The Wire

With language the focus of this year’s NAIDOC Week there’s a a lot of interest in how to save the hundreds of disappearing indigenous languages. Aboriginal academic Dr Veronica Arbon says if all Australians took  an interest in Aboriginal language it would not only make indigenous people prouder of their heritage but would also help white Australia understand the landscape better. She says the detailed knowledge of Australia’s threatened environment lies in the 40.000 year old languages used to describe and care for it.