Mother Language Day 2011 

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News on Intl Mother Language Day

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IMLD MLMF February 20, 21 & 22, 2015

The Bangla Academy Australia hosted a seminar for ‘My Language My Freedom’ on February 20. The seminar was the first event in three days commemoration based on UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day.

This year the event was held at the Theatrette at the NSW Parliament House. The seminar featured presentations from a diverse range of speakers, Hon. Victor Dominello MP, a representative of the Premier of NSW. Mr Dominello also the Minister for Citizenship & Communities and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs was the chief guest. Special guests were present including Hon. Shaoquett Moselmane, MLC, Mr. Anthony Khouri, Honorary Consul-General of Bangladesh, Mr. Lou Petrolo, Strategy & Community Engagement Manager SBS Australia, Mr. Trent Wilson, Head Teacher Languages, Hornsby Girls High School, Mr. Albert Vella, President, Federation of NSW Community Language School Program, Mr. Béla Kardos, President Hungarian Council of NSW, Catharin C Kori, Director Hungarian Language School, Dr Akhteruz Zaman, Academic, University of Technology, Mr. Phil Voysey, Director Cultural Connexions, Student representative Mr ASM Shahriar Ifti from Sydney Secondary College, Mrs Yasmeen Islam Social activist and Mr. Anwar Akash, Director, Bangla Academy Australia.

Hon. Victor Dominello expressed his government’s gratitude towards ‘My Language My Freedom’ seminar from Bangla Academy. He congratulated the team to host the event for the first time (at the parliament house) and assured This program will be on from now, ‘this is the beginning’ he added.

Speakers emphasised the importance of supporting and maintaining the rich diversity of languages in Australia. A number of speakers stressed the crucial part language plays in shaping individual and community identity and enhancing the cultural diversity of Australian society. Speakers also called for more resources to be allocated to the teaching of languages in schools and universities.

Langauge Covered:
Aboriginal, African, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Bangla, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Chinese, Cook Islands/Maori, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dinka, Dutch, English, Estonian, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Mandarin, Maori, Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian-farsi, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Tigrinya, Tongan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yiddish.

The seminars opening announcement done by Sonia Yeasmin. Sayeda Hyder then presented information on the Language Movement related facts and figures in Bangladesh in 1952.

The Director of the Bangla Academy, Anwar Akash, welcomed guests and gave an overview of the work of the Bangla Academy in the past nine years. Phil Voysey presented a paper written by Mr. Anwar Akash on the history, objectives and values of Academy’s IMLD program ‘My Language My Freedom’.

Special mention must be made of Anwar Akash’s efforts in pulling the seminar together in a little over a week and a half. Although the number of attendees was small, it is expected that with funding and a longer lead time to plan and promote the event next year, that it will grow to become a significant annual event on Sydney’s multicultural calendar.

Bangla Academy also run a workshop on mother language on 21st February and 22nd February organised a language festival, book fair and cultural market at the Punchbowl Boys High School.

Interested Language Group

Interested Language group can be participating in this program. Please email mlmf@banglaacademy.com

Image of the flyer

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