In reply to:

the attention and apparent fondness that Australians bestow upon the original (well, aboriginal, i guess) languages and cultures that graced their land long ago and continue to be a presence

Sadly, the 'fondness' to which you refer is more apparent than real. Of the estimated 600 indigenous languages flourishing in Australia 200 years ago, only some 200 remain alive, and most of these are only hanging on by their fingernails, being only spoken by a handful of surviving elders. The most populous traditional languages would still only boast at most a few thousand native speakers. The Northern Territory government last year announced that it would terminate the Education Department's Bilingual Program, a decision which if implemented will surely hasten the death of many of these languages.

Nevertheless there are signs of hope in some quarters. This year, after twenty years of lobbying, the Commonwealth government at last agreed to fund an Aboriginal Interpreter Service in the Northern Territory. There are Aboriginal Language Centres in each of the four major regions of the Territory, and a slow but steady stream of dictionaries, grammars and other pedagogic materials is being published in the major languages of my region, Central Australia.

The Inuit languages of Canada, by contrast, have been supported by well-established interpreter and educational services for decades.

Australia has no reason to be particularly proud of its achievements in this field, unless being in the vanguard of the global movement to exterminate all languages other than English is something to boast about.

To me, living in a town where I can daily hear - and even understand a few words of - traditional Aboriginal languages* being spoken in the street, is a great privilege, and a source of pride. To know that the majority of my fellow-citizens regard this linguistic wealth with something ranging between ignorant disdain and ignorant contempt, is a great burden, and a source of shame.

* there are 16 dialects of 4 language groups spoken by people who use Alice Springs as a supply town.