00:00 The purpose of this conference is one, to bring everyone together and two, to shine
00:06 a spotlight on our languages, that they do matter and we need to have this attention
00:11 and it's urgent.
00:14 On a global scale, there's been over 7,000 languages globally and there's this statement
00:21 where people do say that every two weeks somewhere in the world a language does disappear.
00:28 The situation itself is also pretty, it's unique with our continent.
00:37 We're losing our languages at a high rate.
00:41 Why is that, Darren?
00:47 We're living in two worlds and our languages, our voice and that knowledge system within
00:55 those there is all connected to our country, our environment and to our people.
01:01 We're not in the position where we should be in looking after our country and it for
01:05 caring for us.
01:07 It's changing, we are moving forward, but our languages as a foundational component
01:14 of all of this need to be prioritised and put back in.
01:17 Our knowledge systems can't be transferred and delivered and understood and learnt from
01:22 within English.
01:23 It's just not possible there.
01:26 Empower the people to be at the forefront of this.
01:29 We need to be doing this and we are.
01:32 We are not stopping.
01:34 We are doing everything we can in all sorts of ways there.
01:38 The diversity of what people do and how they respond to this, whether it's documentation,
01:45 whether it's through capturing and recording that knowledge through language, whether it's
01:50 delivering it through the education system, whether it's through schools, whether it's
01:55 through community, whether it's also out there in the wider space.
01:59 We all know that languages, the interest and the understanding and the respect for our
02:04 languages is growing every year.
02:07 We need to make sure that we don't want tokenistic labelling.
02:12 We want more.
02:13 We want our languages to be valued and strong and to be used every day by everyone within
02:19 our country.
02:21 They have this place.
02:26 With Australia, both North, Central and South America are very similar with what's happening.
02:36 These three continents, if we can call them that, I don't know geography that well, but
02:42 we are suffering the most loss of all.
02:48 What we do have is that we have lessons to be learned amongst one another and we're coming
02:53 together to share those lessons.
02:57 Everyone's plan on how we respond has got to be unique.
03:02 You can't put a blanket over this and just say, "Look, this is the one thing we need to
03:05 do."
03:07 We understand that there's differences and we have to respond differently.
03:11 We've got to be understandable in that that response can actually change on a daily, weekly
03:16 or yearly basis as well.
03:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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