Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Language is fundamental to any community and a way which we all use to communicate with each other, no matter what our ethnic background may be and no matter where and how we were raised. Most Indigenous people in Australia identify strongly with a traditional language identity. The tribe with which they identify is the language group, and in most cases the tribal name is the language name. Australia is a multicultural country, and a multitude of different languages are spoken throughout this wide brown land. It is, however, the Indigenous languages which are a key element to understanding Australia's history. At the time of European colonisation, there were about 250 Australian Indigenous languages spoken. Today there are only about 18.

The Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, in the course of preparing this report, focused on the following:

The committee has made 30 recommendations and acknowledges the importance of languages from both Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the history of Australia and, indeed, the history of their people. They are a proud people, as they ought to be. This report highlights the benefits the committee believes will result from having greater recognition of Indigenous languages. These range from having a positive impact on the rapid decline of the languages through to helping reconciliation outcomes for all Australians.

In my electorate of Riverina, my home town is Wagga Wagga, a name derived from the local Wiradjuri language. 'Wagga' means 'crow', and doubling it to 'Wagga Wagga' means 'place of many crows'. Wiradjuri is the largest language in New South Wales and the second largest in Australia, I am rather proud to say. One initiative which is working well to help promote the Wiradjuri language is taking place in Parkes. More than 1,000 people are learning Wiradjuri in Parkes every week. That is about 10 per cent of the population. It is taught at every primary school, high school, and technical and further education centre, TAFE. Former principal Bill Cox believes the classes are helping engender within Indigenous students a strong sense of self-respect and identity. Other Wiradjuri teachers have noticed truancy and behavioural issues amongst Indigenous students decreasing since the language program began.

I commend this program for the great work it is doing to help Wiradjuri remain a language that is spoken in Australia. Indigenous language has an important role in Australia's history and in modern-day Australia. It means different things to different people and, as the committee stated in the report:

… for some people it is their first language, and the language of their country. For others it is the language of the area and place in which they reside. For all Australians, Indigenous languages are about who we are as a nation, about the place we call home, the country we live in, and the land we call Australia.

I might also add a plaudit to Stan Grant, who is an Aboriginal elder of the Wiradjuri tribe who lives at Narrandera, who has been busy preserving and detailing the Aboriginal Wiradjuri language in two wonderful volumes—quite thick tomes. He is preserving the Aboriginal language of Wiradjuri not only for the present generation but also for future generations.

He is also a great teacher at a wonderful centre, Tirkandi Inaburra, which is between Coleambally and Darlington Point in the western region of the Riverina electorate. It provides wonderful educational outcomes for Aboriginal youth, giving them a vision and a wonderful future. That centre is managed by Anthony Paulson, whom, I am happy to say, was a Riverina delegate at the Nationals Conference in Canberra on the weekend. He made a great contribution. Well done to both Anthony Paulson and Stan Grant, and to all who want to further explore the Aboriginal languages and to make sure that they are preserved for future generations.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs report Our land, our languages: language learning in Indigenous communities. Can I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and thank them for their continuing stewardship of this land.

Can I also commend the member for Riverina for his contribution. I must say that I enjoyed it a lot more than I did his comments on the Defence annual report. Can I ask him to commend Stan Grant for his recommendations in this area.

I am a member of the committee, chaired by the member for Blair, who does a wonderful job. The deputy chair is the member for Murray. It is a great committee to be a part of. The three of us are actually on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, so I see a lot of those two members of parliament. This is a great report to be able to rise and speak on. The electorate of Moreton is an inner city electorate. Nevertheless, there is a significant Indigenous presence in my electorate. In fact, 50 per cent of Indigenous Australians are actually in urban environments. Whilst this report involved travelling to remote parts of Australia, nevertheless, 50 per cent of Indigenous Australians are located in urban areas.

In my electorate of Moreton I have Murray School, which is a wonderful private school, an independent school, devoted to Indigenous Australians, on Beaudesert Road. I also have the Southside Education School. That certainly has a significant Indigenous population. It particularly caters for young women who already have children. It has a creche as well that looks after the children, to provide a higher school education for people who might not be able to get it because of having young children. Also, the Watson Road State School and the Acacia Ridge State School also have some significant Indigenous populations. In my electorate of Moreton, there have been many initiatives to make sure the Indigenous community in Moreton is recognised, valued and appreciated. Recently, I was taking note of the great contribution from the Sunnybank RSL, who have been working with the Indigenous community at Acacia Ridge to have a war memorial dedicated to the Indigenous Australians who made a significant contribution in World War I and World War II. In fact, if you are ever out in my home town of St George and you go along the bank of the Balonne River, you will see a war memorial to Len Waters, who was an Indigenous RAAF fighter pilot in World War II. They are actually making a movie about his life. His family are a significant family in St George. All his grandchildren and nephews and nieces are famous footballers. The stories of our Indigenous fighters were not told for a long time in Australia. I see that the member for Banks is in the chamber, and he would know this much better than me. Even in this parliament, this story was not told.

Perhaps it became a much more significant story in 1992, when the High Court finally put to rest that furphy, that notion of terra nullius. In addition, in terms of recognising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that had populated Australia for so long, it put aside that notion that we are a monolingual nation: at the time of white settlement, there were at least 250 living languages being spoken in Australia and in terms of dialects, some say, up to 300 or 400. Now, sadly, we in the committee can report that there are only about 18 strong languages—that is, languages spoken by significant numbers of people across all age groups. There are other languages that are alive that only have a small number of speakers and there are many that are asleep, awaiting a time when they will be reawakened.

This report put forward by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs goes a significant way towards making sure that Australia does not let these backward steps happen on our watch. We want all of these languages to be living languages—and I say that having been an English teacher for 11 years; I understand how important language is in terms of shaping identity, in terms of our culture, in terms of giving identity to our children and in terms of raising our children. The reality is that, for every one of those horrible stickers that I see on the back of a car saying 'If you live here speak English', we should point out that there are significant numbers of Australians whose languages were here long before there was ever a white footprint in Australia. We heard evidence that one in seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language speakers actually do not speak English well or even at all. We do not see that on those stickers.

The recommendations flowing out of the committee report have already been embraced by Minister Garrett and Minister Crean, I see—a speedy response from the executive. While not the formal governmental response, there has already been a willingness on behalf of Minister Garrett and Minister Crean, and other members of the executive, to further this. We want to recognise the role and importance of Indigenous languages and preserve them and their heritage. Why would we do so? Because not only is it intrinsically right but also it improves outcome for Indigenous people. It is the right thing to do and we should do it; that is our responsibility as a good government.

This was a unanimous report—a unanimous report. I see the member from Newcastle, who was on the committee with me, is in the chamber. Despite the range of political views in that committee, we were able to come up with a report in which we all agreed that this was an important thing to do. And there are simple things we can do. Obviously, there is not one rule that can be applied equally to the remote parts of the Northern Territory and the middle of Sydney or Brisbane. But there are significant things you can do even just with the signage of place names and landmarks, making sure that there is a local Indigenous language that tells that story. I see it at the park right around the corner from me and commend the Brisbane City Council, which started this process years ago.

Certainly something that I do in all my citizenship ceremonies is stress to new Australians that they should try to find a couple of words in the local Indigenous language, wherever they are, that can be used in conversation to show that connection with place and with land that existed long before white Australians arrived here. So it was not just in terms of the Indigenous languages policy. Obviously some of these initiatives cost money. But we also made a recommendation that a lot of these language related projects be endorsed as a deductible gift recipient by the Australian Taxation Office so that these great projects could be taken up by big business, perhaps mining companies in certain areas, so that they can ensure that connection between their efforts in a community and their space.

Something we touched on and which will be taken up by other members of the parliament is that the Commonwealth government should support constitutional changes to include the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, which was recommended by the expert panel on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians. That is something that was easy for us to support.

In terms of learning Indigenous languages and Standard Australian English, we realise that the Gillard Labor government, building on the initiatives of the Rudd Labor government, has a strong commitment to education. One of the things we received evidence of was the problem of first language assessment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children when English is not necessarily spoken well or at all. As I said, one in seven ASTI-language speakers do not speak English well or at all. From my background as a teacher I know that this is something we need to step up in terms of engaging with Indigenous-language teacher training and also the people who provide support. We have to invest some money, engage with the universities and have the ministers for education work through the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood so that we get the right accreditation and the right qualifications to get the best possible things happening in our schools. Part of that is also the interpreting and translating of Indigenous languages. We had lots of great evidence in some remote areas about the great work that is being done, particularly by elders and significant grandparents in school communities, when they have the chance not only to educate but also to talk about culture and bring dignity and support to people in schools.

So there are a significant number of recommendations—30 in all—and I look forward to the government responding to advance them. I particularly commend the chair, the member for Blair, for great work in holding this together throughout, and also the secretariat for the great work that they did. I look forward to working on the next project in this committee.

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to commend the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs for its excellent report on Indigenous language. The committee received a large volume of evidence throughout the inquiry. There were many descriptions to illustrate exactly how intertwined language and culture are. In some ways that is true of all Australians. We grow up speaking our language with its idiosyncrasies, shortened word forms, tone and slang. When we travel overseas it is hearing that familiar language, more than anything, which helps identify another Aussie. At the airport, restaurant or railway station we then turn around and say g'day because we know the language, we know who we are talking to and we know they will understand who we are. No-one but an Australian can quite say g'day in the manner in which fellow Australians say it.

For Indigenous people this sense is incorporated into their very self-identity. The National Congress of Australia's First People noted on page 2 of its submission to the inquiry:

Language is central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. The two are intertwined. Language describes cultural attachment to place, cultural heritage items, and puts meaning within the many cultural activities that people do. Furthermore, language plays a fundamental part in binding communities together as a culture, and individuals to each other in a society.

The report contains a number of similar references to explaining how Indigenous people are their language. I recommend reading the chapter on the role of Indigenous languages to begin to comprehend that role. At the public hearing in Alice Springs, Mrs Amelia Turner speaking on behalf of Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, described that connection. More than any other, this describes clearly what that is. I would like to quote Mrs Turner's words extensively for that reason:

Our language is sacred to us. Every Aboriginal language is sacred for those who speak it. Words are given to us by the land and those words are sacred. What does it mean to an Aboriginal culture? The land needs words, the land speaks for us and we use the language for this. Words make things happen—make us alive. Words come not only from our land but also from our ancestors. Knowledge comes from Akerre, my own language and sacred language.

Language is ownership; language is used to talk about the land. Language is what we see in people. Language is what we know of people—we know of him or her. If they speak my sacred language, I must be related to their kinships.

Language is how people identify themselves. Being you is to know your language. It is rooted in your relationship from creation—in your kinship that cycles from then and there, onwards and onwards. It is like that root from the tree.

Language is a community—a group of people. Not only do you speak that language but generations upon generations of your families have also spoken it. The language recognises and identifies you, who you are and what is you. Sacred language does have its own language. You can claim other languages through your four grandparents. Know your own language first before you learn other languages—to know it, to understand it and also to relate to it.

Mrs Turner's words seemed to describe the essence of the importance of Indigenous language to the speaker. On 26 November 2009, former senator Aden Ridgeway had an article on Indigenous language published in the Sydney Morning Herald. His sentiments are those of Mrs Turner from Alice Springs. They are from a slightly different perspective. The great thing about this article is that it was published not only in English but in Mr Ridgeway's own language, Gumbaynggir—possibly the first time the language has been used in an English language broadsheet. The article later received a UN Media Peace Award, in 2010. He makes a point in the article that is later addressed in the committee's report. Mr Ridgeway says:

The school's role, like that of broader society, should be about embracing and validating the first language of children, not assuming without evidence that the first language holds aboriginal children back.

The committee report includes reference to data provided by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey. The survey shows a positive correlation between the use of language and with wellbeing and socioeconomic variables. In some ways that should come as no surprise. The survey found that Aboriginal people who speak Indigenous languages have better physical and mental health, are more likely to be employed, are less likely to abuse alcohol or be arrested, are more likely to attend school as 13- to 17-year-olds if living in urban and regional areas and more likely to gain a post-school qualification, and are less likely, if living in remote areas, to engage in high risk alcohol consumption and illicit substance abuse or to have been a victim of physical or threatened violence. Page 12 of the report provides a diagram, at paragraph 2.1, which simply illustrates this. At the centre is language—pride, self-esteem, respect. Around the centre are four other circles with arrows showing the inter-relatedness with language. Those circles are: country, or identity; culture—law/lore, ceremonies and dances; kinship—skin names, rules and protocols; and home/family. Prior to European colonisation there were 250 distinct languages spoken in Australia that divided into 600 dialects—that is on page 33 of the report. Only about 145 of those languages are still spoken. The report notes that about 110 of those languages are in the severely and critically endangered categories. Of those languages, many are spoken only by small groups of people—mostly over 40 years old. There are 18 languages still regarded as strong in the sense of being spoken by all age groups, although three or four are showing some signs of moving into being endangered. There are many other languages where only a few words and phrases are used. Not surprisingly, there is community support in many places around the country for reclamation and heritage learning programs for such languages.

Of these 145 languages still being spoken, the committee reports, at paragraph 2.139 on page 42, that estimates indicate that 19 languages have more than 500 speakers, 45 languages have between 10 and 50 speakers, and 67 languages have fewer than 10 speakers. The 2011 census reported that about 61,800 people speak an Indigenous language, which is an increase of 56,000 in 2006. The committee suggests on page 40 to 42 that this could be attributed to work being carried out in the area having a positive impact on the number of Indigenous speakers or, possibly, an improvement in the way the data is collected.

In conclusion, I would like to draw attention to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is referenced by the committee. Specifically, in article 13 that declaration states:

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.

2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that this right is protected and also to ensure that indigenous peoples can understand and be understood in political, legal and administrative proceedings, where necessary through the provision of interpretation or by other appropriate means.

It is important to this country that we abide by that commitment.

I commend the report to the House and note the contribution of the secretary of the committee, Dr Anna Dacre. The committee, led by the Member for Blair, has produced a worthwhile and scholarly report. He is to be commended. I note his comment in the foreword, which says:

To all Australians I say: take pride in the Indigenous languages of our nation. Indigenous languages bring with them rich cultural heritage, knowledge and a spiritual connection to the land …

I concur with those sentiments. I was the shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs for the Labor Party from 1996 until 2000, when I resigned that position on a matter of principle. What I learnt in that period will stay with me to the grave—that is, we have a rich and vibrant culture in this country: our first peoples, who are the oldest peoples with a living connection with this country. It is the oldest culture in the world. We should do everything we can to preserve that culture and to pass on that culture to future generations of Indigenous Australians. We, as a nation, are enriched by our Indigenous peoples. We are not threatened by them. The period when I was Aboriginal affairs spokesman is over: that ignorance and prejudice that reined as a result of the High Court decisions on native title. For the first time in a long time, we now have a level of bipartisanship in Indigenous affairs. But we should not be smug, because work needs to be done to embrace Indigenous people and to work with them—not adopt a missionary position; not adopt a position where we want to make them like us—to make sure that their languages and other aspects of their culture are protected, preserved and carried on through the ages. That is the real task, and that is why this report that has been delivered by the committee is a very valuable report. It is one that should be read by people out there, because by producing reports such as this the parliament does a great service to the nation. All those involved in the preparation of this report on both sides of politics, and the secretaries as well, deserve great credit, because it is a very valuable report. It is an enriching report, and in many ways it is a report that sets a benchmark that we have to meet, because we have no excuses. We cannot say we did not know of the impact of continuing in the old ways. So I commend the report to the House and again say it was my pleasure to be associated with Indigenous people as shadow minister over the years that I was. I am a better person for it. I am a lot more knowledgeable, and we as a nation are enriched by our Indigenous people.

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to speak on this recently released report, Our land, our languages. It is a particular pleasure to follow the member for Moreton and the member for Banks. The member for Banks's commitment to advancing issues that are of importance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is well known and well regarded in this House. So following someone who was not on the committee but who is giving the committee the full credit I think they deserve is very special.

It was a great privilege—a real personal privilege—to be a member of the committee and a member of the inquiry that led to this report. My electorate of Newcastle has approximately 3,500 Indigenous people, which is 2.6 per cent of my electorate, which is higher than the New South Wales and Australian average. My electorate also hosts the Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre. When people think of Newcastle, they think of an urban city. They do not necessarily think of the wonderful work being done by Indigenous people around their culture, identity and learning. I am very proud to be the member for such a dynamic Indigenous community. I am also an educator of some 30 years experience before I came to this House, so to be engaging around learning, teaching, self-esteem, pride and all those wonderful attributes that shape good learning in a variety of settings across this country was an absolute delight and it will stay with me forever.

The inquiry was extensive. It took over a year, and we received 154 submissions. So, if you out there thought that Indigenous languages were not a big issue, you were absolutely wrong. Estimates are that, yes, at the time of colonisation there were 250 Australian Indigenous languages in use and that today, in terms of a strong language spoken across age groups by a significant number of people, there are 18 well-established languages. But, as the member for Banks so rightly pointed out, 61,000 people disclosed in their census return that they speak Indigenous language. That is marvellous, and I agree with him that it is a pointer to the fact that Indigenous people are taking great pride in the work that individuals, families and communities are doing to reclaim language, to celebrate language, to share language, certainly to revitalise language and to maintain existing languages.

The report does recognise and celebrate the languages of Australia's Indigenous people, who of course are the original owners of this land. We witnessed firsthand the wonderful groundswell of commitment to Indigenous languages. That was from individuals doing grassroots work, just saying, 'I'm going to incorporate this into everything I do,' and putting it into performances, right through to organised institutes making research studies, documenting, collating, archiving et cetera. Overall it was a very impressive and passionate commitment that was, I think, very moving for all of us. I remember in Adelaide a young teenage woman who explained to us how important it was for her to be part of reclaiming her language, and that was very moving. You also saw elders in some communities who could only speak in their Indigenous language. But to see that variety—to go to Broome and see Indigenous park rangers coming in after work to be trained so they could use their Indigenous language to enrich the experiences of tourists and people coming to visit their place, their land—was very moving and very inspiring.

And we had the great pleasure of going to a school in Utopia, sitting under their BER facilities so we were not out in the sun, to meet with the community and the young people and to go into the classroom to see where two languages—Indigenous language and Standard English—were being interwoven in a way that was respectful and successful. I acknowledge the wonderful work of individual principals and schoolteachers in different schools who were committed to learning success.

The reality is that, as this report states, education success does come from respecting first language, using first language as the basis for all learning. We quote in the report a World Bank report that said:

Children learn better if they understand the language spoken in school. This is a straightforward observation borne out by study after study … Even the important goal of learning a second language is facilitated by starting with a language the children already know. Cummins … and others provide convincing evidence of the principle of interdependence—that second language learning is helped, not hindered by first language study. This leads to a simple axiom: the first language is the language of learning. It is by far the easiest way for children to interact with the world. And when the language of learning and the language of instruction do not match, learning difficulties are bound to follow.

How true. As an educator I know that. I visit our schools, as many members do, seeing lots of our refugee communities from all different countries, and I know that there is not enough attention paid to supporting the language a child brings with them.

But we were privileged to witness the groundswell, and I particularly acknowledge the Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre from my electorate. It has developed a special computer program: a database that enables the gathering, organising, analysis and production of language materials to aid in language education and training. We also saw in Tennant Creek the Papulu Apparr-Kari Aboriginal Corporation, which supports 16 language groups in the Barkly region through a range of activities and resources. I mentioned Broome because it was quite outstanding that the Mabu Yawuru Ngan-ga language centre supports the teaching of the Yawuru language in schools in the Broome area. I bought several T-shirts with Indigenous artwork and words, and they were a great hit with so many people. I applaud their work. I met a teacher there who understood the importance of first language and had gone and trained as a linguist to make sure she could match the needs of her education community. Those are stories that are very powerful. The Gidarjil Development Corporation we met produces booklets teaching Darumbal language and culture to children in schools across Central Queensland. The Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre just north of my electorate has developed dictionaries for about seven Indigenous languages in New South Wales. So these were wonderful experiences, and we were very fortunate to be part of that.

I would like to draw attention to some of the recommendations because some are particularly necessary and to be followed up by government. I think they point to wonderful frameworks for learning, teaching and advancing not just Indigenous languages but the participation of Indigenous people in this wonderful, important process. We of course first recommend that the Commonwealth government include acknowledgement of the fundamental role and importance of Indigenous languages in our Closing the Gap framework. It seems to me that that is something that should not have been overlooked, but it has been. We recommend that there be signage around the country used for place names and landmarks in local Indigenous languages. Some local councils and communities have done that, I know, but it is a bit of a no-brainer—why haven't we done that? Of course we should be supporting that sort of marking and recognition around our country. We also recommend that parliamentarians have a role to play in noting their Indigenous communities, Indigenous language and trying to embrace Indigenous language. I think it is true that it does start with us and we should be good role models always. We talk about supporting programs that allow Torres Strait Islander applications to be considered for arts funding. You would not have thought there was a particular constraint on Torres Strait Islander communities being eligible for funding for these particular programs. We also recommend that by March 2013 the Commonwealth government develop and announce an implementation plan, given its endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2009. It is not enough for governments to sign things and then not have an implementation plan that brings that about.

We also dealt a lot with the education settings. The ones that I am particularly pleased to see are the use of language nests programs in early childhood learning centres and preschools to be set up under national partnership agreements. We have also recommended, and I think these are particularly important, that through the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood there be protocols of mandatory first language assessment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering early childhood education. Yes, teachers and educators should know, they should be able to assess language in children's original or home language—their first language. They should not make assumptions; they should actually assess, and they do need tools to do that well. We also want more resourcing, of course, for first languages.

What I also think is excellent is that we recommended that the minister for education work through the standing council to develop a NAPLAN alternative assessment tool for all students learning English as an additional language or an additional dialect. That is not just for Indigenous kids, that is for everyone. I think that it is very true that when you go to schools and you see the wonderful work being done but then the children have to slot into a formal setting that does not recognise their language. I think that is a very powerful recommendation as well.

We also emphasised the need to have Indigenous teachers, and to fast-track the training of Indigenous teachers is so important. When you go to remote communities like Utopia or Halls Creek, the people tell you: 'We want to be the service deliverers in our own community. We want to be trained to be the health workers, the teachers, the teachers' assistants, the teachers' aides, the administrators, the community developers. That is what we want.' Some of that training has to be done in their language because they want to stay in their community. I do think career pathways require a great deal of attention. Remote Australians are very special, but they are very different too. They have very different circumstances, but they have the same ambitions and the same aspirations, so many of our recommendations go to supporting those aspirations.

We would like to see the acquisition and documentation and sharing, if it is appropriate, of resources that Indigenous communities develop around language. We would like to see a national Indigenous interpreter service, and we would particularly like to see more effort made by the government to put into place immediate measures to ensure access to Indigenous interpreting services in the health and justice sectors in particular because that is life-affecting. Too often we heard of women taken away from their communities to have their babies being told things about their foetal health, the baby's health or their health and not understanding one word of it. That is particularly sad and it is life-threatening. We also know that in the criminal justice system often Indigenous people were not even aware of what they were being accused of or what the consequences of that were. So particularly in the health and justice sectors we would like to see some immediate measures put in place to make sure Indigenous people have access to Indigenous interpreting services in their languages.

Overall it was a wonderful report; it was a wonderful experience for all of us. How do I know that? How do I know it was a successful and great report? I would love to share with the House this letter I received from Daryn McKenny, from the Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre. He says:

Can you please pass on our thanks and congratulations to Sharon on her part as a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, in an excellent report into our Aboriginal languages. The report 'Our Land, Our Languages' released yesterday was and is everything that we have needed for a long time.

I was quite moved by that. It continues:

We hopefully now look forward to this report being acknowledged and acted upon in Parliament.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the work of the chair, the member for Blair, and my colleagues who were on the committee as well as the wonderful secretariat who were dedicated to making sure that we gained the information, the insights and the experiences. I certainly want to thank all the Indigenous people who so generously enriched our experiences and our lives and who made their knowledge, their pride and their commitment part of our work.

My colleagues have also reported on this, but it is important to say again that Indigenous culture enriches the lives of every Australian. It enriches our identity. It gives us more commitment to our place and more understanding of our place in the world. I congratulate and thank everyone involved in this wonderful report.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak just very briefly on the report entitled Our land, our languages, which has been tabled. I would firstly like to commend the committee members who were involved in this report for taking the time in having hearings in many different places and putting together a very thorough and good report. I want to make a couple of points.

The first point is that I think the maintenance of Indigenous languages is important—it is important because Indigenous languages are unlike all other languages in our nation. They are the first languages of our nation and therefore a key part of our heritage as Australians. They are of course important to Indigenous people themselves, but more than that they should be important to all of us because they are such an important part of Australia's heritage. So I think it is a good thing that we stop and consider how we can maintain Indigenous languages, how we can record them and how we can ensure their longevity going forward. That is the first point that I would like to make. Indeed, I have made public comments to the same effect in the past.

The only other point that I would make in relation to this issue is: how do we go about preserving the Indigenous languages and, in particular, what should we do in relation to schooling? The main issue which is coming up in the media today is whether or not there should be bilingual schooling, should Indigenous languages be taught instead of English, should they be taught alongside or in parallel with English or whatever. My firm view is that English must be taught thoroughly and taught well to all Australians no matter who they are or where they are from. No person in Australia is going to be able to thrive in our modern society unless they have a good understanding of the English language in its written and its verbal form. That is absolutely critical and absolutely fundamental. At the moment, particularly in remote Indigenous Australia, we have a crisis in this regard.

I have spent many years in remote Indigenous Australia, particularly when I was the deputy director of the Cape York Institute. One of the issues that we looked at was how we could improve the literacy and numeracy of remote Aboriginal people and their overall educational outcomes. The educational outcomes for Indigenous people in many places across remote Australia are appalling. If you are talking about a crisis in education today, that is the crisis, and a significant part of it is the English literacy crisis where people are not learning at the rate that they should be learning. So this has to be our predominant focus in terms of ensuring that Aboriginal people can learn English, can read it properly, can write it well and can communicate in it so that they can participate like every other Australian in our modern society. Having said that, I think we also need to ensure that Indigenous children can learn their traditional tongue if the local communities see that as important to them. The way that I think this needs to be done is in parallel with the teaching of English, rather than necessarily being done alongside it, bilingually. And the way I have seen this being implemented well is on Cape York Peninsula, an area which I know well. What they have done through their Cape York academies is to have their traditional schooling as the dominant part of the day, from early in the morning until about two o'clock, where direct instruction is being implemented in English and the children are learning their English, maths and other subjects. But then there is a separate part of the day which is for culture, and it is in that part of the day that parents and elders come in to communicate and to transmit the Indigenous culture to the Aboriginal children as well. In these schools they are just starting to introduce the local Indigenous languages into that cultural space to transmit those languages in a more thorough way to the Indigenous children. From my perspective, that is the better way to transmit Indigenous languages to Indigenous children. I would be hesitant to see us or the state governments and other school authorities roll out Indigenous languages to be the predominant languages taught in the schools. I think we must ensure that the children learn English, and learn it well, but then there should be time as well, in part of the day, for cultural maintenance if the local communities want to participate in that. I again commend the report. I think there is some very good information in there for us to consider and I think this is an important topic.

Debate adjourned.