Australia's present and future is multilingual.
Every child in Australia should grow up at least bilingual.
Languages education starts before school life and should continue throughout.
‘Friends of Bilingual Learning are a network of academics, professionals and interested citizens who recognise the importance of mother tongue language in the acquisition of education, identity and human rights’
For more information and updates on languages issues in the Northern Territory, please visit
http://groups.google.com.au/group/foblmail
as well as ’Supporters of bilingual education in the NT’ at
Tags: bilingual education, bilingual learning, Northern Territory
Behind the scenes of the DON’T CUT OFF OUR TONGUES! campaign: For those who missed it, the ABC Four Corners program aired on September 14 can be viewed on the following link for another four weeks: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20090914/language/
In September (14 or 18), the ABC Four Corners program will present a documentary on the Lajamanu Two-Way language programme, one of the NT bilingual programmes that is due to be dropped.
Please join in a ‘postcard’ mail-out campaign to lobby against this decision. There are two types of postcards:
- ‘Don’t cut off our tongues’ , addressed to Paul Henderson (NT
Chief Minister).
- ‘Reinstate bilingual education’, addressed to our MP Julia Gillard.
The postcards will be available in a couple of weeks. To support this initiative, please contact Greg Dickson, either by email (greg.dickson@batchelor.edu.au) or
c/- Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Katherine Annexe
PO Box 1896
Katherine NT 0851
and let him know which version and how many postcards you want. Distribute them amongst your friends, family and contacts, and ask them to forward on to the targeted parties.
Any other questions can be directed to Felicity Meakins via email, felicity.meakins@manchester.ac.uk.
