SLNSW launches ‘Rediscovering Indigenous Languages’ website

Wednesday, 10 December 2014 Books+Publishing

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has launched a new website offering access to the records of 100 Indigenous Australian languages, many of which are considered to be critically endangered.

The project to ‘revitalise, rescue and preserve’ Indigenous languages from SLNSW’s archival records began three years ago and has been supported by Rio Tinto Australia.

Ronald Briggs from the library’s Indigenous Services team told the ABC: ‘This project started in 2011 when we realised that a really underutilised part of the library’s collection was the resources we had relating to Aboriginal languages.’

SLNSW said in a statement that linguist Michael Walsh ‘discovered valuable details on 100 Indigenous languages among the Library’s 14kms of manuscripts’, and that the library’s Indigenous team is ‘working closely with communities to consult on the most appropriate ways to provide access to these records’.

Visit the ‘Rediscovering Indigenous Languages’ website here.

Category: Library news