Indigenous Language Ecologies framework

Abstract

Linguistic research with Indigenous communities over several decades has shown that Indigenous contact languages have a large presence in the contemporary Indigenous landscapes of Australia, but this is not reflected in an equitable presence in policy or programs. Policy has not taken up or responded to the available language research and recommendations, nor is policy reliably informed by solid government language data. As a response to such issues, the Indigenous Language Ecologies framework has been developed. It is designed as a tool to assist policy makers to see and include the needs of contact language-speaking communities. The simple framework differentiates the main configurations of multilingualism in Indigenous communities in Australia today, comparing and contrasting the typical repertoires of speakers of contact languages, of Englishes and of traditional languages. It is intended to function as a useful heuristic and, as such, represents an example of translational research where specialist linguistic knowledge has been distilled for a non-specialist policy audience. The paper lays out the rationale for, and design of, this language ecologies approach, and its impact on policy and research to date.