Tragedy of nation's dying languages lost in translation (fwd)

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Tragedy of nation's dying languages lost in translation

Tanya Plibersek
September 5, 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/tragedy-of-nations-dying-languages-lost-in-translation/2007/09/04/1188783233947.html#

How many American first nations can you name? Sioux; Apache; Chippewa;
Cherokee; Cheyenne; Mohegan; Navaho. Most people would recognise a few of
these at least.

Now how many Aboriginal Australian nations or languages? Most non-Aboriginal
Australians would be lucky to be able to name more than one or two.

Most Australians know more about the frontier battles of the US than they do
about the frontier battles in Australia.

Our Prime Minister is keen for Australian schools to teach a version of
history that allows us as a nation to collectively take credit for the
glories of the past - such as the bravery shown by Australian troops at
Gallipoli - but doesn't allow any acknowledgement of past wrongs. It was
just this year, for the first time, that there was any official recognition
of the significant number of indigenous Australians who fought for Australia
in every conflict we have faced as a nation, and returned to pubs that
wouldn't serve them to drink at the same counter as their wartime mates.

As parents we teach our children to own up to their mistakes; to apologise
if they've done wrong; to fix their mistakes if they can - that's not a
black-arm band view of history. Its called taking responsibility. It's a
lesson we want our children to learn.

The teaching of Australian history, maths, physics and chemistry, English:
they're all basic subjects we expect our children to learn, but without
jamming the curriculum too full, we can offer more. We also want young
Australians to learn vocational subjects, European languages and Asian
languages given where the powerhouse economies of the 21st century are.

Few areas are less promoted or talked about than the teaching of Aboriginal
languages; yet it's a great story.

Linguists believe there were about 70 Aboriginal languages spoken in NSW
when the First Fleet arrived in 1788. Many of those are almost lost,
especially as older Aboriginal people, who learnt the languages as
children, die. In 2002 the Australian Bureau of Statistics found there were
fewer than 3000 people who spoke an indigenous language in NSW. Last year
that figure had dropped to 800. Even languages that were widely spoken in
living memory may be only partially remembered or documented.

Yet the future looks positive. There are about 50 NSW schools teaching
Aboriginal languages to about 5000 indigenous and non-indigenous students.
Many of these languages being taught are being rediscovered through the
teaching process.

The renaissance of these languages is welcome - it's good to think of the
body of human knowledge always expanding, not shrivelling. But teaching
Aboriginal languages in schools is important for reasons beside abstract
calculations of the sum of human knowledge.

It's important because it keeps kids at school. Teachers report increased
school attendance, improved engagement with learning activities, decreased
suspensions, and increased involvement of the local Aboriginal community
with the school. Making elders part of the school community is important in
co-opting grandparents' help in keeping Aboriginal kids in school. Keeping
young people at school is important for their work and life chances, and
for the strength of the next generation. Canadian research shows that for
every extra year of schooling a young indigenous mother has, her baby's
life expectancy increases by four years.

Learning an Aboriginal language is no substitute for learning English, but
learning any second language actually helps you speak, read and write
English better. Michele Herbert, the deputy principal of Forbes North
Public School, which has a Wiradjuri program for its students, says
"reading has improved out of sight".

As Roderick West, the former headmaster of Trinity Grammar and chair of the
Government's West review into higher education says, "A child who is fluent
in his or her own Aboriginal tongue and whose early days on the planet have
been secure and happy, will speak English more articulately and with
greater confidence than children who have no strong attachment to any
specific culture."

The experience of Maori-language preschools - kohanga reo - in New Zealand
has been very positive both for preserving Maori language and culture, and
for preparing children to do well in English literacy when they start
school.

Why is it that Latin and classical Greek are considered academically
prestigious subjects, yet languages that have evolved in Australia over
60,000 years are not? After all, can you imagine an Italian who had never
heard of the Etruscans or the Romans? A Greek who had never heard of the
Minoans or the Spartans? The difference is we have living, breathing people
to learn living, breathing languages from.

Tanya Plibersek is a federal Labor MP