Australia

These Bands Sing in Some of the Oldest Languages in the World

Independent musicians and school children in Australia’s Outback help preserve their ancient languages through music (and YouTube!)

Brian Loo Soon Hua
Language Lab
Published in
7 min readAug 30, 2024

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Aboriginal rainmakers, 1898, Farina, South Australia. Source.

On 13 May 1787, a fleet of 11 ships sailing from Portsmouth, England carried over 1,400 British convicts, marines, sailors and settlers more than 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles) to a penal colony in a strange, distant land.

Two English prostitutes bidding farewell to their convict lovers who are about to be sent to prison in Australia. Source.

The passengers on those 11 ships (known as the ‘First Fleet’) knew that they would likely never see their homeland again. And yet, in that unknown land far away, their descendants would flourish and eventually found a new nation.

The Birth of a New Nation

Many Australians today regard the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in January 1788 (the entire journey from England had taken about eight long months!) to be the true beginning of the nation of Australia.

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