Batchelor Institute takes cause for Aboriginal languages to international stage
12 March 2009
Batchelor Institute lecturers Gail Woods and Jeanie Bell will present papers today at the 1st International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation at the University of Hawaii.
Entitled “Supporting small languages together”, the conference will focus on the theme of collaboration in language documentation and revitalisation of indigenous languages.
Woods will cover aspects of adopting a community-based collaborative approach to the documentation of language using art and media, while Bell will focus on strengthening Australia's Indigenous languages and improving the relationship between the community and linguists.
“The fact that this conference is occurring at all demonstrates the global concern about the loss of languages and having two Australian representatives on the list of presenters is quite a coup,” said Bell, lecturer at the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics at the Institute.
“As an Indigenous person myself and someone who has been involved in higher education and language for a long time, I know that this is an important subject.”
“Of the 250 traditional languages once spoken on this continent as recently as 100 years ago, there are now only 20-30 languages considered healthy and viable and likely to survive.”
Bell says that Batchelor Institute is training Indigenous people to be linguistically capable of working on their own languages as well as being able to help others in the communities develop the processes to achieve language revival.
“This is groundbreaking work but it takes time and commitment.”
Both Bell and Woods see the conference as a vital opportunity to share the successful language revival strategies developed at Batchelor Institute and interact with linguists from across the world who are struggling to save Indigenous languages.
“We have to be honest about the problems facing Aboriginal people trying to rescue languages on the brink of extinction,” says Bell, “ and do everything we can to help them.”
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