Living language

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages at a critical time.

In Australia, roughly 90% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages still spoken today are considered endangered, and many communities are doing extraordinary work to protect, promote and pass on their languages. These languages are at the core of our memories, our expression and our ability to sustain our cultures and identities, and their destruction has had profound on Aboriginal people in Australia since 1788.

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Living Language highlights early attempts by colonists to understand Aboriginal languages. One of the key figures from that time is First Fleet officer of marines William Dawes, who recorded his conversations with the young Aboriginal woman Patyegarang between 1788 and 1791 in exceptional detail.

As well as representing the earliest attempt to transcribe and understand the Sydney languages, Dawes’ notebooks are important because they retain the conversational context which is crucial for contemporary language work. Unlike many people who recorded language in wordlists, Dawes attempted to show it as it was spoken and to recognise the speaker’s intelligence, wit and clarity.

To read the words of Patyegarang is to come close to seeing the new colony through the eyes of an Aboriginal person, and to be reminded that despite the violence of colonisation there were figures on both sides who were trying to understand each other. These notebooks have returned from the United Kingdom to Gadigal country for the exhibition.

Notes from the road

Over three hectic weeks in March 2019, we visited nine regions of New South Wales that represent 17 separate language groups, including Anaiwan, Bundjalung, Gumbayngirr, Dhangatti, Wiradjuri and Gamilaraay. Our overall feeling from these visits was an appreciation of the generosity with which these communities shared their time, knowledge and stories.

A common theme that emerged was the idea of a ‘secret language’, which reflected the traumatic history of language dispossession. Community members were so worried about being found speaking their language that they hid away to talk to each other. Individuals sometimes locked themselves away in rooms or cupboards so that they could talk to themselves.

We were also moved by the communities’ willingness to take us to places that were very special to them. Each community was at a different stage of the language revival process, and this was reflected in the venues chosen for our meetings. Some communities had purpose-built cultural centres, while others had been given small rooms to run their operations.

There was an overwhelming enthusiasm among communities for reviving language, but their initiatives were often hampered by a shortage of resources like dictionaries, vocabularies and teaching aids, and exacerbated by a lack of financial support.