Margaret Dalziel Lecture: Australia’s Indigenous languages and what they can teach us
Professor Rachel Nordlinger, University of Melbourne
Australia’s Indigenous languages offer remarkable insights into how people perceive, categorise and communicate about the world. In this lecture, Rachel Nordlinger explores their distinctive grammatical structures, the knowledge and worldviews they encode, and what they reveal about how language is learned and processed. She shows why these languages matter not only to the communities who speak and treasure them, but to anyone interested in what it means to be human.
Rachel Nordlinger directs the Research Unit for Indigenous Language at the University of Melbourne. She has undertaken extensive fieldwork with the Bilinarra, Wambaya, Gudanji, Murrinhpatha and Marri Ngarr communities and works alongside Indigenous communities across Australia to support the preservation of their linguistic and cultural heritage.
Livestream details to follow