(NEWS) Israel Sponsors Dubbo Indigenous Languages Hub

"The Embassy of Israel is financing an IT centre that will give Indigenous Australians a new way to share their traditional stories.

The Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre opens in Dubbo today.

The centre is a computer hub aimed at helping local elders record their oral history and traditions.

Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem says there are similarities between the Jewish and Aboriginal cultures.

He says he was inspired after hearing a lecture about how Jewish and Aboriginal cultures pass on their language and traditions in a similar way.

'The Hebrew language and the way it was revived is very instrumental in the way we tried to cultivate and help the revival of the Aboriginal languages, and also the storage and the preservation of their history and heritage,' he said.

Mr Rotem says the computer centre is aimed at developing a library of oral stories, history and cultural traditions of local elders.

'Young generations are going to deal with the elders and basically, from them, learn the language and basically store it in the computers,' he said.

'So if languages are going to either disappear gradually or phase away, at least there is going to be a record.'" (source)