Reconciliation and Social Justice Library

A MATTER OF SURVIVAL - LANGUAGE RECORDING BY LINGUISTS

4.63 Since James Cook beached the Endeavour at present day Cooktown attempts have been made by European settlers and their descendants to record what they can of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. However, with few exceptions these efforts have been sporadic and piecemeal. While some languages have had quite extensive work done in compiling dictionaries, analysing grammar rules, sound or video recording of speech, story recording, etc, most others have had no work done on them. There has never been any systematic effort to undertake a program or recording of languages. It has been left to the interests of individual researchers and sponsoring institutions as to which languages would be studied.

4.64 In recent decades Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves have sought professional assistance with language work and have increasingly undertaken some of this work in the community. While the number of ATSI people undertaking linguistic training is growing, it is insufficient to meet the demand. There remains a reliance on non-ATSI linguists and a shortage of reliable employment, funds and other opportunities to do field work. Linguistic training and the need to train more ATSI people is discussed in Chapter 5.