Australian Society for Indigenous Languages Location: Gray Shops, Essington Ave. Gray, NT Phone: 08 8931 3133 Mail: PO Box 3575, Palmerston, NT 0831, Australia Email:
[email protected] ABN 66 763 306 359 Web: www.ausil.org.au 19 August 2011 Committee Secretary House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs PO Box 6021 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA Re: Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities To the Committee, First, we would like to congratulate you on the Inquiry, the Terms of Reference, and the 8 July 2011 Media Alert. These are encouraging as they show an increasing level of awareness of the issues and the research related to indigenous languages in society and in education, as well as the urgent need to improve the status quo. AuSIL is this year celebrating 50 years of service in indigenous communities around Australia (both Aboriginal and Torres Strait), and we have recognised expertise and experience behind the insights that we would like to share with this Inquiry. To get an overview of the language communities where we have worked, see the Map below. To see a sample of some resources AuSIL has produced, see our website at: www.ausil.org.au. In addition to AuSIL's direct partnership and service in indigenous language communities, we have also published books and articles, organised several public forums with leading Australian and international experts in multilingual education, interacted with politicians, and interacted with the media on the topic of your current Inquiry. Some of these resources are available on our website.