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 ...