Going Nowhere with the Lingua Franca of Failure

Well-worn sayings are often well-worn for a reason. They put an abiding truth in a nutshell. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” is a well-worn saying of uncertain origin. It comes to mind when I think about past policies designed to improve the lives of those Aborigines living in desperate circumstances – perhaps 20 per cent, according to Gary Johns (The Burden of Culture). One of the difficulties is that not everyone has the same end game in mind. To wit, assimilation versus cultural preservation. A stark dichotomy.

At my Anglican church last Sunday, the sermon was delivered by the principal of Nungalinya College, now in its fiftieth year, and located in Casuarina, a northern fringe suburb of Darwin. It’s an interdenominational training college for indigenous Christians. It aims to spread the Christian Gospel to indigenous communities. That is a worthy aim in two respects. First, it brings the truth of the Gospel to those who otherwise might not hear it. Second, Christianity is a force for economic progress. It contributes to interpersonal trust, to regard for other people’s wellbeing, and to a lawful respect for other people’s private property. On these three preconditions hangs the possibility of widespread prosperity. Yet, other things are also needed; including, a common language fit for modern life, numeracy, and personal ambition.

I mention the Nungalinya College because its approach to serving the Aboriginal population in northern Australia is emblematic of those who see worth and virtue in preserving indigenous languages and cultures. This is a sample from the College’s 50th Jubilee Booklet 2023:

♦ At Nungalinya we respect Indigenous cultures and sovereignty over country.

♦  Around 95 per cent of Nungalinya students speak one or more Indigenous First Languages – often English really is quite far down the list.

♦ It is currently the United Nations Decade of Indigenous Languages – at Nungalinya we continue to strive so that no Indigenous voice will be lost.

It goes without saying, all of this is well intentioned. But does it have unintended adverse consequences? That is the question.

In the end result, speaking one or more of hundreds of indigenous languages fluently while having poor English, will not get you a ticket out of a community which offers no possibility of fulfilling work. In that sense, championing the use of indigenous languages, except as a curiosity, is unhelpful. Some people in Wales like to talk in Welsh. But they know, even with a population of over three million (not just a few hundred), that English must have primacy unless they want to live in a Welsh backwater.

It’s not only language which can hold people back, it’s clinging to cultures which have long gone. What does “respecting indigenous cultures” mean? Are there tribes still foraging and hunting for their needs? If there are, well and good. But there aren’t. Living off welfare is distinctly part of modern Western culture not indigenous culture. Certainly, aspects of past cultural practices can and should be retained. Corroborees, for example. Morris dancers still do their thing, I understand. Well-off Scots are insistent on wearing kilts on ceremonial occasions, eating haggis and throwing cabers. All good stuff but it doesn’t pay the rent. A viable culture is more than its ceremonial trimmings.

My point is almost as well-worn as is the saying with which I began. There is no mystery; we don’t need a Voice to tell us what the problem is. Aboriginal communities out of sight of employment, speaking their own limited languages, having halting English, clinging to the remnants of defunct cultures have no promising future. While they remain as they are, so will the so-called gap.

All Australian children and young people must be taught in English and use English as their first language. English shouldn’t be “quite far down the list,” as the Nungalinya College puts it. That simply perpetuates disadvantage, and the despair which often follows. Assimilation is the only path to relieving the plight of a minority segment of the Aboriginal population. That’s not a cruel solution. The history of the modern Western world is full of assimilations. A cruel solution is to keep people in circumstances which prevent them from fulfilling their potential.

Of course, identifying the solution and implementing it are two quite different matters. I don’t have the answer. Neither, obviously, does Linda Burney or Anthony Albanese. Never mind. Apparently, there is an answer. And those appointed to the Voice will become privy to it upon being sworn into office. That’s the reason nothing has yet been done to solve the problem. Namely, the knowledge is secret, waiting to be unsheathed by the 24 ‘big men’ (and women). I hope you understand that. Chris Kenny evidently does, even if you don’t.