Australia

History

❖ Settlement
➢ Latest research indicates earliest human
occupation in Northern Australia at 65,000
years ago
➢ Sidney, Australia had human inhabitants
approximately 36,000 years ago
❖ Semi-nomadic hunter/gatherers with
identifiable territories
❖ Tended to marry out of their clans and
sometimes between tribes but generally
within their language group
European Contact

❖ 1606 first contact between Wik people & Dutch explorers, started well but ended in killings
❖ Records indicate most groups practiced avoidance of explorers, hiding women & children if
approached
❖ Captain James Cook reaches Australia 1770
➢ Sights Aborigines a couple times while sailing east coast
➢ Takes a month to establish contact with Guugu Yimidhirr during time ashore
❖ 1788 colony of New South Wales established
➢ One source est 600 Aboriginal languages spoken at that time, another est 250
➢ Aboriginal population est 500-850,000
Settlement

❖ New South Wales established 1788

➢ Contact with natives took four months and involved kidnapping
➢ Arabanoo go-between until death from smallpox May 1789
➢ Two more men captured November 1789
➢ Older man escaped 3 weeks later
➢ Younger escaped April 1790
❖ Aborigines continue to practice avoidance
❖ Europeans attempted to create “artificial chiefs”
White Man’s Burden

❖ Colonisers came in with assumption that Aborigines were inferior & would want to be like white men
❖ Attempts at assimilation
➢ 1815-Institution established to train youths in settled life, most ran back to the bush
❖ “Protectors of Aborigines” established in NSW in 1839
❖ During Protection Era (1855-1937)
➢ Protection-Segregation
➢ Mixed blood Aborigines to be assimilated into white society
➢ Children taken if seen as “at-risk” to “salvage” them from the “primitive influence” of their parents
➢ Little prosecution of assault and killing of Aboriginal peoples
Policy

❖ Commonwealth Government
➢ First policy to significantly address Indigenous languages-National Policy on Languages 1987
➢ National Indigenous Languages Policy in place since 2009-Funds language-related activities through Indigenous
Languages Support program
➢ Reports find that previous government policy actively repressed use of Indigenous languages.
➢ Same report indicates 18 languages that maintain a strong presence on the land.
❖ State level
➢ NSW-Aboriginal Languages Bill 2017
➢ First state in Australia with legislation acknowledging importance of indigenous languages
➢ Meant to secure funding for language maintenance and continued reclamation
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous
/map/
A Language Reclaimed

❖ Kaurna
➢ Sleeping Language in the beginning
➢ Revival started with the writing of six songs in 1990
➢ Ph.D candidate did extensive historical research including documentation by 19th century missionaries
➢ Writing system uses Latin alphabet
➢ New words created by collab between linguists & elders
➢ Funded by Commonwealth Government Grants
➢ Continue to use music in language reclamation
References

Amery, R. (2016). Warraparna Kaurna!: reclaiming an Language policies for Australian languages. (2017,
Australian language. Adelaide, South Australia: March 3). Retrieved November 18, 2017, from
University of Adelaide Press. http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/policy.html

The AIATSIS map of Aboriginal Australia. (n.d.). Prentis, M. D. (2009). A study in black and white: the
Retrieved November 20, 2017, from aborigines in Australian history(3rd ed.). Dural, NSW:
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/ Rosenberg.

Indigenous languages policy . (2013). In Australian

Government response to the House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Affairs report: Our land our languages:
language learning in Indigenous communities(pp. 45-
77). Canberra: Australian Government.