CEYLON SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA
MELBOURNE CHAPTER

At our next meeting

DR NIRU PERERA
will present an illustrated talk on
“Talking Tamil, Talking Saivism in Australia:
language and religious maintenance in the
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora”

When we talk about Sri Lankan languages in the Australian context, it is important to
recognise that language is in a constant state of change. Most of us will have
experiences of losing some language through migration and when it comes to
passing language on to the next generation, we can see that young people tend to
use their heritage languages in different ways to the first generation.
Based on Niru’s research in a Tamil temple in Australia, this presentation will
highlight how Sri Lankan Tamil teenagers use the Tamil language in the temple
space. Niru will explore questions about what it means to keep a language alive in
the present day, how we might expect a language like Tamil to change in Australia,
and how language maintenance intersects with religious and cultural maintenance for
Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus.

Dr Niru Perera
of Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Malay heritage grew up in Fiji and Australia and
currently lives in Cairns. Niru has completed a Masters and a PhD in Linguistics at
Monash University. For her recently completed PhD, she conducted research on
language in a Tamil Hindu temple in Australia to look at the intersection between
language and religion for migrants. She continues to be a student of Sinhala and
Tamil languages.
.
Date: Sunday 22 October 2017
Time: 3:00 p.m.