‘A good place to start’: Plans to have First Nation’s languages taught in schools welcomed by language centre

A Kimberley Aboriginal language centre has welcomed Labor’s plans to have First Nation’s languages taught in primary schools. The Kimberley Language Resource Centre spoke to the Broome Advertiser this week about Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek’s pre-election promise to see 60 primary schools across Australia hire full time First Nation’s language teachers. Established in 1984, the Kimberley Language Resource Centre was the first centre of its kind in regional Australia and has since aimed to protect the heritage of Kimberley Aboriginal people by ensuring the region’s traditional languages are kept alive for future generations. The language centre’s manager Sara Bergmann said the $14 million plan is a step in the right direction for the continuation of Indigenous language. “I think it’s a really good place to start,” she said. “The hope is that every school will be teaching the traditional language of the land that they’re on, but I think to be rolling it out to 60 schools is a good starting point.” The Federal Opposition made the commitment in a statement released last month by Ms Plibersek and five Labor senators. It was said the plans would help keep the traditional languages alive and Close the Gap in educational attainment. The statement also suggested the new lessons could help improve self-esteem and school attendance in Indigenous students, while giving non-indigenous students a deeper understanding and appreciation of the cultures and histories of Australia’s first people. Ms Bergmann said having traditional languages taught to non-indigenous and indigenous students will create a future were all people can communicate. “The language centre has a perspective that there are no traditional owners of language,” she said. “Language belongs to country, it is something that’s place-based. Teaching it to all people gives all people an understanding of that place and its culture.” The new policy was one of the primary requests made by the Know Your Country campaign which called for all political parties to support First Nations Cultural Educators in every primary school. Dr Winch, the co-chair of the Know Your Country coalition, said he saw the announcement as “a positive first step” and that it is vital for all Australian primary school children to be able to access these lessons. And primary school-aged children seem to be the best place. “The reason why having it in primary school is really important is because that’s when your brain can really easily acquire language,” said Ms Bergmann. This has long been an aim of the centre, which has run language programs with kindergarten-aged children for years. “At the language centre, our mission statement has always been to keeping languages strong,” said the KLRC manager. “We need language to be spoken across at least three generations. Because if it’s not, we’re going to lose it”