Empowering youth to create technological solutions to sustain language and culture

Indigenous language and culture is vital to global sustainability. Now, new research by the University College London (ULC) has found direct evidence that indicates the mass killing of Indigenous people across globe has had a massive impact on the CO2[  and may have been a direct cause of a mini ice age.

“The great dying of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas resulted in a human-driven global impact on the Earth system in the two centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution,” wrote the UCL team of Alexander Koch, Chris Brierley, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis.

It’s hard to think that in 1788 there were believed to be over one million Aboriginal people living in Australia and between 300 and 700 Aboriginal languages spoken, as shown in anthropologist Norman Tindale’s 1974 map. Since the British arrival the treatment of Indigenous people has been brutal and with the massacres and displacement of Aboriginal only language and culture across the country. Also, past racist government policies like the White Australia Policy in 1901 has added an ongoing displacement and negative attitudes towards Indigenous Australians.

Some people say that those were just the dark days in Australia histories and that Australia’s but racist attitudes towards Indigenous Australians still provides a major barrier in ensuring basic level of economic, social and health benefits then other Australians which is highlighted in the Governments [failing] closing the gap policy and targets.

Detailed below is a snapshot of Barometer key finding;

• 45% of general respondents believe prejudice is high compared to 62% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents.
• 57% of general Australians feel proud of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures compared to 85% of Indigenous Australians.
• 42% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have witnessed verbal abuse in the last 6 months compared to 22% of the general population.
• 42% of Australians say that they have an interest in First Nations Australian Art, and only 25% show strong interest.

The loss of language and culture means the loss of identity. For many years we have known sustaining a cultural and language not only helps with health and well-being factors but also helps in education and employment.

and leads to better language but sadly Indigenous policies focus heavy on healthy symptoms rather than the systemic issues of language and culture loss.

This year is very important for Indigenous peoples as UNESCO have declared it Year of Indigenous languages and the world unites to maintain and protect Indigenous languages.

The UNESCO project bring together government agencies, civil society groups and companies in the private sector are developing projects and programs to support Indigenous languages retention and revitalization and here in Australia there is hundreds of initiatives that support local Indigenous language retention.

The UN Declaration of IY2019 aims to raise awareness and promote indigenous languages in these five key areas:

• Increasing understanding, reconciliation and international cooperation.
• Creation of favourable conditions for knowledge-sharing and dissemination of good practices with regards to Indigenous languages.
• Integration of Indigenous languages into standard setting.
• Empowerment through capacity building.
• Growth and development through elaboration of new knowledge.

The overarching theme is Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation. UNESCO emphasises that “languages play a crucial role in the daily lives of people, not only in education, communication, social integration and development, but also as a repository for each person’s unique identity, cultural history, traditions and memory”. Underpinning this is the level of endangerment of traditional Indigenous languages across the world.

Even though there is various social, economic and health issues that provides issues with language and culture revitalization recent research [by name] indicates a high uptake of some digital technologies including mobile phones and social media by Indigenous youth and even though there is a digital divide Indigenous youth use technology on a daily basis. Furthermore, Indigenous Australians are some of the oldest scientist and inventors in the world and for people who lived through the ice age they should be thriving in the knowledge economy.

A lot of the times when policy makers develop programs that have in impact on youth they tend to forget that they [the youth] need to be included in shaping policies as well. Youth are a vital part to the continuation of Indigenous languages they are our future and as Indigenous youth represent 53% of the Indigenous population it is vitally important that our youth are engaged with language project that impact on their lives.

One language initiative that aims to put youth front and center of language policy is INDIGI HACK. INDIGI HACK is a 2 day hackathon for youth 8-18. This hackathon[  will challenge the youth to develop new technologies that aims to revitalise and retain Indigenous languages. The winner hacker will go into an incubator to further develop and refine the product. This hackathon brings together youth with experts on design and technology, culture and language, environmental sustainability, arts, science and Indigenous social rights to share and guide the youth to creating new technology that aims to unite youth here and across the globe to develop technology to support Indigenous language revitalisation.

During the hackathon elders and community people will help guide the youth in ensuring culture and language and the role of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors who work across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics will also help shape the youth to innovate and create.

Outcomes

• An app that supports the revitalisation on Indigenous language and culture.
• Incubation and implementation of the most promising prototypes.
• Delivery of a formal report that elaborates on key issues explored during INDIGI HACK.
• Creation of a global hub to mobilise and connect Indigenous youth to share and connect.
• This project will increase the pride and participation of Indigenous languages.
• It is this pipeline of opportunity that will enable Indigenous youth to merge culture and language with technology and science.

Indigenous people are some of the world’s oldest scientist and investors in the world and the sharing of this knowledge was mostly an oral tradition and so language has always been a big part of how Indigenous people communicate and it’s these types of cultural processes and teachings that INDIGI LAB has adapted to continue these ancient traditions through the hackathon and hopefully adapted into STEAM education.