Money for language: Indigenous language funding in Australia

Abstract

This paper examines how language development aid is managed and distributed via grant programs administered by federal and state Aboriginal affairs departments across Australia. While these departments are not the only organisations offering grants for development and language-related projects in Australia, they are in a good position to administer such grants as they often work across government departments to provide leadership on Indigenous matters. This paper uses data collected from Aboriginal affairs departments’ websites about grant programs offered for the financial years ending 2014–2016. Each grant program was reviewed for: the goals of the program, amount of funding available, recipients of the grant, and whether any language component was included in the grant. This information is then compared across states, looking at the types of projects grants are used for and how language is, or is not, integrated into the projects. Findings of the study show that language-related projects attract only a small amount of grant funding compared to the wider pool available from federal and state/territory Aboriginal affairs departments. No grants appear to have been given for projects that include language as a component of a broader socio-economic development program. The paper also discusses the implications of the findings in relation to social and economic impact, well-being, education and translation. It argues that governments need to both increase funding for language-focussed project and to encourage other non-language-focussed development projects to consider the role of language in the context of Indigenous communities.

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