First languaging as transformative pedagogy: reclamation of Noongar language in early childhood education in Australia

Abstract Drawing on a longitudinal ethnographic study at an Australian Aboriginal Playgroup in Western Australia , this article calls for a shift from passive revitalization of Aboriginal languages to active lived reclamation language programs that sustain the everyday, intergenerational language use within Aboriginal communities. Active lived reclamation of Aboriginal languages refers to Aboriginal community-driven processes and practices to bring the endangered languages back into daily institutional and interpersonal contexts. In doing so, active lived reclamation integrates the framework, First Languaging , which refers to languaging practices that First Nations people embody by weaving together First Knowledge systems, along with their Indigenous language and semiotic resources into their daily communicative practices. First Languaging , in this sense, serves not only as resistance to dominant monolingual ideologies but also as an advocacy for community-embedded, transformative form of language education.