Let me make some points about language policy. A first step is that Australia must recognise its languages. It is ridiculous that Australia is behind Europe in this respect. The European states have signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The status of minority languages varies greatly, but a large number of European minority languages are now official in the provinces where they are spoken. But Australia has not even adopted an official listing of its languages.

Second, the purpose of preserving and maintaining Australia’s indigenous languages is not just that these languages serve a communication purpose within indigenous societies (for many communities they often do not), but because they are inherently valuable as part of the country’s rich heritage. And these languages comprise the identity of their custodians and are the primary words by which the Australian land and seascape is named and described. These languages are intimately related to the nature and spirit of the country that all Australians now call home.

Third, indigenous people must understand that indigenous language transmission must move decisively from orality to literacy if there is to be long-term maintenance. This means that indigenous children must be fully literate in the language of learning - English - in order to be literate in their own languages. Reliance upon oral transmission alone will not work in the long term.
Fourth, there must be a separate domain within indigenous communities for cultural and linguistic education from the Western education domain.

Schools are not the places for cultural and linguistic transmission, and we must stop looking to schools to save our languages. This is because the primary purpose of schools is for our children to obtain a mainstream, Western education, including full fluency in English. Schools will never be adequately equipped to solve the transmission imperative, and all we end up doing is compromising our children’s mainstream education achievement.
Indeed, without full English literacy our children are then illiterate in their traditional language.

Fifth, language learning must start in earliest childhood, and this means both English and traditional languages. Children must have access to both domains from the start if they are going to become properly bilingual.
Communities that delay the learning of English to late in primary school in favour of traditional languages in the early years, end up disabling their children because they remain far behind in the language required for them to obtain a mainstream education.

Sixth, a new generation BIITL must integrate the newest technology. It is the information technologies that provide the bridge between the scientific record and its application to the transmission imperative between generations. There are many breakthrough demonstrations around the countryside of how information technology provides solutions to cultural transmission, and these need to be brought together as part of a concerted program.

Finally, the basic infrastructure for this national project needs to be developed and supplied as a national responsibility. There should be room for a lot of regional and local adaptation, but there must be a range of off-the-shelf technical solutions developed by people with necessary
expertise at a national government agency such as AIATSIS.

There needs to be a generous government funded campaign for the maintenance of each indigenous language employing full-time linguists and other expert staff. Private, not-for-profit and public organisations should work together, but language policy and adequate funding must be provided by the national Government.

Noel Pearson is director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21352767-7583,00.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21352767-7583,00.html