International Mother Language Day (February 21) will be marked in Canberra on February 23 with an annual walk around Lake Burley Griffin.

With the 2025 theme Languages Matter, this is the Silver Jubilee celebration of International Mother Language Day, officially gazetted by UNESCO in 1999 in recognition of the date when Bengali-speaking students, demonstrating for their language, were gunned down in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Now it’s a thriving focal point for linguistic diversity and its role in fostering understanding.

The walkers will this year be accompanied by songs from around the world played on the National Carillon.

After gathering at the International Flag Display below Questacon car park, where free, themed T-shirts will be distributed, the language lovers will be waved off by the Zambian Culture Dancing Group and the Prosperous Mountain Lion Dancers before crossing King’s Avenue Bridge. The walk ends near the National Workers Memorial with a sausage sizzle and more cultural performances

More from imlm.21feb@gmail.com, call 0434 436 315 or visit imlm21.org.au