Marking the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages, an Aboriginal community in remote Central Australia is working on a ground-breaking new children’s album.
Ampe-mape Alyelheme (Kids Sing) is a collection of songs performed and recorded in the endangered Arrernte language.
Carol Turner, an Arrernte educator-turned-musician with Children’s Ground, the organization leading the project, says that Ampe-mape Alyelheme “teaches and celebrates Arrernte language and culture through music.”
Despite an estimated 800 diverse Indigenous languages thriving on the Australian continent before British colonization in 1788, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that only about 150 are now in daily use.
Cherisse Buzzacott, head of health and well-being from Children’s Ground, says the project addresses the lack of suitable language programs in the education system.
Buzzacott believes that a strong cultural identity provides Aboriginal people with some protection against the ongoing impacts of colonization, such as racism, social exclusion, and incarceration.
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