What is the significance of Aboriginal languages?

Aboriginal languages are the original languages of the Australian continent, spoken by Aboriginal peoples for at least 65,000 years. At the time of European contact in 1788, an estimated 250 distinct languages and around 800 dialect varieties were spoken across Australia, making the continent one of the most linguistically diverse in the world.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 census recorded 167 Indigenous languages still in use, of which only about 12 are being learned by children as a first language and passed on naturally. Many Aboriginal languages are considered critically endangered, with only elderly fluent speakers remaining. The languages that are still strong include Kriol (an Aboriginal English creole spoken across northern Australia), Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara in central Australia, the Yolngu Matha languages of north-east Arnhem Land, and several Western Desert and Top End languages.

Language revival efforts are widespread. The First Languages Australia advocacy body works alongside community language centres in every state, including the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity, and the Yolngu Matha programme at Charles Darwin University. The federal Indigenous Languages and Arts programme funds about 70 community language projects each year. Some primary schools now teach an Aboriginal language as a second language, and bilingual education programmes operate in remote schools in the Northern Territory.

Aboriginal languages are also reflected in everyday Australian English. Words like kangaroo (from the Guugu Yimithirr of Far North Queensland), koala (Dharug), wombat (Dharug), boomerang (Dharug), barramundi (Gangulu), kookaburra (Wiradjuri), and yabby (Wemba-Wemba) all entered English from Aboriginal languages soon after 1788. Place names such as Canberra, Parramatta, Toowoomba, Wagga Wagga, Coolangatta, and many thousands more across the country preserve Aboriginal language even where the original speakers have been dispossessed.