Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Kaya' is the word for 'hello' in the Noongar language of south-western Western Australia.

Nelson Mandela once said:

Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs.

During his recent parliamentary speech on Closing the Gap, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, admirably, spoke some words of Ngunawal, and this was noted in the community as a significant symbolic step. However, in the Northern Territory parliament recently, the member for Stuart, Bess Price, was disciplined and told she may not use her first language—Warlpiri—without seeking leave. In Crikey last week, Greg Dickson quoted Price as saying:

I feel that I cannot effectively represent my electorate without using my first language, Warlpiri. Over 75% of the population of my electorate is Aboriginal, most of who speak a traditional language.

Article 13 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, which Australia supports, provides that:

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.

2. States shall take effective measures to ensure this right is protected and also to ensure that indigenous peoples can understand and be understood in political, legal and administrative proceedings, where necessary through the provision of interpretation or by other appropriate means.

It is time that all Australian parliaments and other political, legal and administrative institutions take action to ensure not only the preservation of Indigenous languages as important cultural heritage but also the active use of these languages as critical to ensuring inclusion and nondiscrimination, as well as to Closing the Gap. (Time expired)