Palawa kani

palawa kani
Created byTasmanian Aboriginal Centre
Date1992[1]
Setting and usageTasmania
EthnicityAboriginal Tasmanians
Users400[2]
Purpose
Latin alphabet[3]
SourcesOral tradition and fragments from the 8 to 16 Tasmanian languages recorded by early Europeans.[1][4]
Language codes
ISO 639-3None
Glottologpala1356
AIATSIS[2]T16
ELPPalawa Kani
IETFart-x-palawa (unofficial)[5]

Palawa kani is a constructed language[1] created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the Aboriginal people of what is now Tasmania (palawa kani: Lutruwita).[2][6][4][7]

The centre wishes to restrict the availability of the language until it is established in the Aboriginal Tasmanian community and claims copyright.[8] The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is used to support this claim to copyright as it declares that indigenous people have the right to control their "cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions" and that states must "recognise and protect the exercise of these rights".[9][10] However, the declaration is legally non-binding and languages cannot receive copyright protection in many countries, including Australia and the United States.[11][12][8] The centre however provides a list of place names in palawa kani and consents to their free use by the public.[13] Dictionaries and other copyrightable resources for learning the language are only provided to the Aboriginal community.[14]

  1. ^ a b c Berk, Christopher D. (2017). "Palawa Kani and the Value of Language in Aboriginal Tasmania". Oceania. 87 (1): 2–20. doi:10.1002/ocea.5148.
  2. ^ a b c T16 palawa kani at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ^ "Ya pulingina. Bringing these words to life is an extension of our identity". The Guardian. 2 September 2016.
  4. ^ a b "palawa kani". Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. 9 April 2024. Archived from the original on 28 April 2024.
  5. ^ "ConLang Code Registry". www.kreativekorp.com. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  6. ^ "palawa kani, the only Aboriginal language in Lutruwita today". Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. Archived from the original on 4 August 2018.
  7. ^ Harman, Kristyn (19 July 2018). "Explainer: how Tasmania's Aboriginal people reclaimed a language, palawa kani". The Conversation.
  8. ^ a b Robertson, Adi (13 August 2014). "Can you own a language?". The Verge. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  9. ^ "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples". Australian Human Rights Commission. article 31. 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions ... including ... oral traditions [and] literatures... They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. 2. In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.
  10. ^ Janke, Terri (2021). True Tracks. Sydney: UNSW Press. p. 32. ISBN 9781742236810.
  11. ^ Janke, Terri; Broughton, Adam (27 February 2019). "Who owns Indigenous languages? Indigenous Language Materials and Copyright". Terri Janke and Company Lawyers and Consultants. Generally, there is no copyright in languages unless they are expressed in material form, being either written or recorded. Even then, the copyright protects the expression and not the underlying language. This can be an issue for Indigenous peoples and language centres as their language is oral, in that it is passed down through generations.
  12. ^ United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. "Frequently Asked Questions – Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  13. ^ "Policy and Protocol for Use of palawa kani Aboriginal Language, 2019" (PDF). Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. 2019.
  14. ^ "Policy and Protocol for Use of palawa kani Aboriginal Language, 2019" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2021.