Action needed to help preserve Indigenous languages (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

17 September 2012, 1.32pm AEST

*Action needed to help preserve Indigenous languages*

Language and Indigenous experts have welcomed a government report that
recommends bilingual school education programs for Indigenous communities,
saying it will benefit all Australians and help get some Indigenous
languages off the endangered languages list.

The “*Our Land Our
Languages*<http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=/atsia/languages2/report.htm>”
report follows a 12-month inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing
Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.

The Committee considered the role of Indigenous languages to strengthening
aboriginal identity and culture, and the benefits of including Indigenous
languages in early education.

“Estimates show that at the time of colonisation there was an estimated 250
Australian indigenous languages being used and today there are about 18
languages,” the report’s authors write.

Access full article below:
http://theconversation.edu.au/action-needed-to-help-preserve-indigenous-languages-9631
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