Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs I present the committee's report entitled Our land, our languages: language learning in Indigenous communitiestogether with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

The Mabo decision of the High Court of Australia in June 1992 legally recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as having a special relationship to their land that existed prior to colonisation. The Mabo decision recognised the Terra Nullius, the concept that Australia was unoccupied at the time of colonisation, was a fiction. Similarly, the notion that Australia is a mono-lingual nation, and that only standard Australian English can benefit a person, is a fiction. Estimates indicate that, at the time of white settlement, there were 250 Australian Indigenous languages in use, and today there are only 18 languages, strong in the sense that they are spoken by significant numbers of people across all age groups.

The committee has made 30 comprehensive recommendations in this report in key areas including an acknowledgement of and focus on Indigenous languages into the Closing the Gap framework; expanding the Indigenous Languages Support program and prioritising the development of language nests, used so effectively overseas; and establishing a national Indigenous interpreting service, a recommendation of our previous report, Doing time—time for doing, a recommendation of this committee 20 years ago that was not acted upon. This committee recommends putting in place immediate measures to ensure competent interpreting services in the areas of the health and justice sectors, supporting constitutional change to include the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages; resourcing, adequately and well, bilingual school education programs for Indigenous communities where the child's first language is an Indigenous language; developing strategies for training Indigenous-language teachers to ensure improved access to full qualifications, accreditation and career pathways; compulsory English as an additional language or dialect training for all teaching degrees and mandatory EALD and cultural awareness training for teachers working in Indigenous communities; further improving community access to language materials through a dedicated Indigenous languages archive at AIATSIS; the sharing of resources with schools and educational institutions—and many more recommendations.

The committee received over 154 submissions and held 23 public hearings—not just in the capitals but in Halls Creek, Broome, Darwin, with many teleconferences across the length and breadth of the country. I thank the deputy chair, the Hon. Dr Sharman Stone, and the cooperation all committee members on both sides of politics for this bipartisan report. I thank the amazing Dr Anna Dacre, the committee secretary, the fabulous inquiry secretaries Ms Susan Cardell and Ms Rebecca Gordon, and the ever-erudite research officer Dr John White.

This is the first parliamentary inquiry to examine the direct contribution of learning Indigenous languages and what they can do to improve the educational, vocational and economic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It comes out of previous report Doing time—time for doing. Indigenous language has been identified as an important component of cultural connection and strengthening intergenerational relationships and community building. It is important that we identify the importance of translator services for our hospitals, our schools, our prisons and our courts. For too long the situation has been dire and tragic in our country. We need to recognise the positive implications for capacity building in Indigenous communities and community involvement; employment in resource management, arts and tourism; as well as interpreting. We have been proud of speakers and singers and sportspeople—people like Harold Blair, after whom my electorate is named; Albert Namatjira, the great painter; and Cathy Freeman. Each week we celebrate AFL and NRL champions with an Indigenous background. We have even gone to see The Sapphires, a movie about Indigenous singers. But for a long time we have failed to recognise that these are our languages, that this is our land and our continent. They have been there for tens of thousands of years and they are important. We have a responsibility.

In this report we have recognised the importance of dual naming—here in Parliament House and of streets and places elsewhere. We have a responsibility as federal politicians. We have also recognised that we need an alternative diagnostic tool to NAPLAN in the early years of schooling. It is important that, at first, young people be taught in their native language.

This is an important report which has its basis in our previous report. There is much to do. But, if we want to celebrate and recognise our Indigenous languages, we must take action and we must take action now. For too long we have failed. It is tragic. It is dire. Action is required. I urge the government to take that action and I am pleased to support this report.

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