Jakelin Troy (1960-)

Abstract

Jakelin Troy’s The Sydney Language, first published in 1993, and later in a 2019 edition, is a book of words—“lost” words. The author describes the Sydney language as “extinct.”1 That word grates for many Indigenous people because it echoes doomed race theories of the late nineteenth century and “last of” narratives that endure in popular fiction. Language extinction, however, is a real and imminent force, hence the United Nations’ urgency in declaring the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022–2032. Embodying knowledge, collective identity, ways of thinking, and a wealth of intangible heritage, a people’s native language epitomizes and transmits their culture.2 In this book, Troy, a Ngarigu woman from the Snowy Mountains High Country of New South Wales and a Professor at the University of Sydney, demonstrates her profound commitment to the preservation of threatened languages. Show more