Mother Tongue In Australia

Economic benefits are in a way linked to social benefits, because speaking a mother tongue brings employment to aboriginal people and the work environment is favorable for encounters. One of the biggest social problems faced by Aboriginal people is certainly trying to keep the right to pursue traditional ways of life. However, a way to pursue traditional lifestyles is to maintain Aboriginal language and folklore. Once again, we see how crucial it is to sustain the language. It also has an importance in education. Indeed, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey found out that aboriginal children and teenagers living in regional areas are more likely to attend school and to gain a post-school qualification if they speak

In the eighteenth century, when the Europeans settled in Australia, they discouraged aboriginal people to speak their ancestral languages and to express their traditions or anything that could be related to their culture. They ended up feeling ashamed of speaking their mother tongue. So they were not respected and had to hide their culture. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people existed in Australia prior to British colonisation, however, they only started to be counted in the Australian Population after the 1967 referendum. Aboriginal people always faced injustices in history and regarding laws. Today, they continue to feel misunderstood by white Australian politics. Racism against Aboriginal people is less important than it was many years ago, but it is still present. According to the pic.gov.au, a study of 755 Aboriginal Victorians reported that nearly all respondents (97%) had experienced at least one incident they perceived as racist in the preceding 12 months. However, experiencing racism doubles the risk of alcohol and substance use, behavioral problems and suicidal thoughts. Furthermore, a study published in 2014 found, that aboriginal people experiencing racism were more likely to have low test scores along low final grades. Again, this shows how cultural wellbeing and cultural integrity are related and how the one cannot remain without the other. Cultural wellbeing cannot be achieved if cultural integrity is weak. Also, Aboriginal people express their culture through songs and stories mostly. If their language disappears, they won’t be able to pass it on to their children. It means, that their knowledge and history would be less and less transmitted within time and some of them would be forgotten. So it could lead to the disappearance of their culture. Cultural expression needs to persist and it is one of the reasons why language must be remembered. Without