International Mother Language Day

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (16:49): I move:

That this council—

1. Acknowledges that International Mother Language Day is celebrated annually on 21 February.

2. Notes that International Mother Language Day aims to:

(a) celebrate linguistic diversity;

(b) promote the protection of linguistic rights as fundamental/universal human rights;

(c) emphasise the importance of multilingualism; and

(d) bring awareness to languages at risk of disappearance.

3. Recognises that language is an essential part of cultural identity, expression and wellbeing in a multicultural society.

4. Understands that language maintenance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a platform for empowerment and intergenerational cultural sharing.

5. Expresses its commitment to encourage multilingual education in South Australia, particularly through the state government's $4 million commitment to community language schools, as a means of enriching our society and inspiring understanding, belonging and dialogue as well as socioeconomic mobility.

I rise today to speak about International Mother Language Day. Mother Language Day is held on 21 February every year to celebrate linguistic diversity in our society. It promotes linguistic rights as fundamental rights and emphasises the importance of multilingualism.

It is held on this day to commemorate the tragic killings of students in Bangladesh in 1952. At this time, Bangladesh was still a part of East Pakistan, and in 1948 the government of Pakistan declared Urdu to be the only national language, even though there were large Bengali-speaking majorities in East and West Pakistan. The Bengali Language Movement fought to have Bengali recognised as an official language of the country. Students at the University of Dhaka organised huge rallies, and on 21 February 1952 police opened fire on one of these rallies, killing five students and injuring many others.

This represents a rare and tragic circumstance, where people sacrificed their lives for their mother tongue, though it is far from the only time in history that people have suffered or been killed for speaking their own language. In 1999, UNESCO declared 21 February to be International Mother Language Day, which makes this Friday the 25^th anniversary.

This day provides a good reminder to all South Australians, no matter where they come from, that they have a right to speak and celebrate their own heritage languages. Language is one of humanity's greatest and most complex inventions. It is a unique skill to our species and has shaped the development of society, the way we think about the world and the way our brains develop. It is the primary means through which knowledge is transferred and culture is preserved. Simply put, your language is part of who you are. It is at the very core of what it means to be human.

Members in this place have heard me speak many times about how Australia is proudly a multicultural country. We cannot celebrate culture without celebrating language. In the last census, 24.8 per cent of the Australian population identified their household as speaking a language other than English. In South Australia we understand the importance of language, and this is part of why we are so proud of our almost 100 community language schools that teach a total of 47 languages after hours.

Community language schools play a crucial role in preserving cultural heritage and fostering a bond between young learners and the languages spoken by the parents or grandparents. We should once again applaud the Malinauskas government's $4 million investment in language education to ensure that our youngest multicultural Australians will be supported to learn their family's mother language.

Helping members of our diverse communities maintain and strengthen their language affords them many cognitive, social and even health benefits. The ability to communicate with your grandparents and other family members in their home language is something that is extremely important to many families. Speaking the same language as elder generations of the family, who experienced the migration journey before you, allows for the passing of knowledge and culture. In particular, for children and second-generation migrants, speaking their language deepens their understanding of themselves and the world around them, and strengthens their connections with extended family outside Australia.

It is not only our multicultural Australians who benefit from learning another language. Numerous studies have found a clear relationship between multilingualism and children's intelligence. Cognitive empathy is also linked to the use of multiple languages. In my opinion this is because learning a language is not only about learning sounds or grammar, it is about learning customs, cultures and ways of thinking; it is about learning how to see the world through someone else's eyes.

Although English serves for education, trade and employment and is our main language in Australia, we need to prepare our children and equip them with the language skills they need to live in a globalised world, as well as help them develop the necessary sensitivity towards the cultural and linguistic needs of others. I can tell you from experience that it can be hard to negotiate between two languages and express what you intend to convey. The language barrier is one of the most daunting challenges that new migrants face when coming to Australia. As a truly multicultural society, we must make it easier, not harder, for people to speak their mother language in addition to English.

One of the key aims of International Mother Language Day is to encourage the preservation and protection of all languages, particularly those at risk of disappearance. You cannot speak about the preservation and protection of language in Australia without discussing the Indigenous languages of Australia. Long before there was any migration to Australia, there was already spectacular linguistic diversity.

According to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, over 250 languages and 800 dialects are estimated to have been spoken before colonisation. The third National Indigenous Languages Survey conducted in 2019 found that 123 Indigenous languages were in use or being revived in Australia today, and 109 of these are considered in danger, and all of them under threat. The survey found that only 12 traditional languages are still being acquired by children as a first language.

Past government policies saw Indigenous people moved onto missions and children removed from families, severing the transmission of language and culture. In many communities, the intergenerational link between native speakers was broken, and children had little or no knowledge of their first languages. In other cases, the threat of being removed from family meant that language was kept hidden.

Many people consider the eradication of a language to be a key component to ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide. This sort of profound loss of language is exactly what International Mother Language Day wishes to draw attention to, but this day also brings attention to the fight to maintain, revive, and reclaim language. It is thanks to the passionate efforts of Indigenous people, scholars and advocates that we have language reconstruction and revival programs in Australia.

I want to acknowledge in particular the Kaurna language reconstruction movement in South Australia. The Kaurna language of the Adelaide Plains faded from use in the 1860s when speaking it was forbidden by white Australians. Up until recently, the closest thing to a dictionary of Kaurna words was a document written by German missionaries from the 1830s. However, the Kaurna people would not have called their language dead; they would have only called it 'sleeping'. Since the nineties there has been an active effort to reconstruct Kaurna and bring it back into regular use. The Kaurna language has become a way by which people can further the struggle for recognition, reconciliation and liberation.

I have also seen the results of these reconstruction efforts firsthand as a former early childhood educator in the community sector. In my centre, and in many centres in South Australia, we ensured that children had familiarity with Kaurna phrases and words as an essential part of children's learning. I would like to finish with this quote from Warlpiri artist Theresa Napurrurla Ross:

If our language survives, we survive. Our language keeps us strong. It's always kept us strong.

I commend the motion to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.