For the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples who speak over 5000 different languages, every year is a year to celebrate their language, or remember what they have lost due to the imposition of dominant languages. In 2019 UNESCO and the UN are officially recognising indigenous languages, over half of which face an uncertain future. From the official IYIL2019 website: It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society, to name but a few. Through language, people preserve their community’s history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression.  They also use it to construct their future. Language is pivotal in the areas of human rights protection, good governance, peace building, reconciliation, and sustainable development. Even if you aren’t a member of am Indigenous community, you can still participate in IYIL2019! I’ve listed some ideas below, but feel free to share others: Join the conversation on social media to raise awareness of IYIL2019 and of Indigenous languages more generally. Check out the #Indigenouslanguages and #WeAreIndigenous hashtags on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Improve Wikipedia pages for Indigenous languages. Wikipedia in English and most other languages has very minimal information on most of the world’s languages. You can help change that in 2019. Check out the #lingwiki hashtag on Twitter for news of editathons, and there’s also a set of slides with information about editing Wikipedia for languages. If you live on land associated with an Indigenous language or community, learn more about that group. Australians can use this map from First Languages Australia. Find out more about some of the IYIL partners, there might be some that work in your area to promote or support Indigenous languages. Some accept donations or even volunteer support. I’m proud to be working with RNLD, PARADISEC and Wikimedia, which are all partners of IYIL2019. Throw a language party! Storytellers share a story in their language, then interpret it into the common language and the audience asks questions. Check out some of the educational resources on the IYIL2019 website, and include the topic somewhere in your curriculum this year. Follow the State Library of Queensland “Word of the Week” from one of the 125+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and dialects from across Queensland. Participate in one of the IYIL2019 events happening all around the world this year. There’s also a page about getting involved on the IYIL2019 website.

For the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples who speak over 5000 different languages, every year is a year to celebrate their language, or remember what they have lost due to the imposition of dominant languages. In 2019 UNESCO and the UN are officially recognising indigenous languages, over half of which face an uncertain future. From the official IYIL2019 website: It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society, to name but a few. Through language, people preserve their community’s history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression.  They also use it to construct their future. Language is pivotal in the areas of human rights protection, good governance, peace building, reconciliation, and sustainable development. Even if you aren’t a member of am Indigenous community, you can still participate in IYIL2019! I’ve listed some ideas below, but feel free to share others: Join the conversation on social media to raise awareness of IYIL2019 and of Indigenous languages more generally. Check out the #Indigenouslanguages and #WeAreIndigenous hashtags on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Improve Wikipedia pages for Indigenous languages. Wikipedia in English and most other languages has very minimal information on most of the world’s languages. You can help change that in 2019. Check out the #lingwiki hashtag on Twitter for news of editathons, and there’s also a set of slides with information about editing Wikipedia for languages. If you live on land associated with an Indigenous language or community, learn more about that group. Australians can use this map from First Languages Australia. Find out more about some of the IYIL partners, there might be some that work in your area to promote or support Indigenous languages. Some accept donations or even volunteer support. I’m proud to be working with RNLD, PARADISEC and Wikimedia, which are all partners of IYIL2019. Throw a language party! Storytellers share a story in their language, then interpret it into the common language and the audience asks questions. Check out some of the educational resources on the IYIL2019 website, and include the topic somewhere in your curriculum this year. Follow the State Library of Queensland “Word of the Week” from one of the 125+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and dialects from across Queensland. Participate in one of the IYIL2019 events happening all around the world this year. There’s also a page about getting involved on the IYIL2019 website.

By Jodie Kell Each week of this year PARADISEC is broadcasting a Mystery Language of the Week. Published on our website through a popular audio platform, as well as through social media, we are ask…

Every year Australia produces a 50c coin to celebrate the theme of the UN International Year. This year it’s the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and a coin has been created with a design that includes the word for ‘coin’ or ‘money’ in 14 different languages. (image via indigenous.gov.au) I’ll be keeping my eye out for one, in the mean time there’s an interactive page at the Mint that lets you click on each of the words and learn more about the language. And if you want to make sure some coin goes towards Indigenous languages you could donate to AIATSIS or RNLD.