Políticas lingüísticas indígenas para el nuevo milenio en Australia: derechos lingüísticos o conjeturas políticas? (Indigenous linguistic policies for the new millennium in Australia: linguistics rights or political issues)

Australian ancestors and migrant population have contributed to see Australia as a multilingual society. Aboriginal Australians represents only 0.5% of Australian population out of 22 million people. As a result of various painful historical facts such as colonization, infectious diseases, "the stolen generation", taking possession of ancestral lands and government negligence, amongst others, Australian Aboriginal population has been reduced. Hence, the number of ancestral languages has been decreasing. Since the colonization, from approximately 250 ancestral languages that existed has dropped to 145, of which 110 are critically endangered (cf. The National Indigenous Languages Survey Report 2005). It is until recently that government has released indigenous language policies in Australia. However, the ethnocentric view of the majority of English-speaking and negative beliefs about Aboriginal rooted in the collective imagination are some factors that tarnish the implementation of them. We intend to examine what elements indicate that Australia has taken the indigenous issues with decisive steps for their development? Is there a genuine concern for establishing bilingual programs with Australian Aboriginal languages? Are indigenous languages officially recognised?