A University of Adelaide linguistics expert says reviving dormant languages in Australian Aboriginal communities could lower suicide rates and improve mental health. Research has linked loss of language with self-loathing and rates of suicide now at epidemic levels among Aborigines. Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Australia’s only Chair of Endangered Languages, says activities to resurrect the Barngarla Aboriginal language – with the Barngarla communities of Eyre Peninsula – offer hope in the quest to better understand the significant relationship between linguistic continuity, and social and personal wellbeing.
The
Barngarla community has worked to reclaim their language in close collaboration with
Professor Zuckermann since 2011.
“Since colonisation, Indigenous Australian people have suffered the effects of
wide-scale linguicide,” Professor Zuckermann says. “Out of 330 Aboriginal
languages, only 13 are alive and kicking today.”
Zuckermann said in a radio interview
that he plans to use the revival of Barngarla as the first test. “I
believe that the loss of language is more severe than the loss of land. Language
death in my view means loss of cultural autonomy, loss of spiritual and
intellectual sovereignty, loss of soul, if I may use this term kind of
metaphorically.”
He writes
on his university website: “Language loss, and the consequent lack of cultural
autonomy, intellectual sovereignty and spirituality – not to mention the
dependence on the coloniser’s tongue – unfortunately increase the phenomena of
disempowerment, self-loathing and suicide.
"Colonised people all over the globe sometimes hate not only the
colonisers but also themselves," he says.
Meanwhile twenty-five Indigenous leaders and mental health
experts have taken
their case to the federal government in Canberra, urging it to adopt a
national plan to drive down the rates of suicide in their communities.
WGAR Background to Suicide and Self-harm in First
Nations Communities
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-to-suicide-and-self-harm-in-first-nations-communities
(last updated: 21 July 2015)
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Prominent Aboriginal journalist, Amy McQuire, puts a spotlight on the issue through the voices of several strong Aboriginal women.
She talked to them on 23 July 2015 on Brisbane based Radio 98.9 fm’s “Let’s Talk”, which is syndicated to other Aboriginal stations across Australia on a National Indigenous Radio Service.
Her interlocutors are Safe House employees Yvonne Sampi and Bernadette Angus and Aboriginal traumatologist Judy Atkinson.
If you are deeply interested in Aboriginal affairs, grab a cup/glass of something to relax with, keep people away and listen to 54 minutes about a serious issue in Aboriginal family life.
And if you’re a country music fan, while you’re on the 98.9 site click on the “Live Streaming” box for some of the best country music you’ll ever hear – old, new, US, Australian and from wherever else it happens. You’ll be thrilled.