Approximately 7,000 languages are signed or spoken in the world today, more than half of them by Indigenous people. These languages are critical to services like education and healthcare, and their neglect threatens the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. Language is literally a matter of life and death.

The United Nations has declared 2022 the start of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, highlighting the need for governments and societies to amplify the voices and knowledge of Indigenous peoples globally, and involve them directly in the process. However, in Asia’s largest and most linguistically diverse countries, human rights defenders and civil society are under attack, creating a climate of fear that poses serious challenges to successfully implementing the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

This event launched the new issue of the La Trobe Asia Brief: Indigenous Language Rights and the Politics of Fear in Asia, authored by Gerald Roche, Madoka Hammine and Tuting Hernandez.

Panel:

Dr Gerald Roche (Senior Research Fellow, Politics, La Trobe University)

Professor Jakelin Troy (Director, Indigenous Research, University of Sydney)

Dr Dolly Kikon (Senior Lecturer, Development Studies, University of Melbourne)

Professor James Leibold (Politics, La Trobe University) (Chair)

Recorded on 4 October 2022.