Latest news with #LanguageRevival
Daily Telegraph
20 hours ago
- General
- Daily Telegraph
High School breathes new life into near-extinct ancient Indigenous language
Don't miss out on the headlines from Bush Summit. Followed categories will be added to My News. It was only 20 years ago that the Gamilaraay language was on the cusp of extinction – simply another one of some 600 Indigenous dialects destined for oblivion through waning numbers of proficient speakers. Back then, only a handful of those who remembered the Gamilaraay tongue were keeping it alive – in 2006 it was recorded there were just 35 speakers – but fast forward to 2025 and the year 7 class at Coonabarabran High School are breathing life into an ancient language that once dominated the local airwaves. Craig Ashby is the school's Indigenous language teacher – a linguistic expert who originally hailed from Walgett some 230km away – a big man with an even bigger heart whose passion and enthusiasm has captured the attention and imagination of the school's students. RELATED: What you need to know ahead of Bush Summit 2025 Ashby has taught languages at some of Sydney's most prestigious schools before deciding to leave the big smoke to return to the bush and impart his knowledge of the traditional, local language with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students here at Coonabarabran High. The high school has also seen a record number of Indigenous students completing their HSC thanks to various programs like dance and compulsory Gamillaroi language studies. Picture: Toby Zerna Media. It's his approach to teach through traditional linguistics methods that has brought to life an almost forgotten and surprisingly complex language, and the students are tackling the challenge as though they are on an adventure to decode an ancient mystery. While the language is still technically regarded as endangered, it is astonishing to learn just how many Gamilaraay words have crept into everyday Australian English. Bindii-eye, galah, budgerigar, brolga – all come from this ancient, northwestern New South Wales Aboriginal dialect. As with any language, understanding the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of Gamilaraay is not easy, and two students grapple with grammar and syntax on the interactive whiteboard under their teacher's watchful eye. 'Ah!' Ashby exclaims, 'I've picked up on a mistake – We've attached the future-tense verb straight away – and we don't need to do that … the word 'burama' becomes 'burama ngau'.' School principal Duncan Graham is standing at the back of the classroom beaming at the students' raw enthusiasm and engagement. 'It's magic,' he says of Ashby's dynamic teaching style, dumbing nothing down and instead elevating the lesson. Coonabarabran High School students Lakiah Chatfield (Yr11), Tyler Rogers (Yr11), Britany Andrews (Yr11) and Sharmyra Gall (Yr12). Picture: Toby Zerna Media. 'You pitch high and they'll meet you. What they're learning is university stuff.' And this is what the school principal is aiming for – Indigenous students excelling academically to achieve the completion of their Higher School Certificate, a qualification one year 11 student tells me she will be the first in her family to have ever done so. But academic achievement will not be at the expense of these students losing their cultural identity, as the school's Aboriginal education teacher Alison Stanton tells me. Like so many locals, Alison can trace her ancestry back to the Indigenous folkloric hero Mary Jane Cain (1844-1929), an Aboriginal woman who single-handedly secured a parcel of land in Coonabarabran granted by Queen Victoria, becoming the much-loved matriarch of the Aboriginal community and earning the title 'Queenie Cain'. Coonabarabran High School has a strong Indigenous girls program including dance and compulsory Gamillaroi language studies for all students to take part in. Picture: Toby Zerna Media. In her later years, Queenie Cain recorded her life history and included a list of Gamilaraay words which has served to preserve what was until then oral history. Alison is more than proud of her connection making it clear to me so I can understand and appreciate her history: 'Queenie Cain was my grandmother's grandmother.'
ABC News
12-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
Native American fluency model reaches Central Australia in fight to save languages
A cross-continental partnership that could help to revive dozens of Australia's most endangered First Nations languages is taking root on Arrernte country. In a modest classroom at the Desert Peoples Centre in Alice Springs, Native American language educators from Washington State are sharing a method they say can do what once seemed impossible: create fluent speakers of endangered languages within a single year. The Fluency Transfer System (FTS) was developed by the Salish School of Spokane, an Indigenous immersion school that teaches preschool through to year 8 entirely in the Salish language. Last month the team behind that system landed in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) to share the blueprint with more than 45 Aboriginal language groups from across the country. Among the group is workshop organiser Vanessa Farrelly, the coordinator of the Pertame Language Nest, a preschool-style immersion program aiming to raise a generation of fluent speakers. She says the FTS is set apart by its track record. "It's like a road map to take someone who knows no language – a complete beginner – to being an advanced, fluent speaker," Ms Farrelly said. "And they've been able to do it reliably in just over a year." Ms Farrelly says her infant and toddler students will be the first generation in 50 years to be fluent in the language. "There are only about 20 speakers of Pertame left — they're all in the grandparent generation," she said. The FTS pairs confident speakers with learners and moves them through structured lessons given entirely in the target language. There is no translation, just repetition, body language and culturally embedded storytelling. For Salish School of Spokane executive director LaRae Wiley the approach is deeply personal. "I'd never heard my language growing up … [when] I turned about 35, I decided that I wanted to learn my language," she said. With only two fluent speakers of her language – Nsəlxcin – left in the United States, LaRae travelled to Canada with her husband Chris Parkin to live with a fluent elder and begin recording. They developed the FTS together and opened a school in her sister's basement. Fifteen years later the school has 48 students, including 23 intergenerational families and is the only three-generation Salish-speaking household in the US. "It's not just about language," Mr Parkin said. "It's about healing. It's about reclaiming identity, connecting with ancestors and rebuilding community. Grahm Wiley, Ms Wiley's son, teaches years 3 to 5 maths, science and reading entirely in Salish. His daughter is one of his students. "[My children] have a much better sense of self than I did when I was their age," Mr Wiley said. "When you're grounded in your culture … it allows you to go out into the world in a different way." The relationship between the Indigenous peoples of Central Australia and the Salish tribe started when a group of Pertame speakers, including Ms Farrelly, visited a Salish-led workshop in Montana. The two groups soon found they were deeply connected by shared histories of colonisation, dispossession and survival. "When we were presenting in Montana and they came to that workshop, we were flabbergasted," Mr Wiley said. "We were like, 'You came from where?'" Ms Farrelly said the Salish team's visit to Australia could not have been more timely. "It is critical that our Australian endangered language groups come together and look to Indigenous peoples globally to learn from the most successful pathways to grow new fluent speakers."
