Key Points
- More than 100 languages are spoken by our First Nations peoples today.
- Many languages are in danger of being lost forever.
- The latest National Indigenous Languages Survey reports that 31 communities are reawakening their languages.
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Language is specific to people and place—it is said that the land gave birth to language.
Cathy Trindall, Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal Languages Trust, says language forms a strong part of her identity. It connects people to ancestral knowledge and comes with cultural responsibility.
“It tells me who I am,” she says.
“I'm a very proud Gomeroi Murri Yinnar from northwestern NSW, the black soil planes of Narrabri, and I know that's where I belong because my name, my language, my culture tells me that, and that's my place of belonging.”
So what would happen if your language was taken from you? This was the experience of our First Nations peoples.
AIATSIS Paper and Talk_Kukatj language group. Credit: AIATSIS
How many languages were spoken in Australia?
Prior to European settlement, hundreds of languages and dialects were spoken across Australia.
John Gibbs, proud Wiradjuri man from Western NSW, is Executive Director of the Research and Education Group at AIATSIS, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He says we can look at language numbers in different ways.
“If you consider only languages that are so different that someone from the neighbouring language cannot understand what you are saying, then there were over 250 different languages,” he explains.
“However, language is also a form of social identity. Australian English and American English are technically the same language, but as Australians we definitely identify very strongly with one, not the other. If you look at languages from the point of view of social identity, they were more like 600 to 800 different language varieties used in Australia.”
This number went into serious decline following European settlement.
AIATSIS’ reports that 123 languages are now in use or being revitalised.
This includes the distinct languages of the Torres Strait.
Leonora Adidi, linguist and interpreter from the Torres Strait Islands, says in west and central Torres Strait, people speak what is classified as an Aboriginal language.
“The languages that are spoken on the eastern part of Torres Strait, they’re Papuan language… We don't understand each other.”
In addition to a handful of dialects, the Torres Strait Island Creole, or Yumplatok, is a recent community language. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is now the most-used First Nations language, with more than 7000 speakers.
Young aboriginal female students sitting with their tutor outdoors in the sun in Australia. Credit: SolStock/Getty Images
Where did the languages go?
Following European settlement many languages were lost due to the assimilation policies of the time and the forced removal of children from their families and communities.
People were denied the right to speak their own language. But some languages were spoken in secret and quietly passed on to younger generations.
Today, most of the active languages across Australia and the Torres Strait are spoken by the elderly. One hundred are considered endangered, and only 12 are acquired by children as a first language.
Many inactive languages are referred to as ‘sleeping’.
We call languages that haven't been spoken for some time ‘sleeping’, not dead or extinct. This is because something that is sleeping can be woken up again.John Gibbs, AIATSIS
Reawakening language
In 2017, the First Languages of NSW were cemented into the Aboriginal Languages Act.
The Act recognises that these languages are part of the cultural heritage of NSW. First Nations peoples are the custodians of these languages and have the right to revitalise and nurture them.
A shift is taking place.
The most recent National Indigenous Languages Survey found that 31 communities across the country are reawakening their languages and gaining speakers.
But the revitalisation of First Languages is complicated by the fact that First Nations peoples are not a monolingual society, Aunty Leonora stresses.
This means that while some languages are thriving, others are spoken by only a handful of people.
“In terms of getting support and having a nationwide tool to effectively have a nationwide program to revitalise those languages, the challenges are much greater than if we were, say, homogenous and monolingual,” she says.
2024 Paper and Talk Participants, AIATSIS, and Living Languages. Credit: AIATSIS
The role of AIATSIS
The AIATSIS Centre for Australian Languages (ACAL) works alongside communities to support language revitalisation.
AIATSIS houses manuscripts, journals and audio-visual recordings from early European explorers who had engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These precious records are available to community members.
ACAL also funds the regular workshop series ‘Paper and Talk’, bringing community researchers to the Institute where they can access their language materials alongside experienced linguists.
“At the end of the two weeks they have created a language resource to take back to the community to kick-start the journey of language revival,” John Gibbs says.
AIATSIS has also funded the publication of more than 20 .
Warlpiri Dictionary
Reawakening language through schools
For languages to thrive, they must be spoken by children.
In 2022, Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School opened—the first Indigenous bilingual school in NSW.
Cathy Trindall’s grandson will attend this year and receive a culturally holistic education.
“It's not just a matter of learning the name of the dolphins or the whales. What they'll learn is that if they go on an excursion, they understand the Dreaming path. They’ll understand the Creation stories. They’ll understand that that dolphin is actually a part of the stories which connects them back to where they belong and who they are.”
A classroon at The Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School. Credit: SUSAN
Nurturing language through translation and interpreting
Since 2012, NAATI (the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) has worked with the Australian government and Indigenous organisations to increase the number of professional interpreters through its Indigenous Interpreting Project.
The aim is to have all First Nations people participate and have their rights met in Australia, in their language.
Lavinia Heffernan is a Pintupi-Luritja translator and NAATI certified interpreter.
“We work with people who don't have English as a first language… sometimes English is maybe their fifth or sixth language,” she says.
“There are currently 96 certified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language interpreters from 27 languages.”
Attending an Interpreters and Translators conference recently, Lavinia observed the similar stories recounted by new migrants and First Nations people.
“We were born to interpret as kids… We were the constant middle person that used to interpret for families, and to hear them tell their stories is very similar to our stories growing up.”
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