I used to live in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Tennant is a majority Aboriginal town - but it remains a mainstream town. A unique combination. One of the things I miss is walking down the main street, Paterson Street, and hearing language spoken. The traditional owners of the area are the Warrumungu but many other First Nations from across the Barkly Tableland on the Territory side regard Tennant as important too.
Warlpiri is the third most spoken Aboriginal language. It can be heard from south of Alice Springs through the NT and across to Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Find out more about the
Warlpiri people here. The Yolgnu language, which is the language of Arnhem Land, is spoken across the north of the Northern Territory, the north of Western Australia and can even be found in Doomadgee in north-west Queensland.
It should be noted that, for Aboriginal people who still have language and culture of their own, they often speak a number of Aboriginal languages - with English coming third, fourth or even tenth! Documenting this has given many a whitefella linguist very busy. :)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are the first language spoken at home in many parts of Australia. For some Indigenous Australians English is a third or fourth language.
The ABC with the help of the Aboriginal Interpreter Service in the Northern Territory is trialling an Indigenous language News Service in Warlpiri and Yolngu Matha for the next year.
Two ABC news bulletins will be recorded each weekday.
They will go online for download and will be available for rebroadcast by Indigenous radio broadcasters.
The project aims to improve access to ABC news and celebrate the importance of language and culture in our community.
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