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Salish Fluency Transfer System Workshop to Empower Indigenous Language Revival in Mparntwe
Home Salish Fluency Transfer System Workshop to Empower Indigenous Language Revival in Mparntwe
18 June 2025
4 minute read

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, in partnership with First Languages Australia, the Salish School of Spokane, and Pertame School, is proud to host the Salish Fluency Transfer System (FTS) Workshop on 19-20 June 2025 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), on the lands of the Central Arrernte people. This transformative two-day event at the Desert Peoples Centre Campus aims to equip Indigenous Australian language communities with tools to revitalise and teach their ancestral languages.

The Salish FTS, developed by the nisəlxčin language community, offers a proven method for creating new generations of fluent speakers through immersive teaching practices. The workshop targets language teams of two, comprising a confident speaker and a tech-savvy individual, eager to implement immersion classes in their communities. Participants will engage in hands-on sessions, including demonstrations of FTS immersion lessons and step-by-step guidance on creating Level 1 Language and Traditional Story books tailored to their languages.

“Learning the first steps to creating new speakers of any Indigenous languages using the Salish Fluency Transfer System has ignited the fire within me,” said Samantha Armstrong, a past workshop participant and spokesperson for the event. “The Salish family’s personal journey reconnecting and revitalising their mother tongue deeply resonated with me. Their words were our words. The two days of the workshop were interactive and were ran so effectively. We all came out of the demonstrations being able to confidently tell a Salish creation story in Salish after never hearing the language before that day. I knew it was going to be a significant moment for our language revival program.”

The workshop will cover the Salish family’s language journey, the FTS curriculum, and practical applications like Indigenised schooling structures. A pre-workshop consultation on 18 June, hosted by First Languages Australia, will focus on strengthening the languages sector, including discussions on policies and additional funding for Central Australian language work.

Vanessa Farrelly, Pertame Language Nest Coordinator, said, “The Salish School has a proven method of creating advanced adult speakers within just one year of training, who can then go on and be teachers in the Salish School of Spokane, a complete immersion school from preschool to grade 8. Australia has one of the fastest rates of language extinction in the world. It is critical that our Australian endangered language groups come together and look to Indigenous peoples globally to learn from the most successful pathways to grow new fluent speakers. It is a matter of urgency, while we still have our precious few Elders speakers with us".

The event acknowledges the Central Arrernte people as Traditional Custodians and aligns with Batchelor Institute’s “Both Ways” philosophy, embedding cultural strength in education.

Download the Salish Workshop Booklet

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (RTO 0383) is Australia’s leading provider of tertiary education for Indigenous Australians, delivering VET and higher education grounded in the “Both Ways” philosophy. With Campuses on Kungarakan and Warai Country in Batchelor as well as Arrernte Country in Alice Springs, the Institute empowers students to achieve liberation through education. Learn more at batchelor.edu.au.

First Languages Australia is the national peak body working to ensure the strength of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. We support a network of language centres, community programs and industry partners covering the whole of Australia, and all of our efforts are designed to have both immediate and longstanding impact on the future of our languages.

The Salish Fluency Transfer System Workshop has been funded by the Australian Government Department of Education.

Media Contact: Sean Rung, Public Relations, Media, and Communications Coordinator, 0450 701 003, sean.rung@batchelor.edu.au