Pama Language Centre is dedicated to the recording, revival, revitalisation and maintenance of the unique and precious cultural heritage of the first nations of Cape York Peninsula. Every child born to an Indigenous nation has the right to grow up with an ancestral language as a first language1. Our languages, oral literatures and epistemologies will be documented rigorously in order to maintain a
nd revitalise our cultures. Of the forty-two or more languages once spoken across Cape York Peninsula, of which there are over a hundred dialects, even the strongest are now threatened by language shift. As arrangements for the Pama Language Centre (PLC) are being finalised, the last fluent speaker of one of our target languages (Mungkanhu) has died. Without a systematic effort, the cultural heritage and peoplehood potential of the Indigenous nations of Cape York Peninsula are rapidly being lost. This situation has implications for individual and family wellbeing. A strong language is an empowering context in which individuals are able to develop meaningful goals. The loss and degradation of traditional language is a catastrophe threatening the future of individuals as much as it threatens the future of our peoples. The Indigenous peoples of Cape York Peninsula have long been aware of the absolute importance of our languages. This is said in plain words, again and again, echoing down the generations, from every nation, at every gathering, from young and old. The future for the Indigenous nations of Cape York Peninsula will be a
multilingual future.
