Australian Endangered Languages Get Boost from Alumna (fwd link)

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Australian Endangered Languages Get Boost from Alumna

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[photo]

Amanda Hamilton (C'06) records an elderly woman's explanation in
Manyjilyjarra on how she makes bush shoes in the desert community of
Warralong in western Australia.

August 23, 2011 – Amanda Hamilton (C’06) is doing her best to empower
speakers of disappearing aboriginal languages in western Australia.

“Language is essential to most people’s feelings of identity, so
language loss represents a serious form of cultural dislocation,”
notes Hamilton, a linguist at the Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal
Language Centre. “In almost all instances of rapid cultural change
occurring under pressure, it’s the already marginalized groups that
are most affected, and the consequence for them is a deepening of the
cycle of disenfranchisement.”

Access full article below:
http://www.georgetown.edu/story/amanda-hamilton-australia-aboriginal-languages.html