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<p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">20 August 2014, 9.17pm BST</span></p><p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"><b>Indigenous languages won’t survive if kids are learning only English</b></p>

<p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span class=""><b>AUTHOR<font size="4"> </font></b></span><b style="font-size:small;font-family:arial">Jane Simpson </b></p><ol class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large">
</ol><p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif">The question of what language(s) to teach Indigenous students, what languages to teach them in, and how to go about it has been generating a little political heat (but not quite so much light) of late…</p>

<p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Indigenous languages won’t survive if Indigenous kids don’t have the opportunity to speak their native languages at school. <a href="http://multimedia.aapnewswire.com.au/Search.aspx?search=indigenous+children"><span class="">AAP</span></a><br>
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<p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif">The question of what language(s) to teach Indigenous students, what languages to teach them in, and how to go about it has been generating a little political heat (but not quite so much light) of late.</p>

<p class="" style="font-family:georgia,serif">On <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4040700.htm"><span class=""><b>ABC’s Q&A</b></span></a> earlier this month, Yalmay Yunupingu – the widow of Yothu Yindi front man Mandawuy Yunupingu – asked a pointed question about how the teaching of Indigenous languages will be funded given that <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples-1"><span class=""><b>Article 14</b></span></a> of the United Nation’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People states that Indigenous children have the right to education in their own language. And a recent piece in <a href="https://theconversation.com/biggest-loser-policy-on-literacy-will-not-deliver-long-term-gains-28649"><span class=""><b>The Conversation</b></span></a> by Stewart Riddle sparked <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/remote-kids-need-english-to-prosper/story-fn59nlz9-1226984855832"><span class=""><b>controversy</b></span></a> after he said it could be argued that the emphasis placed on English literacy was no better than discredited historical attempts to make Aboriginal kids more “white”.</p>
<p class="" style><font face="georgia, serif">Access full article below: </font></p><p class="" style><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://theconversation.com/indigenous-languages-wont-survive-if-kids-are-learning-only-english-30311">http://theconversation.com/indigenous-languages-wont-survive-if-kids-are-learning-only-english-30311</a><br>
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