The immersive Indigenous language class where English is left at the door

Pertame grandmother Auriel Swan thinks of her mother when she hears children speaking her language in an Alice Springs classroom.

Christobel Swan is one of the last fluent speakers of Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte, and dreamed of seeing the language passed on to her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and generations to come.

Now in declining health, Ms Swan is no longer able to teach the language as she once did, but inside the Pertame Language Nest, her dream is being carried by babies, young mothers, grandmothers and elders.

"This is my mother's dream," Ms Swan said.

"It was very good to see the little kids enjoying themselves and learning Pertame.

"I wish our ancestors can see it now."

English left at the door

The Language Nest is a total immersion program where children aged zero to five sing, dance, eat, play and learn entirely in Pertame.

English is left at the door.

The program is the first total immersion Indigenous language preschool in Australia, and now, the Pertame School is working toward an even bigger goal.

The organisation has lodged its intent to register an independent school that would continue the model beyond preschool, with hopes of starting teaching transition or kindergarten classes by 2029.

"If we're successful, we'll be the first total immersion school in Australia," coordinator Vanessa Farrelly said.

"We know it's possible, it's been done in other countries.

"It just hasn't been done in Australia before and we really want to lead the way."

Ms Farrelly said the Language Nest was designed to help raise Pertame babies as fluent speakers, like their ancestors, by surrounding them with their own language every day.

"Their mums bring them in, their grandmothers come in and we have our fluent speakers here and our coordinators, and we leave English at the front door and just create a Pertame-only environment," she said.

She said the aim was not simply to teach children isolated words, but to recreate the kind of environment in which their grandparents once learned Pertame naturally.

"This is the way that our elders learned to speak Pertame when they were babies," she said.

"They just grew up on their country surrounded by their families and elders hearing nothing but Pertame, and that's how they became speakers naturally."

Tyrique, 3, has been surrounded by Pertame since before he was born.

His mother, Sashanna Armstrong, first came to the program while pregnant and began bringing him back when he was about four weeks old.

"I brought him here to gain more language knowledge and get a sense of identity back into our lives," she said.

"Our language is severely endangered and we've got less than 30 fluent speakers left.

"It's up to us, the next generation, to revitalise and also strengthen our language to keep it going, keep it flourishing."

For 26-year-old Shania Burdett, the Language Nest has become a place where young mothers and children learn together.

Her two-year-old daughter Alita attends the program, where Ms Burdett said she had begun learning words and developing a stronger sense of identity.

"She's getting to know her identity and understanding the words and speaking bits of the words," she said.

"For us, younger generation, we grew up with English as the first language.

"So it's going to be hard, but you just got to have that courage to keep on pushing through."

'Live in your language'

The program is joyful and emotional for Pertame grandmothers Auriel Swan, Leeanne Swan and Elsa Swan.

"Sometimes I feel happy when I see all the little kids coming and learning, and the young mothers learning the language," Elsa Swan said.

"And at the same time feel sad for the elders, you know, not here to see their grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren learning the language."

Ms Swan said she hoped to see younger generations of her family speaking Pertame fluently within the next two decades.

"To see my daughter speaking language and my grandchildren and my grannies and my nieces and my nephews," she said.

"Keep that language going, keep it strong."

Leeanne Swan said Pertame families were once connected through cattle stations in Central Australia, but that changed as station work dried up and families moved into Alice Springs or other communities.

She said the few fluent Pertame speakers left were spread across a wide area, which was "why I believe that we've lost our core group of Pertame speakers".

"We don't get the chance, like we did when we were young, to [be] surrounded by the language," she said.

Ms Farrelly said the Pertame initiative had been shaped by successful First Nations language revival programs overseas, including one set up by the Yuchi people of Oklahoma.

She said the connection between the two groups had grown over several years, including through a 2025 visit where Yuchi and Pertame families shared language revival strategies in Alice Springs.

Ms Farrelly said some children who had graduated from the Language Nest and entered mainstream schools had already begun answering less in Pertame and the Yuchi experience had shown total immersion was critical.

"We don't want all our hard work in the Language Nest to be for nothing," she said.

"What we need is a very strong cohort attending at least 20 hours a week, totally cutting out English, being totally immersed in language.

"A dictionary is never going to save your language, an app on your phone is never going to save your language, it's got to be face-to-face interactions every single day.

"You've got to live in your language."

Ms Farrelly said there were 78 other critically or severely endangered Indigenous languages in Australia, with only a handful of fluent speakers, and the Pertame model could help other groups protect their culture.

"Australia has one of the fastest rates of language extinction in the world, so we've got no time to waste on methods that don't work," she said.

For Leeanne Swan, the purpose of the program is to raise strong Pertame children who know who they are.

"That's where they get their identity from, knowing that they come from strong people," she said.

"Our goal is to produce strong Pertame adults."