Australia: Aboriginal heritage threatened through lost languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Aboriginal heritage threatened through lost languages
By Michael Edwards

Posted Fri Feb 1, 2008 8:02pm AEDT
Updated Fri Feb 1, 2008 8:18pm AEDT


Experts say that more languages have been lost in Australia than
anywhere else on the planet .Indigenous Australians are warning that
the country's cultural heritage is at risk unless more is done to
ensure the survival of Indigenous languages. It is estimated that
before the arrival of Europeans, more than 250 languages were spoken
on this continent. But language experts say that more languages have
been lost here than anywhere else on the planet. Now just one state -
New South Wales - has a comprehensive state-wide Indigenous languages
policy.You might recognise the tune but if you are not Aboriginal, it
is unlikely you understand the lyrics.

It is the song Bad Moon Rising - sung in Pitjantjatjara - an
Indigenous language spoken in Central Australia. It is from the
bilingual play Ngapartji Ngapartji, which was written to give
mainstream audiences an awareness of Aboriginal languages. Makinti
Minutjukur is one of the singers in the play and Pitjantjatjara is her
first language. She says it represents her tribe's history, its land
and its identity.

"Our language is very important to us and at the moment, it's strong
and we wish to keep it this way for our grandchildren and all the
people that come after us," she said.

Pitjantjatjara is also Ms Minutjukur's fellow singer Dora Haggie's
first language.

"I spoke Pitjantjatjara from a tiny child and I grew up always
speaking Pitjantjatjara and now that's my first language,
Pitjantjatjara," she said.


Action needed

Both women are fearful the traditions of their language will be lost
unless more is done to preserve Indigenous languages across Australia.

Scott Rankin wrote the play Ngapartji Ngapartji and says it is
unbelievable there is not a national strategy to retain Indigenous
languages.

"You heard a lot in the last 12 months about our mineral resources
boom, which come and go, and yet there is a cultural resources boom as
you see the world appreciate the depth of the oldest culture in the
world," he said.

"So even from a fairly aphoristic and myopic point of view of
economics, it is absolute madness that we don't have a consistent
national Indigenous languages policy, driven by COAG or the Coalition
of the Australian Heads of Government, that promotes the cultural
resources boom and makes use of it rather than letting an integral
part of it, Aboriginal languages, pass away."


Dwindling language

It is estimated there were hundreds of Indigenous languages being
spoken across Australia before the arrival of Europeans.

Now the number is believed to be in the dozens and there are concerns
many languages are on the verge of extinction.

New South Wales is credited by Aboriginal academics as having the most
comprehensive Indigenous languages program.

Jody Broun is the director-general of NSW's Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

"We need to recognise that there was Aboriginal languages and lots of
them and people often spoke several languages," she said.

"It wasn't about one language - people were not only bilingual but multilingual.

"It's important that we recognise Aboriginal language as part of the
history and culture of Aboriginal people and the heritage that we've
got, and do whatever we can to recover those languages and maintain
them."

Aborigines say it is a part of history that non-Indigenous people
should also embrace.

Ms Haggie says it would make her proud to hear white Australians speak
her language.

"I would love to see non-Indigenous Australians learning to speak
Pitjantjatjara and understanding Pitjinjara," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/01/2152662.htm
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