An Indigenous community in Western Australia has turned to crowdfunding to help protect its critically endangered language, due to a lack of government funding.

Warmun in WA’s East Kimberley is a large Aboriginal community home to about 400 people.

The community is known as the home of prominent Indigenous artists who have works hanging in galleries around the world but less well known are the health and social problems affecting those in the community, including depression, substance abuse, violence, poverty and youth suicide.

Warmun Arts Centre community programs coordinator Anna Crane said elders believed passing on their language and culture was central to giving their young people the tools to operate in the western and Indigenous worlds.

“In that complex position that they’re in, it’s important that they have a strong sense of identity and a lot of the time that the old people talk about language it’s about giving those kids pride in their identity and a strong sense of who they are in their community and in larger Australia as well,” she said. More.

See: ABC News

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