50 words project
This project aims to provide fifty words in every Indigenous language of Australia.
The words are provided online with community permission, and with audio provided by a language speaker. The languages and words are displayed on a map of Australia so that users can easily find the information relevant to their local area. We hope that this will be a useful resource for schools and educational organisations to learn 50 words in their local language, and for the general public to discover and appreciate the diversity of First Nations’ languages around Australia.
View the 50 words interactive language map
Thank you to First Languages Australia for allowing us to use their Gambay map as our base map for this project.
Would you like your language included?
If you interested in adding your language or would like further information about the 50 words project please email RUIL.
Learning resources
Here you can download a pdf file of learning activities to accompany the 50 Words map. These are designed for students of all ages and can be used at home or in the classroom
Project team: Chief Investigators Professor Rachel Nordlinger and Associate Professor Nick Thieberger, Project Officers Dr Bill Forshaw and Allyra Murray. Resourced by the Research Unit of Indigenous Language and supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.
Site design and development was by Dr Marco La Rosa and the code is available below. You will find instructions there for reusing the code if you want to build a similar project with different geography.
This research project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Melbourne. Project number: 2024-28141-49151-4