Language and Identity
Check out this very good (especially for a politician) article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Aboriginal languages.
I have often been asked about the difference between Aotearoa and Australia in terms of indigenous peoples and why it seems so much harder in Australia to organise against the colonialist oppressor.
The first answer I always give is language. In Aotearoa, tangata whenua have been able to begin to restore their culture primarily because there is the language to do it with.
The kohanga reo movement has been able to successfully revive the language in – now generations – of young people; Maori and Pakeha. Having one language has made this possible. Well, easier at least.
In Australia there is over 300 different languages. Not dialects but languages. It is very hard to support the education of these languages within a state school environment. And it would be equally hard to set up a language school movement like kohanga across Australia to support the learning of language in community.
But it’s not impossible. And it’s such an important thing to do. Considering how much Howard is spending on his NT Invasion I would much rather see that money invested in setting up language resources for young indigenous Australians.
Why is this so important? In Aotearoa, Maori is recognised as an official language. Government departments are obliged to have at least their name in te reo, and most will have bilingual versions of any public documents. There is a state funded national Maori language television station. There is a Maori language radio network across the country. And this is on top of the education that happens in schools where most schools of a decent size offer a full immersion stream.
The effect of this is that most New Zealanders are to an extent bilingual. I would say that even the most ignorant racist would be able to translate 20 basic words and phrases just because these words are in their face all the time.
We understand the world around us through language. It is how we can explain what we see, feel, touch and taste to our friends and family. It is how we share our perspectives of the world. Our kaupapa even.
So if the majority of Australians can’t even name more than a couple of aboriginal languages, how are they supposed to possibly understand any aboriginal worldviews?
I agree with Plibersek that from a linguistic point of view, Australia has a fascinating story. Yet this is a story that has been hidden from the people due to a political interest in white-washing HIStory. Because of course if people really knew what happened they would be more inclined to demand apologies and compensation.
But the real need for resources to be piled into funding language learning is for aboriginal people themselves. I will never forget the day at Camp Sovereignty hearing the story from one of the koori people there about the day that his kid started asking him questions about language and the complete heartbreak he felt trying to explain that he didn’t even know how to say hello in his own language.
There’s a world for that and it’s called genocide. When you deny a group of people the right to access their culture you are guilty of genocide.
Often I speak to Australians that understand there is injustice but struggle to see what they can do as non-indegenous Australians to support the end of colonisation. Other than protesting deaths in custody and Howards stupid bullshit, what positive things are there to support? If non-Indigenous Australians began to demand access to education resources for language for all Australians, then all Australians will benefit.
Of course this is not a magic bullet and there are many other things that urgently need to happen in this land, but it would be a bloody good start.
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[...] Indigenous politics, Australia, human rights, power, New Zealand, genocide, language Kakariki blogs very well about an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, about the tragic loss of Aboriginal Australian [...]