Hope new pictorial dictionaries will preserve Indigenous language

Updated August 15, 2013 14:04:04

Indigenous language from outback Queensland has been recorded in new pictorial dictionaries.

The natural resource management group Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) has worked for two years on the project and is now rolling out dictionaries to local schools and libraries.

DCQ spokesman Jeff Poole says while there are 14 main language groups in the region, it was only able to research five, including the Pitta Pitta and Kalkadoon.

"Some of this information is already there but it is not necessarily readily available," he said.

"Language links so much to culture and understanding of culture and it would just be a shame to see these lost.

"We are really trying to make it as readily available as possible - my hope is that it will revive some interest.

"It's about recording Indigenous language in a very simple, pictorial dictionary that is really sort of entry level for anyone who wants to revive some basic language.

"In other cultures where there is indigenous language, say in New Zealand, there is just the one language, and because there is just the one language it is that much easier to keep it alive."

Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-culture, languages, longreach-4730, mount-isa-4825

First posted August 15, 2013 08:53:05