Maria Vamvakinou has called on federal parliament to back efforts to promote and protect the Greek language, and to support interventions to halt the decline of Indigenous languages in Australia.
Labor’s Member for Calwell raised the motion last week, acknowledging UNESCO’s recognition of International Mother Language Day on 21 February – the date chosen to launch Victoria’s Speak Greek in March project.
In her speech, Ms Vamvakinou said that of the 418 languages other than English spoken in Australia today, at least 151 of them were used in her electorate.
“Sadly, we find ourselves in a dire predicament where we are lamenting the decline of our Indigenous languages. They are increasingly becoming extinct,” said the federal MP, who said that Indigenous languages are continuing to decline in Australia across all age groups.
“Worldwide it is estimated that more than a half of the 6,000 languages spoken today will be replaced by the dominant languages,” said Ms Vamvakinou.
“This means that 3,000 languages will no longer be spoken by the end of the 21st century, and that all their cultural, ethnic and ecological heritage, that are unique to its speakers, will also be lost.”
Ms Vamvakinou added that while Australia was fortunate to have a rich diversity of languages “we must not remain complacent. Rather we should do what we can to maintain, service and support our languages as national cultural assets”.
Ms Vamvakinou commended the Speak Greek in March campaign to the parliament. The project – now in its third week – was developed in Victoria to encourage a greater use of the language amongst Greek and non-Greek speaking Australians.