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Language and Culture
 Download Brochure (PDF)
The Language &
Culture Centre is based on the IAD campus. The Centre plays a fundamental role
in the maintenance, protection and preservation of language and culture in the
Central Australian region. Language maintenance is supported through a range
of programs.
Maintenance Indigenous Language Records
The
Maintenance Indigenous Language Records program (formally known as ATSILIP) is
an ICC-funded program for language and maintenance projects. MILR provides
remote communities with access to funding for projects aimed at maintaining
and preserving language and culture. It also creates employment opportunities
and allows community members control over projects developed and implemented
at the community level. Funding decisions are made by a committee of language
speakers from across Central Australia.
Aboriginal Translating and Interpreting Services
The
service offered by the Aboriginal Translating and Interpreting Services (ATIS)
involves interpreting and translating in most Aboriginal languages and
dialects spoken in and around the Alice Springs region. Translation requests
vary from translating text for posters and pamphlets to courtroom work.
Currently interpreters/translators are available on a consultancy basis and,
on request, the Language & Culture Centre can provide interpreters for a range
of other Central Australian languages. ATIS provides accredited and
experienced interpreters and this service is available to all organisations—be
they government, non-government or Aboriginal organisations. This service is
offered on a fee-for-service basis and is also available after hours.
Central Australian Dictionaries Program
The
Central Australian Dictionaries Program (CADP) develops dictionaries in a
range of languages across Central Australia. The dictionaries are then
published by
IAD Press.
Each
language project produces a comprehensive and detailed language dictionary, as
well as basic learners’ guides, teaching materials, specialised books and
other reading and audio materials.
Intensive
field work and community involvement are the keys to completing language
research, which can sometimes take several years if not generations to
complete. Field work involves employment of language speakers out bush, as
well as the establishment of vernacular literacy programs in schools and the
promotion of community literacy. Dictionary research is currently being
carried out in many communities across Central Australia and in the southern
states.
The aims of
CADP are to:
• make sure that the language community has control of the project and the
material produced;
• work with senior people in the community, who are acknowledged as the
language experts;
• help keep the language strong by producing language-learning materials and
ensuring that
the material is accessible to the community;
• provide support for Aboriginal people who teach their language in schools.
For more information, please phone: (08) 8951 1340 or email:
iad.lang@iad.edu.au
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