Aboriginal Language – Newspaper Archives

Way back in Topic One it was suggested that at one point in history Australian languages were considered primitive or not as complex or advanced as English. I began to troll the google newspaper archives to look through articles at how Australian languages were presented in the media over time. Google newspapers became a wonderful tool in presenting a timeline and showing how attitudes change. I was both shocked but not surprised to read articles referring to Native Australians simply as ‘blacks’ up until the 1980s and early 90s. It is also interesting to read articles that blame poor student progress and even learning difficulties on an inability to understand English. In chapter 15 of the text it discussed educational programs that begin in the students first language and then move on to English, empowering students. We have certainly come a long way.

One short article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on July 7, 1908 is titled ‘The Australian Aboriginal The Lowest Type of Humanity’ and went on to describe one lecturer’s presentation of the Aboriginal people as a collective. In it, amongst many other things, he describes Aboriginals as having “no claim to beauty being the ugliest and most brutal type of all”! The lecturer also goes on to say that the Aboriginal language is rich in concrete but lacks abstract terms, basically insinuating its lack of complexity along with the people. He makes no statement in regards to the many different languages but categorises them all into one, diverse in only dialects.

Through my searching of the archives a shift emerged away from dismissing Australian languages until about the 1970s where language or education programs or practices began to emerge. These programs over the decades were always linked with cultural programs including Aboriginal arts, crafts and hunting. It is really interesting to see language programs nowadays, such as those offered by TAFE colleges in WA, offered solely as language courses and not as a combination of language and culture. Not to dismiss those cultural programs but these language courses could meet the needs of many urbanised Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

Do check out google archives for old newspaper articles if you can’t make it to a library, you’ll be surprised.