What we provide

• Advocacy— we advocate on issues such as bilingual education, indigenous literacy, language policies and recognition for Indigenous peoples, raise awareness through public events on occasions such as International Mother Language Day, and organize informal gatherings for linguists and community language activists.

• Networking— we facilitate international networking through our active email discussion list, Facebook group, and Twitter profile, support for the Endangered Languages and Cultures blog, and links to other blogs and networks. Archived RNLD discussions are publicly accessible and searchable through the Linguist List.

• Resources— we disseminate information about conferences, funding opportunities, education and training programs, policies, publications, film, theatre, radio and television, news, and the methods and technologies needed to document, archive, revitalise and maintain indigenous languages.

• Training— we partner with indigenous communities and organisations to develop capacity in language documentation and revitalisation through the Documenting and Revitalising Indigenous Languages program. Our flexible training materials and practices ensure that the skills which people gain are used, retained and shared more widely within a community.

DRIL workshop highlights

This month, we're featuring a recent training workshop run by DRIL trainers Donna McLaren, Margaret Florey and Michael Jarrett at Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre in Port Hedland, Western Australia.

This workshop launched Master-Apprentice teams and language pods for a number of languages of the Pilbara region. Banyjima Elder Kathleen Hubert is Master to her daughters May Byrne and Beverley Hubert, and Beverley is Master to young Apprentices Andrew Dhu and Ashley Councillor. Nyangumarta Master Nanna Janet Stewart is strengthening the skills of Apprentice and language teacher Kayleen Arnold. A Yinhawangka family language pod formed with brother and sisters Roy Tommy, Nancy Tommy and Julie Walker (Wangka Maya manager). Kariyarra Elder Diana Robinson-Brown, who welcomed everyone to the workshop in Kariyarra, worked with her daughter Larissa Brown. Larissa was also part of the Ngarla team with Master Nora Cooke and Apprentice Esther Quintal. Wangka Maya linguists Jessica Mathie, Amanda Hamilton and Peter Hill also took part in the workshop to learn more about Master-Apprentice methods.

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Our members are located all over the world.