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THE MOTHER OF ALL PROJECTS: CALLING FOR DECISIVE GOVERNMENT ACTION ON FIRST LANGUAGES FAITH BAISDEN Faith Baisden is the Manager of First Languages Australia (FLA)1, the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. She is a member of the Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee and has a strong interest in the production of resources for language programs and the use of new technologies to help with language teaching. Her language is Yugambeh from south-east Queensland.
GEOFF ANDERSON Geoff Anderson is a powerful advocate within the schools and the whole community of Parkes in central-west New South Wales, helping to teach people of all ages. He is a committee member of First Languages Australia, and a member of the Parkes Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and the Wiradjuri Council of Elders.
First Languages are reverberating across the country’s sightlines and airwaves at an exciting, unprecedented rate. During 2019 - the UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages - acclaimed hip hop musician and dancer Baker Boy blasted Yolnu Matha into the lives of a new generation of Australians. He delivered his acceptance speech for Young Australian of the Year in both English and Yolnu Matha from north-east Arnhem Land. Meanwhile, around Australia, Elders are working with municipal councils to rethink public signage and rename cultural festivals; State libraries are signing up to First Languages collections strategies; schools and cultural centres are offering classes in local mother tongues, and media outlets are broadcasting stories in and about Indigenous languages across all platforms. For almost a decade, First Languages Australia (FLA) has been at the forefront of the work of raising national and international awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. In addition to rolling out an ambitious national marketing strategy that included the formation of
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER | VOLUME 29: ISSUE 1 – MARCH 2020
multiple media partnerships, we have represented over 30 language centres to lobby state and federal governments for funding, curriculum reform, policy and legislation. We have coordinated significant language conferences, backed the development of teaching resources and technologies, and coordinated research and community consultations to inform our research, strategic advice and organisational priorities. Although great progress has been made on many of these fronts, a pervasive lack of long-term vision around the protection of First Languages has resulted in ephemeral policies, piecemeal funding and until now, an ad hoc approach to the training and development of language workers, interpreters and teachers – the cornerstone of this work. We are confronted by the stark reality that our precious First Languages – the oldest living languages in the world - are on the brink of extinction. Of the many hundreds of original First Nations languages, only about 120 are still spoken in Australia, and only 13 traditional Indigenous languages are still spoken by children (2016 Census). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have an unequivocal human right to control and access education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning. This is defined by the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007, Article 14).2
