NATIONAL: National Indigenous Languages Survey Report 2005 (fwd)

[Anggarrgoon]

Heritage language is also used in Australia, but it usually refers to 
immigrant minority languages such as Greek, Italian, Lao and Arabic, 
rather than to Indigenous languages.

Mia Kalish wrote:
> We might suggest First Nations, which also has about it the recognition 
> that the people speaking the language where the first to occupy a 
> particular locale, and that the dominant language is one of colonization.
> 

Yes, but 'nation' is also a term with connotations, and in Aboriginal 
Australia there is a lot of tension between an 'Aboriginal' identity and 
a clan or group identity, particularly for younger people who may have 
multiple identities. 'First nations languages' in an Australian context 
would underplay an 'Aboriginal' identity. As I understand it, 'First 
Nations' languages in Canada is tied to a particular federation, and 
does not include all the Indigenous languages of Canada.

> 
> I don’t think anyone is saying that the languages of the people who were 
> on this continent first are “part of our national heritage”. Part of our 
> problem here has been the establishment of the belief that the First 
> Nations now exist only in the Smithsonian. Reports still come in about 
> people who are surprised to find out that there still are “real, live 
> American Indians”.
> 

I thought we were talking about Australia, and I don't have a problem 
with the phrase that Kemp used about Aboriginal languages being part of 
our heritage. I took it as meaning that they are part of the ingredients 
in the 'cultural melting pot' that contributed to what Australian 
society is today. That is true, and it's all too often forgotten.

Claire