About Speak Your Language
Motivation
Indigenous languages are connected to their community of speakers, their lifeways, and everything around them. In this sense, Indigenous languages are not only a means of communication but also the expression of living cultures.
Some studies indicate that until the late 18th century, there were around 70 indigenous languages spoken in New South Wales, others estimate that the number was 35 plus about 120 dialects within these languages. Regardless of the exact number, we know that the language diversity was extensive and the knowledge within these languages extremely valuable.
These languages are still spoken in NSW, and there are other Indigenous languages originally from other areas of Australia spoken nowadays in NSW as well. Do you speak any of these languages? If so, please share your language(s) in this app. Don’t worry about the proficiency level that you might have, just help us to show that your language is alive and thriving!
Credits
We would like to thank the communities and individuals that shared their perspectives about this project with us and the users of this platform that kindly contribute with their voices to make this platform a source of cultural knowledge.
The Speak your language platform is built through funding from Macquarie University and the Cooee project. It is an extension of the Stimmen project (language portal to document minority languages in Europe) amended to become a closed online community available for research with Indigenous peoples in Australia and Chile in collaborative work between the University of Groningen and Macquarie University.
Warning
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders users are advised that the audio and written content provided by the contributors to this platform may contain voices or stories of people who have passed away.
