Interview: Why Indigenous languages matter

Abstract

Interview on ABC's Awaye program. Australia's first languages are many but most are either critically endangered or not spoken fluently. There was a brief transfer of cultural knowledge immediately after first contact - and exchanging of personal names between the naval officers of the ships of the First Flee the leaders of the Gadigal clan. Languages were actively denied to the point of extinction, and are only now being reawakened. But there's another plank in the story: language birth. In a remote community on the edge on the Tanami Desert, a new language with its o structure has evolved over the past few decades. Show more