This monument in Ashfield Park is an intriguing one. On December 17, 1999, UNESCO declared February 21st to be International Mother Langauge Day. day is celebrated to promote mother tongues and encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education.It originated as the international recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) since 1952, when a number of Dhaka university students were killed by the Pakistani police and army in Dhaka during the Bengali Language Movement.
The monument was promoted by the Ekushe Academy Australia, a Bangladeshi orgsanisation. It was unveiled on 19 February 2006 by H.E. Ashraf UdDoula, High Commissioner for Bangladesh.
The UNESCO site for IMLD.
Interesting post. I learned something new, as I was unfamiliar with International Mother Language Day. I assume that this has meaning in Australia in the preservation of aboriginal languages. In Costa Rica the indigenous languages did not survive because so few indigenous people survived the Spanish colonial period. In the USA, there are efforts to preserve the languages of Native Americans, with mixed results.
ReplyDeleteConcering International Mother Language Day, you may be interested in the contribution, made by the World Esperanto Association, to UNESCO's campaign for the protection of endangered languages.
ReplyDeleteThe following declaration was made in favour of Esperanto, by UNESCO at its Paris HQ in December 2008. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38420&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html
The commitment to the campaign to save endangered languages was made, by the World Esperanto Association at the United Nations' Geneva HQ in September.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7vD9kChBA&feature=related or http://www.lernu.net
I hope that you do not mind me passing on this information
Brian Barker
Sydney's Sunday Sally showed some stone sculpture signatures!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this news, I went to visit the monument as a Bangladeshi. But it was a shame for me to see that, though it was created by a Bangladeshi organization called enushe academy Australia, their was not one single letter in Bangla, what a shame for the nation as a whole. These so-called academy should be punished to put all in such a question.
ReplyDeleteIn reply to @Anonymous :
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you visited the monument and dint see the front side of the monument ?
Because, Bangla is present at the top on the Front side, They have done it to remember the Struggle by the Bengalis for their mother language movement.
Ekushe has done a great job. !