12 October 2016
The Turnbull Government will provide $22.8 million to help keep Indigenous languages alive and showcase traditional and contemporary Indigenous cultural and artistic expression.
Twenty-one Indigenous arts and language organisations will receive almost $15 million over five years to support the revival and maintenance of Indigenous languages and the delivery of arts projects. This funding will support both operations and projects.
A further 63 Indigenous languages and arts projects will receive almost $8 million for projects to be undertaken over the next two years.
Funded activities include Music NT’s Regional Areas Music Program, which will receive $400,000 a year over five years to deliver music skills development, community cultural support and performances across the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.
Digi Youth Arts’ multi-arts project, Unsettle, will receive $166,000 over two years. Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will create street art, theatre, film, visual art, music and dance in response to the cultural landscape in major arts institutions.
These projects will support a strong Indigenous cultural landscape where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are empowered to revive, maintain and promote their arts and languages.
The Government recognises that language and art are essential to the wellbeing and identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and play an important role in ensuring the vitality and strength of communities.
The Indigenous Languages and Arts program helps to maintain and encourage participation in Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures by providing support for projects and organisations for language and arts projects.
More information about the program and the full list of funding recipients is available at: www.arts.gov.au/indigenous-languages-and-arts-program.