A focus of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages is to recognise the work underway in communities across Australia and the globe in maintaining cultural connection through language.
Heavily invested in this work is First Languages Australia, an organisation which aims to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members are involved in the decision-making process around the management of their languages.
'A few years ago, we realized that, despite all the work that had been done, if you asked the average person on the street about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, they might say, "Is there more than one language?" So we thought much had to be done about awareness raising. IY2019 is a really important part of that and continues on from the work that we've been doing for the last few years,' First Languages Australia Manager Faith Baisden said.
Hear more from other First Languages Australia Committee Members in our video about the importance of IY2019.
