Another week of special celebrations is coming. A week of celebration for all Aboriginals,Torres Strait Islanders and non Aboriginals. July 2-9 is NAIDOC Week.
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The theme this year is "Our Languages Matter”.
Languages do matter! Languages are one of the main cornerstones of all relationships – personal, between couples, in families and communities and between nations.
Languages are also essential for the maintenance and growth of culture,science, literature, religion and wisdom. We need languages to think.
Languages grow and develop. They have depths of meaning which are both personal and public.
When a person's ability to use language is restricted or lost, either because of illness or misadventure, suffering ensues. This suffering is both internal and external. We can easily see that when someone we know has had a stroke. The longer the disability persists, the more profound the impact.
Languages do matter. Can you or I imagine the profound and devastating damage that was inflicted upon the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples when the use of their own languages and cultural practices was banned. This did happen for many, many long years.
The following paragraphs give a graphic summary of the importance of language to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The National NAIDOC Committee publicised this information recently:
The 2017 theme - Our Languages Matter - aims to emphasise and celebrate the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and in the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song. Some 250 distinct Indigenous language groups covered the continent at first (significant) European contact in the late eighteenth century. Most of these languages would have had several dialects, so that the total number of named varieties would have run to many hundreds. Today only around 120 of those languages are still spoken and many are at risk of being lost as Elders pass on. National NAIDOC Committee co-chair Anne Martin said languages are the breath of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the theme will raise awareness of the status and importance of Indigenous languages across the country. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages are not just a means of communication, they express knowledge about everything: law, geography, history, family and human relationships, philosophy, religion, anatomy, childcare, health, caring for country, astronomy, biology and food. “Each language is associated with an area of land and has a deep spiritual significance and it is through their own languages, that Indigenous nations maintain their connection with their ancestors, land and law,” Ms Martin said.
I was recently privileged to attend a community consultation re the Aboriginal Languages Legislation being proposed by the NSW Government. At this consultation, everything I have just described was emphatically witnessed.
Languages do matter. NAIDOC Week gives us all the opportunity to develop relationships, friendships and more understanding with local Aboriginal communities.
We can attend events. Our own organisations and churches can have their own special services and/or offer to sponsor events.
We each have the opportunity to grow and to make a difference.