Community groups in Queensland will benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars in new grants to help preserve and revitalise Indigenous languages across the state.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Leeanne Enoch told ABC the grants were about ensuring First Nations languages were maintained; a process she said was vital to truth-telling during the state's move towards Treaty.
"Ensuring children learn Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages is an integral part of preservation," said the Quandamooka woman, who became Queensland's first minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships and the first Indigenous woman elected to Queensland parliament.
"It forms a sense of continuity between the leaders of the past and the leaders of tomorrow.
"Children in Lockhart River have already benefited from Indigenous Languages Grant funding for storybooks in the Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u language."
The most recent round of grants sees more than $238,000 given to 25 organisations across the state to support the preservation of 42 languages.
The funds will be used for a variety of projects, including language cards and Indigenous language school signage. Other uses of the funds include song translations, recording of traditional songs and new language books.
The Queensland government's plan includes 40 actions. These include using Indigenous languages for place names, as well as utilising research at the State Archives to help identify different languages and language groups.
The Queensland State Archives recently hosted a four-day research workshop as part of their First Nations Languages Program, which was led by Gamilaroi man and leading language researcher Des Crump.
The new action plan includes a continuation of the government's current Indigenous Language Grants program, which help community and regional groups across the state deliver language programs.
The new languages strategy, which will cover the next three years, includes several new actions and many others that were in the previous strategy between 2020 and 2022.
The previous languages strategy contained 36 actions. Of this, only three have been "completed," with 25 "on track" and the remainder facing delays or have been abandoned.
In the latest actions, public libraries will help by providing tools for professional development for communities to better document and record traditional languages.
State schools will be encouraged by the government to work closely with Indigenous communities to increase the growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages by using and utilising those languages in the classroom.
First Nations artists have been included in the new actions, with a focus on "community-based activities to help promote Indigenous languages.
Past practices, including colonisation and the punishment of elders for speaking traditional languages has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of traditional languages that are now spoken across the state.
Chairperson of the Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee, Aunty Joyce Bonner, told ABC radio that the state has seen significant language loss.
"Queensland was once home to around 150 traditional languages. Now, there are only 20 languages that remain strong and continue to be spoken," she said.
Aunty Joyce has been a leading figure in Indigenous language revitalisation, spending over 30 years working to revive the Butchulla language.
