Forcing English in Aboriginal Australia

I've always felt that we Alaskans have much to learn from the Australian language situation. We make regular pilgrimages to Aotearoa to learn about language nests and other revitalization programs, but it is in Australia not New Zealand that the Native language situation similar to Alaska. So it is sad to see the Australian government playing the same language games that the state and federal governments do in Alaska. As described in Jane Simpson's post on the Transient Languages and Cultures Blog, the government of Australia's Northern Territory -- home to many Aboriginal people -- wants to solve all the problems with education in the territory by forcing more teaching of English, at the expense of teaching Aboriginal languages, of course. The irony is that, as described in another recent post, a recent government report just cited the benefits of bilingual education. Go figure. But read about it. We can learn much from the English-only struggle of Australians.