Page 679 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009

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Indigenous cultures throughout our schools. I encourage our members to continue to participate in the multicultural festival, where we experience many cultures and many languages.

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Mr Hargreaves, I gather that there is agreement that you should speak next because of your commitments.

MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability and Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections) (5.23): Thank you. It is, I believe, a convention that the minister would normally follow anyway, but I thank members for their indulgence and also, in anticipation, for their support for the spirit of International Mother Language Day. I also thank Ms Porter for bringing the subject to the attention of the Assembly.

Celebrating and acknowledging International Mother Language Day on 21 February is important for the ACT. I have often thought that it is a shame when we hear stories about children being unable to communicate with their grandparents because they do not speak the language. It is sad that, due to the absence of linguistic diversity, cultural, historical and family stories, ideas, thoughts, reflections and experiences can be lost to present and future generations.

A number of factors have contributed to the slow death of many mother languages. These include population movement and migration, local political situations, colonialism, economic necessity and the passing away of elders in communities.

Some of the statistics are quite sobering. Facts compiled by UNESCO show the following statistics. Eighty per cent of African languages have no formal written form. For the less prevalent dialects, this means that, when the last speakers of these dialects die out, that language is silenced forever. Seventy-five per cent of Brazil’s languages, 540 of them in all, have died out since Portuguese colonisation—silenced forever. Fifty per cent of the world’s languages are found in just eight countries: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Cameroon, Brazil and Australia. Australia is in the eight.

UNESCO says that 90 per cent of Australia’s Indigenous languages, and there are about 250 of them, have died out since European colonisation—silenced forever. My office asked Kerry Arabena, who is the Acting Deputy Principal, Collections, in the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, about this. She said:

The situation of Australia’s languages is very grave and requires urgent action.

Of an original number of over 250 known Australian Indigenous languages, only about 145 Indigenous languages are still spoken and the vast majority of these, about 110, are in the severely and critically endangered categories.

The 1961 census in India recognised 1,652—this number staggered me—different mother languages in that country. The census of 1991 showed that it was down to 1,576, a loss of 76 languages over 30 years or approximately one every five months. I


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