Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tuesday, 21 February was International Mother Language Day, a date chosen by UNESCO in recognition of the young Bengalis who died on 21 February 1952 while protesting for the right to speak their own language. There are over 6,700 languages spoken in the world today—each language mirroring the society in which it was born and reflecting the small differences in the way we each view the world that are beyond price. It reminds us that for us in Australia the languages of the world are now part of our own heritage, carried within our own population—an extraordinary wealth to be appreciated and nurtured, not just with within each language group but by the nation as a whole.

On the previous Sunday, I attended the unveiling of an International Mother Language Day monument in Ashfield Park, the first one erected outside Bangladesh. The monument carries the message ‘Conserve your mother language’ along with the alphabets from 12 languages. It was erected thanks to the dedication of the Ekushe Academy. It stands to remind us how special it is for children to grow up knowing the language of their country—this one, but also the language of their parents within their own cultural context.

See this speech in context