[1/5] Children study the Dharug language at Lethbridge Park Public School in Sydney, Australia May 8, 2023. "Opening our own schools, that's sovereignty in action," said Webb, one of those seeking to revive the Indigenous language spoken in Coffs Harbour, a coastal town about 500 km (310 miles) north of Sydney. Authorities often relocated Indigenous people from their traditional lands, known as Country, and forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families, resulting in a "stolen generation" because of policies that ran from the mid-19th century to the 1970s. As late as the 1980s, authorities punished Indigenous people for speaking their languages. At the time of European colonisation, more than 250 Indigenous languages, including 800 dialects, were believed to have been spoken continent-wide, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) says.

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Persons: Alasdair Pal, Clark Webb, Webb, Jayalaani, Ray Ingrey, Captain James Cook, you've, you'll, Ingrey, Jasmine Seymour, Maria Lock, Seymour, James Redmayne, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Lethbridge Park Public School, REUTERS, Freedom, Torres, Authorities, Australian Institute of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Gujaga Foundation, Lethbridge Park Public, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, COFFS HARBOUR, Australian, Coffs Harbour, Australia’s, New South Wales, Torres Strait, Great Britain, Dharawal, British, Lethbridge, Sydney's