Indigenous Languages and Arts

The ILA program provides operational funding support to a network of 20 Indigenous language centres around the country working on capturing, revitalising and maintaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

The ILA program also supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to develop, produce, present, exhibit or perform Indigenous arts and language projects that showcase Australia’s traditional and contemporary Indigenous cultural and artistic expressions.

Objectives for Indigenous languages projects

1. Capture, revitalise and sustain Indigenous languages by:
   • facilitating activities that capture and preserve Indigenous languages
   • facilitating active participation by the community in Indigenous language teaching and learning pathways
   • creating and developing Indigenous language resources, enabling community to speak and hear their languages being used in everyday life
2. Contribute to the Australian Government’s priorities and outcomes for Aboriginal languages, including those under Target 16 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032.

Objectives for Indigenous arts projects

1. Develop, produce, present, exhibit or perform a diverse range of traditional and contemporary Indigenous art forms.
2. Support new and innovative forms of Indigenous cultural expression through arts.
3. Contribute to the Australian Government’s priorities and outcomes for Aboriginal culture expressed through arts activities, including those under Target 16 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.