ALC 15 year strategic plan 2012-2027
Anindilyakwa Land Council
Anindilyakwa Land Council annual report; Anindilyakwa Land Council strategic plan; Reports; PublicationNT
2012
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
English
Anindilyakwa Land Council (N.T.) -- Periodicals; Aboriginal Australians -- Northern Territory -- Groote Eylandt -- Periodicals
Anindilyakwa Land Council
Alyangula
2012-2027
Anindilyakwa Land Council
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/254602
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/529654
ALC 15 year Strategic Plan 4. Vision 30 4. VISION THE VISION OF ALC IS TO: Protect, maintain and promote Anindilyakwa culture. Invest in the present to build a future. Create pathways for youth to stand in both worlds. These vision statements have been distilled from broad consultations and have been consistent themes from young to old Anindilyakwa people. Protecting culture is about the totems and songlines that underpin all Anindilyakwa social life. Nowhere is this more relevant than the threats from mining to the seabed that buffers the Groote archipelago from the Australian mainland. Across this sea country, there is a complex web of songlines that connects Groote Eylandt and Bickerton people to the coastal clans across the waters. The Anindilyakwa people are reincarnationists. They believe in life after death and in the human soul being reborn into another body after the current body ceases. To maintain these ancient pathways is a matter of life and death for Anindilyakwa people as their spirits must be sung back upon death to the origin of the individuals songline. If the line is damaged by human activity anywhere along that continuum then that soul cannot be reborn they will die forever. Maintenance of culture is about keeping alive what is still vital. Many people are concerned that the younger generation is now beginning to be unsure about their genealogies how they relate to other clans, families and individuals. Much work is currently being done through ALC anthropology and language centre staff to preserve and record the genealogical histories of all families on the island. This is crucial work that will assist youth in knowing their place in Anindilyakwa culture. The protection of the first language of Anindilyakwa people is also emphasised by both community members and prominent educationalists to be of critical importance. Evidence is overwhelming that a bilingual education program is superior to learning only in English. The reality is that a year one student still does not speak English when they first go to school. This is a strength not a deficit and must be a means of engagement not alienation at the onset of the formal schooling process. Promotion of Culture is about looking to what is clearly an asset for Anindilyakwa People and in particular Anindilyakwa youth. Classical thinking around education, training and employment centres on mainstream society pathways for life-long opportunity, in competition with the rest of the non-Anindilyakwa world. Living and knowing about the worlds most ancient culture and in promoting that to the outside world provides a unique opportunity for youth in the Groote archipelago to assert themselves as individuals in the broader world.