSW and have never really seen any type of Aboriginal culture or language involvement in the school’s curriculums apart from studying the Aboriginal religion very broadly in secondary school and the acknowledgment of the Aboriginal people during Welcome to Country. While the Northern Territory does have some of the largest groups of Aboriginal language speakers in Australia, it should matter to all of us – we should see more of the Aboriginal culture and language in all of Australia.

By: 44285736

44285736 — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 09:47:00 +0000

The Australian Federal Government should really fund the NT. For so long Non-indigenous Australians have tried to destroy the Aboriginal culture and have done it through the so many ways. History tell us about the killings, stolen generation, work of missionaries to indoctrinate the aboriginals. So much as been done to them. For once let the children learn their ancestors languages. Australians should be proud of maintain this native languages that makes what Australia is. The principal of TESOL is to respect other second language speakers. So if English is to be taught the let be with the native languages. Diversity is something that the second or third Australians should be proud of the first Australians. The NT government is still acting like Australian is still a British Territory and imposing English forcefully on the NT Aboriginals. Being an Australian means respecting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders their culture and their lives. Language is an integral part of their identity. Why don’t we just let the children be taught with their language as well as English. Former PM, Kevin Rudd made the historic apologetic statement, and NT Government should remember that and consider the rights of the indigenous people of Australia. Give more funding and improve the Education Systems of the Indigenous Australians.

By: Brendan Kavanagh

Brendan Kavanagh — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 06:44:00 +0000

I have been teaching Indigenous adults in remote Central Australian communities for seven years now, and I agree with this article. Many educators, employers and politicians conveniently take the position that only English matters, and that learning local languages is a waste of time.

This is a convenient position to take as a monolingual English speaker who has never been required to learn a foreign language to operate in their environment. Not only does learning the local language show respect, but it empowers the learner by demonstrating that they already hold valuable skills that can be taught to you as an educator. Knowing the learners’ languages helps you to understand how they think, break down communication barriers and bridge the learning process.

Recently, I have been working with local Aboriginal Health Workers to develop health messages in their local language. It is much more cost effective to treat health problems at the cause by teaching the dangers of eating sugary foods, than to focus on the symptoms by flying in doctors and nurses to treat diabetes patients.

By: Thi Dung DOAN (Julie)

Thi Dung DOAN (Julie) — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 01:40:00 +0000

Thank you for the article, Britt. Your article makes me think a lot about the situation in my home country. In Vietnam, we do have more than 50 ethnic groups with different languages and cultural heritages. The official Vietnamese language is of the majority group while other languages are mostly spoken within their own communities. There have been increasing efforts in preserving all the languages and their cultural characteristics and it becomes more popular that children of such communities are able to speak both languages. It is hard to generalize the situation, but I think many of them are willing to maintain their own languages and cultural heritages or even attempting to make them more public. What we are expecting from our government is their greater support to the preservation of our multiethnic culture as the question of “to whom aboriginal languages matter” you have made in this article.
Julie

By: ALEXANDROS BINOS

ALEXANDROS BINOS — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:05:00 +0000

This article highlights the monolingual ambitions of the Australian governments and their failure to bridge the ‘gap’ between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginal languages should matter to all Australians. They are, i would believe, the longest-surviving languages in the world and the cultural link to the forefathers of this land. Over half have become extinct which poses a real threat to the languages which have survived. It is our duty to promote and facilitate the learning of Aboriginal languages throughout Australia particularly for maintaining indigenous Australians’ cultural identity.