27 Aug, 2015
Australia allocates A$11.9 million to preserve Indigenous languages
Canberra, 26 August 2015, (Minister for the Arts) – The Australian Government today announces $11.9 million for 2015-16 to support work to revive and maintain Australia’s Indigenous languages.
The Indigenous Languages and Arts program aims to showcase, protect and encourage participation in traditional and contemporary Indigenous artistic expression to strengthen pride in identity and culture through language.
Languages and the arts are essential to the wellbeing, culture and identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and this funding will play an important role in sustaining and strengthening Indigenous communities.
The funding, which comes from the languages stream of the Indigenous Languages and Arts program, will support community driven activities designed to address the erosion and loss of Indigenous languages across Australia.
This $11.9 million will help preserve Indigenous languages in communities right across Australia.
Funded activities include multimedia programs, cataloguing and digitising language material, the production of stories, a language conference, development of dictionaries and other language resources, online language lessons and news in languages.
The funding will also enable Indigenous language centres and service organisations to provide professional development opportunities for Indigenous language workers. For example, the How Do I Say Language Learning project will work with experts from the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico to upgrade the training resource, Miromaa, designed by Indigenous staff from the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association to revive Indigenous languages.
More information about the Indigenous Languages and Arts program and a full list of funding recipients can be found on the Ministry for the Arts website.
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