Reviving German Language in the Barossa - May 2021

The Barossa German Language Association are very keen to re-establish a bilingual German program either as a subject or subjects to be taught in German or as a bilingual program throughout the Barossa.
With appropriate government support, I believe a pilot program could be initiated to see what the uptake would be.
German is a heritage language in the Barossa. There is an emerging younger generation of local families and migrants who want their children to learn and retain bilingualism with effective German programs.
Dr Peter Mickan from the University of Adelaide has been a key driver of this initiative as a project leader of a Barossa German language revival and renewal project, which led to the establishment of the Barossa German Language Association in 2015 along with Steffi Traeger, the current president of the Barossa German Language Association and local historians Everard Leske and Don Ross.
In the Barossa community, German was spoken normally until the second half of the 20th century. People spoke German with families and neighbours and in their day-to-day business. They attended local Lutheran churches with services held in German.
When children went to school, they were required to learn English as an additional language. Celebrations and social events were in German. German was the first language at home, in church, in schools and for business. It was for quite a while the community's language in the Barossa.
A bilingual program would re-establish bilingualism for community members who have missed out on the opportunity to be competent in the use of German.

[@brasschick4214]

A wonderful initiative. My parents emigrated in the 1960s and did not teach my brother and myself German. This was due to Government policies of assimilation. This caused me to lose touch with family in Germany and the culture. I have learnt German over the years but it would have definitely been better to be raised bilingual.