BY SELIN KAYA

Fewer than 10 per cent of First Nations people speak their language at home, a recent report has found.

The National Indigenous Language Report, published in 2020 and the first of its kind, found that most of the 123 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in use are highly endangered, with only 12 strong languages identified.

The report stressed the need for the maintenance and reawakening of these languages as vital to support the continuation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. 

This year has seen multiple campaigns attempt to reawaken First Nations languages, including Channel Ten’s use of traditional place names during their prime time weather report throughout National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week.

In addition to this, Australia Post has chosen to include traditional place names as an option on its postage parcels.

Australia Post’s decision came after Gomeroi woman Rachael McPhail campaigned for the inclusion of traditional place names on parcels on a social media account, which has since been verified and has attracted more than 20,000 followers.

Ms McPhail said her studies of social work propelled her to act “spur of the moment” and she began looking at small changes she could do to distribute First Nations' languages to a wider audience.

“I really like looking at things like systemic issues, [and the way] that particular systems impact on minority groups and benefit the dominant culture within that country,” Ms McPhail said.

“I think just looking at the bigger picture just made me think about little things which I could do in my day to day life, which could help me decolonise the way that I choose to live my life.”

Moments from Ms McPhail’s family history also played a role in sparking her interest in the cause. Her great-great grandmother’s story of disconnect and shame associated with the Stolen Generation period have been integral to her research and activism.

“From a personal perspective, in my family history, we were disconnected from our culture for a number of generations, and it happened around the time that the government started taking light skinned children from their families,” Ms McPhail said.

“She wouldn’t have been able to speak language or say that she was a Gomeroi woman, or really celebrate culture, and so I love that this campaign and the things that it’s also inspiring people to do is really paying respect to our old people.”

Whilst the initiative has garnered a significant amount of traction across Australia, there have been some difficulties with properly identifying the traditional place names of some parts of Australia due to inaccurate records.

“One of the biggest issues has been the fact that there is no nationwide resource of traditional place names which has been verified by elders,” Ms McPhail said.

“The resource that we have at the moment is the AIATSIS map… it was never designed with First Nations peoples so there are communities that aren’t represented,” she said.

“There are communities where their elders don’t agree with the name that is on the map, so that’s the next step in the campaign.”

Discipline of Linguistics at University of Western Australia senior lecturer Dr Maïa Ponsonnet believes the revitalisation of these languages should firstly come from the speakers themselves.

“It’s very important for me personally, from an ethical point of view, that the original desire has to come from communities and speakers themselves,” Dr Ponsonnet said.

“If they feel it is important to them, then it is important and it should be supported by government funding, and linguists should develop skills which practically support these programs.”

Despite the alarming statistics, Dr Ponsonnet said there are solutions in which linguists can provide support for speakers of the language which is seeking to be revitalised.

“If speakers want to revitalise their language, [then] yes, academically what we should do as linguists… is to develop knowledge and understanding of the implications of revitalising one’s language or maintaining it,” Dr Ponsonnet said.

“There is a solution which can consist of looking at the neighbouring languages for inspiration, so as linguists we can provide that sort of knowledge and understanding.”

Both Dr Ponsonnet and Ms McPhail raised concerns about tokenism present with the re-introduction of heritage languages. This comes after the National Rugby League (NRL) scrapped the use of traditional place names at the conclusion of NAIDOC week.

“On the one hand some people think it’s great because when you go to Kings Park in Perth, you have names in Noongar [and] you are reminded, ‘wait a minute, some people were here before’ like an acknowledgement of Country,” Dr Ponsonnet said.

“Even though, yes, there probably is a lot of tokenism, perhaps tokenism is better than nothing, and perhaps it does do some kind of work in terms of reminding people of the value of these cultural origins of the place.”

Ms McPhail proposed that sustained use of heritage language would make campaign efforts feel less tokenistic.

“I think that [language] is something special to be celebrated every day,” Ms McPhail said.

“What [the NRL and Channel Ten] could have done, if they wanted to go back to using the colonised names as well, is to use both. [But] to see it changed back again, it’s just like a stab in the heart.”

Dr Ponsonnet said a public shift in perception of traditional languages may go some way in reawakening and revitalising heritage languages.

“It’s about changing people’s minds in all sorts of ways… [like] changing their relation to it so they can feel that it’s theirs, and other people starting to feel that this is really part of the country and this is valuable,” she said.

“In a sense language is a tool in that it’s something you can hear, it’s something visual, it’s all about changing people’s minds.”