As a leader in research of the world’s endangered languages, SIL aims to prevent the extinction of language and culture.  Their research is published and widely distributed to libraries, universities, governments, and international agencies.

SIL’s local organisation, The Australian Society for Indigenous Languages – AuSIL, is committed to serving indigenous language communities in Australia, the Pacific and the Timor region through linguistic research and documentation, translation, training, and the development of language resources.

AuSIL partners with government and non-government organisations to provide a network of expertise and resources that serve such ethnolinguistic communities. By networking with academic institutions, local organisations, remote communities, religious institutions and faith-based organisations, they are able to train people and build the capacity of local communities to develop (and sustain the use of) their own languages.

Located among the Indonesian islands near Australia, Timor-Leste (Democratic Republic of East Timor) is one of the world’s newest countries. This small, half-island nation is home to a young and culturally diverse population of just over 1 million. Although geographically small, Timor Leste is linguistically diverse, with nineteen different languages recognised across the country. In recent history, both Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia have been used as the languages of instruction in their country’s schools, but their National Commission believes that a mother tongue-based multilingual education model could be effective for students in Timor-Leste. In such a system, children would first learn to read and write in the language they best understand. As they build on this foundation, they also begin to study other languages that may be used for instruction in later years of school.

SIL (and AuSIL) acknowledge the value of multilingual education. Multiple studies worldwide demonstrate that learning is most effective when instruction is received in the language the learner knows best. Multilingual education creates a two-way bridge over the cultural and linguistic barriers that can hinder minority language speakers from participation and successful learning within the official school system. In order to assist with overcoming this barrier, AuSIL’s consultants support community educators and national program designers as they develop resources and build their capacity to create effective multilingual education programs.

Mambai, also known as Mambae, and Manbae (but not to be confused with the Mambai language of Cameroon) is the language spoken by the second largest ethnic group in Timor Leste, the Mambai people. Given the expectation that mother tongue-based education may become more widely used, numerous projects are translating school and community resources into Mambai. In one such project, consultant and logistic help provided by the AuSIL local office in Clayfield is supporting mother-tongue translator Julieta Costa who devotes her time to the translation of Christian Scriptures into her own language, Mambai. Julieta recognises the specific need for Christian resources in a context where priorities are otherwise given to material for education. Although Indonesia is primarily Muslim, the people of Timor Leste are almost all Christian.

AuSIL relies on donations for work in minority languages. Can we give $1,000 towards Julieta’s translation of Christian Scriptures into Mambai?

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