A language embodies a ‘world view’ and a way of experiencing the world.  There are great subtleties of understanding encoded in the vocabularies and concepts of the Aboriginal languages of Australia. 

The sciences of environmental management and environmental studies could benefit from the nuanced understanding of the natural world encoded in Aboriginal Languages.  The cosmology contained in Aboriginal Languages could enrich the arts, social sciences and philosophy in profound ways.

In most places in Australia Aboriginal languages are under extreme threat of extinction.

Of the 250 distinct Aboriginal languages of Australia and their 600 dialects, about 50 remain that are considered ‘viable’ right now.  About 20 languages are called ‘strong’; meaning they have over 100 speakers at present.  A language can go from ‘strong’ to endangered in only a few years if the majority of speakers are old.  Even where languages appear strong, the profound depth and subtlety of linguistic ability so common only a generation or two ago is much diminished.

Aboriginal cultures have a vastly different attitude to material culture to those of non-Aboriginal cultures in Australia.  With the exception of rock art, much artistic and material cultural practice in Aboriginal Australia is ephemeral.  In a very real sense certain artistic creations are ‘stage designs’. 

Intangible cultural practices play an enormous role in daily life.  Aboriginal languages have developed in response to thousands of years of interaction with the Australian environment. There is extraordinary linguistic expression relating to the complexity of Aboriginal kinship systems and their relationship with country.

We have all heard the term 'oral tradition', but few know what that really means. Aboriginal music and song, which are the well-spring of Aboriginal literary, religious and philosophical traditions, are accompanied by ‘archives’ of story, dance and performing arts. Such canons of artistic endeavor also constitute the Aboriginal concept of 'law'.

In addition there are vast ‘memory archives’ of stories, and songs by generations of composers and authors of verbal art forms.  Some of these stories concern communities of the imagination and are every bit as complex as the literary traditions of other cultures.

Fifty years ago, Aboriginal visual arts were no more than ethnographic curios. Who would have thought that they would soon become much accepted and celebrated as part of the mainstream art world? These painting genres do not exist in isolation from the song series and stories that have been expressions of Aboriginal law through time.

Aboriginal song is an art form which still awaits wider community acceptance and acknowledgement.  It is not unreasonable to expect that the wider Australian society could appreciate the subtleties of these arts.  This is, after all the classical music tradition of Australia.  Otherwise intelligent people make uninformed judgments about the ‘simple or primitive or uninteresting’ nature of Aboriginal song. These echo the uninformed views of the past to which Aboriginal painting was also once subjected. 

There is a great sophistication and subtlety in the many Aboriginal song forms that still exist as living traditions.  These range from ‘simpler’ choral forms to lyrical solo ‘art songs’ to completely ‘abstract’ forms for solo performers or groups. These are not only songs from the distant past; this is a living tradition with modern composers.  Here's a simple metaphor: look at a range of painting styles from a particular region or from  across Australia; then realize that all this diversity is, among other things, often a pictorial representation of songs and song styles.