Language revival preserving history

Written on the 13 March 2018

A teacher chats to people who are fishing along the turquoise waters of Nalina Nalina, a beach in Broome, in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
She is speaking Yawuru, the local Indigenous language. The ''excursion'' is part of an adult immersion program, the Walalangga Yawuru Ngan-ga, which is revitalising the language, while linking it to culture and country.

In recent years, the remaining few speakers of Yawuru, including elders Doris Edgar, Thelma Saddler and Elsie Edgar, became concerned that their language was close to extinction.
This led in 2015 to it being taught in Broome primary schools.

According to Lola Jones, the Senior Consultant of Aboriginal Languages with the WA Department of Education, research has found that by increasing adult speakers of endangered languages, who use it in everyday contexts, you ''reintroduce intergenerational transmission of language''.

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Source - The Sydney Morning Herald