Learning in language

Teaching Indigenous children in their own First Nations languages is having remarkable results for children and communities.

Story Kirsty McKenzie  Photo courtesy Kenmore Park/Anangu School

A sense of belonging may sound like a simple goal. For the elders of the town camps of Alice Springs/Mparntwe in the late 1970s, it was the aim behind the foundation of Yipirinya School. The elders wanted a school with a strong Aboriginal presence, where the children felt safe, connected and comfortable. It would take a decade before the independent, non-government school opened its first building in 1988.

These days, Yipirinya retains the distinction of being the only bicultural school in Australia that teaches in 4 Aboriginal languages – Warlpiri, Central Arrernte, Western Arrernte and Luritja – as well as English. The school currently has about 350 students from transition to high school, and employs about 110 staff, 65% of whom are Aboriginal.

All students have at least a 45-minute class in language every day. The school’s 4 buses travel up to 7,000km each week, transporting students to and from town camps and outstations every day, as well as taking them on excursions on country every week.

Many Aboriginal languages are endangered, if not ‘asleep’ (no fluent speakers remaining), and keeping them alive is a common goal of education departments across the country. However, the NT is the only state or territory with a comprehensive, localised Indigenous languages and cultures program that supports learners from all backgrounds – first language speakers, second language learners and language revival. At the last count in 2022, 3,923 students were studying Indigenous languages in 41 schools.

The SA Department for Education, Curriculum and Learning requires all government schools to deliver languages as a subject from reception to year 8 and increasingly school communities are choosing their local Aboriginal language. There are currently 60 primary and secondary schools teaching in 7 different languages across the state.

Kenmore Park/Anangu School close to the NT border, 40km south of Alice Springs, is one of 9 schools across the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands of north-western SA, where Anangu educators deliver some of the curriculum in first language.

The school’s principal Kane Hillman explains that the 4 Anangu educators are critical to the delivery of the school’s traditional language and culture program. “Teachers and principals come and go, but the Anangu educators are the consistent factors as they are mostly from the local community,” he says. “The piranpa [non-Indigenous] staff teach in English, but there is always an Anangu educator in the classroom.” The school currently has 15 students from reception to year 9 on the roll and each day the educators run about half an hour’s formal language and culture class, which focuses on reading, writing and speaking Pitjantjatjara. On Fridays, the school goes on country.

“Our main aim is to give the students the means to live in both worlds,” Kane says. “They can go to Adelaide for uni or to build careers, but they have a strong enough grounding in traditional culture and language to come back to be with their family, whether it’s just to spend time with them or as teachers, rangers or health workers.