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Raising an Aboriginal language from the dead

By Malcolm King - posted Monday, 15 September 2008


“When you start researching a language you also have to go out and meet people. We’d sit down and start talking about families and we’d use some Kaurna words and they’d say, “How did you know that? That’s a word we use,” Aunty Josie says.

“You’ve got to understand just how dispersed some of us older people were. The Kaurna language is like a map not only of who your kin might be but also a spiritual map of who you are,” Auntie Josie says.

There are very few success stories of language resurrection. One of the most spectacular is Modern Hebrew, reborn to serve as the official language of Israel.

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The Maori language in New Zealand has been maintained by “language nests”. These are organisations that provide children less than five years of age with a domestic setting where they are intensively exposed to the language. The staff are all Maori speakers from the local community.

What makes the resurrection of the Kaurna language so astonishing is that it flies in the face of a global trend of language death and diminishment.

“Most people have yet to develop a language conscience. But the extent of the ongoing loss in the world’s linguistic diversity is so cataclysmic that it makes the word ‘revolution’ look like an understatement,” Professor Crystal says.

The Kaurna language is a badge of present day identity that reaches far back in to the past, long before white settlement. It will evolve over time as long as people are prepared learn it and use it.

The Kaurna people have taught us an invaluable lesson. While we value ecological diversity - and none valued it more than the traditional Aboriginals - we need to apply the same precautionary principles of conservation to language.

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First published in The Age on September 6, 2008.



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About the Author

Malcolm King is a journalist and professional writer. He was an associate director at DEEWR Labour Market Strategy in Canberra and the senior communications strategist at Carnegie Mellon University in Adelaide. He runs a writing business called Republic.

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