Languages Sector Strengthening Plan team visit communities

Written By First Languages Australia

First Languages Australia staff working on the Languages Sector Strengthening Plan have been carrying out consultation sessions across Australia in 2025 and more visits are planned. The collaboration with the language network is part of a goal to carry out 25 in-person consultation workshops in various regions.

It is the first time a project like this has been carried out to ask communities what they think about the languages sector and what it needs to grow sustainably. As part of the process, the team is ensuring that the data collected from these sessions is provided back to the community for their own use.

In collaboration with local language centres, the team have held consultation workshops with communities in:

  • NT - Jabiru and Mparntwe/Alice Springs

  • VIC - Naarm/Melbourne

  • NSW - Brewarrina

  • SA - Tarntanya/Adelaide

  • WA - Rubibi/Broome, Beagle Bay, One Arm Point and Derby

  • QLD - Bundaberg

Thank you to all the language centres and organisations that have helped us co-host these events so far. These are in addition to a visit late last year to Zenadth Kes which you can read about in the News section on our website.

In addition to the consultation sessions, the team has also delivered additional workshops based on feedback from communities about what they’re interested in and need. These include:

Junyirri: A framework for planning community language projects - This workshop enables community members to learn skills and guides them to develop a language plan for a specific project they would like to undertake themselves.

Data Collections – This workshop enables community members to learn more about the National Collections Strategy, digitisation, cataloguing and good metadata, long-term safe data storage, Indigenous Data Governance and Indigenous Data Sovereignty. 

The team is in the middle of planning future visits to additional regions in the coming months. Keep an eye on our social media accounts for more information about upcoming community trips. If your region hasn’t been visited yet, reach out to your local language centre or First languages Australia to find out if there’s a session happening in your area: amy@firstlanguages.org.au

As part of the consultation process, a survey is being developed and will be available online. To find out more about our sector strengthening work, head to our website: www.firstlanguages.org.au/ssp

First Languages Australia https://www.firstlanguages.org.au
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