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Why this suburban school is working so hard to save Uyghur language and culture
Members of Australia's Uyghur community are calling on their adopted homeland to take stronger action over China’s treatment of Uyghurs. The Muslim minority says Beijing is trying to eradicate their culture, but a community in South Australia is taking steps to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Published 29 September 2022 9:29am
By Jennifer Scherer
Source: SBS
Image: Children at the Uyghur language school in Adelaide.
In the quiet, leafy Adelaide suburb of Gilles Plains, the carpark for the local mosque and adjacent school bustles with children eager to learn Uyghur language and culture.
Kelara Zulpar stands in front of her classroom door, a troop of excited kindergarten students milling around her. About 100 children attend the Sunday school, and the classrooms are divided by age and language fluency.
She beckons them into the room, and they stand in a circle singing Uyghur songs and reading the Uyghur name for a variety of animals from a bundle of placards.
Kelara Zulpar is a teacher at the Uyghur language school in Adelaide.
“We are trying to link these people who are born in Australia, they're literally Australian, [with] another identity, which we can relate to them better.”
Kelara is part of the tight-knit 1500-strong Uyghur community in Adelaide. They form one of the largest expatriate Uyghur communities outside of Turkey.
At a recent parliamentary inquiry, a community leader estimated there to be at least 5,000 people of Uyghur origin in Australia.
Kelara migrated to Australia in 2004 after her father fled Xinjiang Province in China due to his political beliefs.
“[The school] is very important to our community, because back home, our language, and our culture is getting wiped off,” she said.
“If we don't do something about it here, at least, we're going to lose it.
“And when we lose our language and culture, I think we're going to lose ourselves as Uyghurs.”
‘Serious human rights violations’
Xinjiang province, in northwest China, is the ancestral home of the Uyghur people. More than eight million Uyghurs live in the region.
A recent report by the outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had committed "serious human rights violations" against Uyghurs in the region, adding that the actions may constitute crimes against humanity.
The United Nations estimates at least one million people, mostly Muslim Uyghurs, have been detained in so called 're-education' camps in China.
When we lose our language and culture, I think we're going to lose ourselves as UyghursKelara Zulpar
It’s a claim that China denies, with a spokesperson for its embassy in Australia in early September labelling the human rights assessment "a patchwork of disinformation that serves as a political tool."
According to Human Rights Watch Senior China researcher, Yaqiu Wang, there is “ample evidence” of human rights abuses.
“They want to eradicate the Uyghur culture, the Uyghur religion, they want to transform Uyghur people into Chinese people,” she told SBS Dateline.
Keeping language alive
Kelara can see the effect of constant negative news about Xinjiang spreading into the classroom.
“They're always hearing bad things happening back home. And they're always questioning, where's my grandparents? Where are they?"
“Sometimes some of their drawings scare me, they're very angry.
“It just feels hopeless. And I think the main reason I want to come [to teach] … I don't want to pass that hopelessness on to the kids. I want them to be hopeful that they will see their parents or grandparents one day.”
Students at the Uyghur language school sing their national anthem before classes start.
“I feel like it is my duty to do this for my culture,” she said.
“And in 20 years, I'm not sure how things are going to go - but I want to look back and say, I did what I can do.”
Kelara's students listening to a class exercise.
“The CCP is committing genocide against the Uyghur and Turkic people,” Yultuz told SBS Dateline.
“Uyghur language and culture are endangered [and] with the disappearance of Uyghur language and culture, the national character of the nation also disappears.
“I hope that our children will learn the Uyghur language, culture and history well in our school, and most importantly, not forget the Uyghur identity, and contribute to the Uyghur community in the future.”
Missing family members
Marhaba Salay arrived in Australia from Xinjiang in 2011.
Her five-year-old daughter, Norah, attends the Uyghur language school.
“The reason why we like to take her to the Uyghur school every Sunday is because our language, our culture is dying back home,” she told SBS Dateline.
“We feel like we have a responsibility to save it by teaching the Uyghur language to our generation, our kids.
“I can't go back to our home country anymore, because we are in danger. If we go back, I think we will end up like other Uyghurs, like millions of Uyghurs who end up in any kind of concentration camp.”
Marhaba plays with her daughter, Norah, in the school playground. They count to ten in Uyghur language.
“Then she stayed in the concentration camp,” Marhaba told SBS Dateline.
“Now she’s in a traditional prison.”
Marhaba says her sister is now serving a sentence of six years and six months because the Chinese government accused her of financially supporting terrorism overseas.
“She sent the money by bank legally to help my parents purchase a house in Australia in 2013,” Marhaba says.
“It became her crime after the crackdown started back home in 2017. The Chinese government arrested her with a false accusation.
“I believe the main reason she's in the prison is because she's a Uyghur woman.”
Marhaba holds a photo of her missing sister, Mahira Yakub.
“There's all the evidence here, but nobody listened to us. Nobody can help us. I'm not sure if it's because they think China is too powerful.”
SBS Dateline contacted the Chinese Embassy in Australia about Marhaba’s sister’s sentence but received no response.
Hopes for the future
For Yusuf Husein, most of his immediate family are missing in Xinjiang.
He hasn’t spoken to his father in four years.
Yusuf Husein holds a photograph of his missing father. Two of his children stand by his side.
“We believe that we will get our land [back] because it's our land - they occupied it.
"One day they will get out."
Yusuf Husein looking at a family album with some of his children.
“They never talk English at home, so they are good at speaking our language and reading, understanding.
“We give them the hope that … if you learn the language, one day you can come together.
“The language is the bridge that connects them to our community.”
