Language nests: a way to revive Indigenous languages at risk (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

12 November 2013, 7.42pm GMT

*Language nests: a way to revive Indigenous languages at risk*

More than 90% of Australia’s Indigenous languages are critically endangered
and two-thirds of those languages spoken a hundred years ago are now
dormant. The seeds of the current situation were sown long ago, even before
English was widespread in remote communities and Aboriginal children went
to school.

Genocide, forced population removal, disease, stolen children, and
community disruption — all of these have contributed to the precarious
state of Indigenous languages today. Meanwhile, most Australian educational
policies have been apathetic at best towards fostering Indigenous language
use in schools.

Some states are making strides, such as New South Wales, which last month
launched the first of five community-runlanguage nests aimed at saving
Indigenous languages. Meanwhile, other states and territories, like the
Northern Territory, have begun winding back Indigenous language initiatives.

​Access full article below:
https://theconversation.com/language-nests-a-way-to-revive-indigenous-languages-at-risk-19824
​
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20131115/fdab1a9b/attachment.htm>