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Australian Indigenous Languages Collection 

The Australian Languages Collection was established early in 1981 to bring together printed material written in Australian Indigenous languages. It contains over 3,500 items. 

 

The Collection, arranged by language, comprises the output of literacy centres where bilingual education programs exist, traditional and original stories, Bible translations, and factual and topical information on health, science, history, and other subjects.

 

It is the aim of the Library for the Collection to become a comprehensive collection of works written in all Australian Indigenous languages. The Library welcomes donations of materials and information about new publications.

 Language materials

 

As well as published materials, the Library holds manuscripts and other materials of linguistic interest. Researchers, particularly Institute grantees, deposit field notebooks and elicited language texts, songs and word lists.

Clients can access bibliographic details of items in the Language Collection using specific language names or by searching on Language as a location in Mura, our catalogue. To do this, select "Language collection" from the 'item type' box at the bottom of the search screen. 

Other search terms include:

  • Language & communication
  • Language acquisition
  • Language centres
  • Language classification & evolution

See the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (Local call no. REF 03 ENC) for a good overview of Languages, Language Centres, Language Change and Language Classification. See also our list of language bibliographies.

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