Funds to help revive Biripai Indigenous language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Funds to help revive Biripai Indigenous language

Friday, 9 June 2006. 08:23 (AEDT)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200606/1659015.htm?midnorthcoast

The New South Wales Government is calling for funding submissions to
revive the Biripai Aboriginal language on the New South Wales mid-north
coast.

The Government allocated $250,000 in this week's Budget to support
Aboriginal language programs around the state.

A research officer with the Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre, Gary
Williams, says the funding is a good start.

He says work reviving the region's seven major language groups is still
in the early stages.

And contrary to some views, he says it is not too late for the Biripai
language.

"It's never too late to revive a language, they've done it from scratch
over in the Adelaide Plains there, that wasn't spoken since the 1900s
or something like that," he said.

"There are still people around who grew up with speakers and have the
sounds in their head, and all this encourages them to bring it to the
fore again, you know."