2005.02
This is a newsletter dedicated to reporting the successes in revitalizing endangered languages worldwide. Share your good news with us by sending us an article about your program or current activity in revitalizing an endangered language.
Please forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested.
New Zealand, like Hawaii, is a group of islands; the two largest are called the North Island and the South Island. Christchurch is on the South Island. I arrived there on January 8, 2005, after a very long flight. It was suppose to be summer, so I wore my summer clothes despite the chilly below 70°F (about 20°C). Fortunately, everyone worked hard to make me feel welcome and warm. I was able to begin my research right away.
The first place I visited was Dunedin, mentioned in the first article. Part of my purpose in coming to New Zealand was to visit a variety of schools and approaches to revitalizing the Maori language. That I was able to do. These newsletters report some of what I learned there. Each article is headed by a P of language revitalization.
The Second P/Purpose
After making a personal commitment, a person needs a strong purpose. Otherwise, life will just wash away that personal commitment like waves wash away sand on a beach or the wind carves up sandstone in the desert.
In Otaki, NZ, I visited Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa, a tribal university. The head of that school is Dr. Whatarangi Winiata . Dr. Winiata trained in the U.S. in business. While there, he observed American businessmen undergoing week-long immersion sessions in foreign languages so that they could conduct business in other countries. A similar approach is also used by the Defense Department. Because he has a purpose to revitalize Maori language, he brought this idea back to New Zealand, and, thus, “language camps” were born. This was about 1975 after Maori had received the news that the language was in serious trouble with speakers growing older and few children growing up speaking the language.
These language camps have become a stock part of Maori language revitalization with several being held each year in different parts of the country and on both the North and South Island. These camps allow adult learners a chance to use what they have learned in the classroom in an immersion setting. Originally, the camps were held at marae (traditional building representing a particular Maori community) with elders in attendance to help guide the conversations. These camps have served to boost the language proficiency of many adults.
To learn more about language camps, go to Language Camps.
Dr. Winiata is the CEO of Te Wänanga-o-Raukawa and president of the Maori Party and can be reached through these two organizations.
At about the same time, Philbert and Lucille Watohomigie on the Hualapai reservation—located in the northern deserts of Arizona--began work on revitalizing the Hualapai language. Seeing the rapid erosion of the Hualapai language due to the separation of extended families by HUD housing and the intrusion of English-based television, they began work on a Hualapai bilingual program with the end goal of producing balanced bilinguals. At that time, Hualapai had no written language, so they started from scratch. Lucille often shares stories of those early days with the many discussions they had with elders and the community about creating the orthography. By 1981, however, they had produced enough materials that the school board adopted the Hualapai Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program, which went on to win awards.
To read more about this program, go to Hualapai Program.
Mapitzmitl (aka PAZ) was raised with traditions from Mexico even though he was born in the US, some of these traditions having an almost 400 year history in New Mexico: Coronado’s exploration of the US Southwest was attended by Nahuatl speakers as was the colonization of northern New Mexico. In fact, they had their own section in Santa Fe prior to the Pueblo Revolt (1680-92) and many of them sided with the Pueblo and Apache peoples in that fight to regain autonomy and independence. Even before their coming the Pueblo people maintained trade with the peoples of Mesoamerica.
As a consequence, it was natural that during the reawakening of identity of the 60’s and 70’s and at the urging of AIM leaders he should move closer to the traditions of his ancestors. Since that time Mapitzmitl has dedicated himself to recreating the Red Tradition, the dance tradition, of the old Aztec Empire, an empire built on thousand year old traditions of that region, Mesoamerica. Using the dance as the primary activity, he sees his purpose and the purpose of the dance group, Kalpulli Ehecatl, to recreate as much of that tradition, including the language, as possible. This is no mean task as the area is removed from its origins in both space and time. Despite that, he has devoted most of his adult life to that recreation, first making himself fluent in Nahuatl.
You can reach Mapitzmitl at this address PAZ and see photos of the group at Kalpulli Ehecatl.
Dr. Gordon Bronitsky has the purpose of creating an Indigenous Language Writers Festival, a festival of writers reading in their own mother tongues and providing workshops for others to do the same. This would be an annual event and feature indigenous writers from around the world. As envisioned by Dr. Bronitsky, this event will be huge and inspiring. “I’m convinced that indigenous writers have something important to say and that the world needs to hear it.”
To get more information about this event, contact Dr. Bronitsky at this address Gordon Bronitsky.
Leroy Sealy grew up speaking the Choctaw language, a growing rarity in Oklahoma where the Choctaw language has been steadily losing ground since the 1970’s. Choctaw has been a written language since about 1830. Until about 1880 it was used in all aspects of life in the Choctaw Nation. After the advent of the state of Oklahoma, Choctaw churches were one of the places where Choctaw was spoken and sung, but even that is giving way to English. Leroy is a young man, but he has a strong purpose to revitalize the Choctaw language. Working at the University of Oklahoma as a Choctaw language instructor, he shares his love of his own language with others and has worked to create new courses.
Leroy Sealy can be contacted at this address Leroy Sealy.
Make recreating your mother tongue(s) a strong purpose in your life. This purpose will help you create a time and space for this language(s) in your own life.
A Kiowa Success Story
I would like to inform you about my dad Evans Ray Satepauhoodle, a full-blood Kiowa. He started a language class about ten years ago and also did not wait on tribal funding. He knew the importance of preserving the Kiowa language and began his class in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Carnegie, Ok but when he married my mother he moved to Hominy, Ok and made a home for us, five children. After retiring from education he realized there were a number of Kiowa people living in the area and focused his time and energy on teaching the Kiowa language to whomever was and is interested in learning it. Being a former teacher he setup his own format in order to learn and retain it easier. He has a master's degree from Panhandle State in Goodwill, Ok. He can be reached at 918-885-2944. Thank you, Charisse.
A Scottish Gaelic Success Story
Scottish Gaelic is a very ancient language. It was spoken when the Romans invaded the British Isles. It was spoken when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded the British Isles. It was spoken when the fierce Vikings invaded. However, it has been steadily losing ground since the absorption of Scotland by England (now the UK) in 1603. Here is one recent response to that loss.
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is Scotland’s only Gaelic college and has been in existence since 1973. It is also part of the UHI Millennium Institute and delivers courses to postgraduate level. In addition to full-time and part-time degree programmes, it also offers 5-day courses in Gaelic, traditional music and dance at Easter and throughout the summer.
The department I work for is Foghlam Fad Beatha or Lifelong Learning, and specifically the distance-learning component within that department, An Cùrsa Inntrigidh. Students from all over the world have completed this distance-learning Gaelic course, including those who live in the Gaelic diaspora-America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We also get the occasional ex-pat student from such places as Japan and Turkistan.
The students access work books and sound files for the course online and also get the opportunity to take part in weekly telephone tutorials with other students from around the world, led by a fluent Gaelic-speaking tutor. We also offer weekend schools at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig which enable students to meet together and develop their conversational skills within a Gaelic environment. At present there are three Earrainn or parts to the course and a fourth part is being piloted which, when successfully validated, will equate to the first semester of our degree programme. Successful completion of the first three Earrainn is also an entry point to An Cùrsa Comais, the first year immersion course which is part of the degree programme.
The College is rapidly expanding, with further extensions planned for the future, which will include new business and further education opportunities. If anyone would like more information, please visit our web-site atAn Cursa Inntrigidh. Alternatively, for enquiries about An Cursa Inntrigidh, please contact me at An Cursa Inntrigidh.
Send your success stories to us. We will publish them .
Send it along with your name, the language, and a translation/explanation in one of these languages—English, Spanish, or French—so that people get the meaning.
You can send it in an email, as a MS Word document attachment, or a Rich Text Format document attachment. (Please note that some orthographies may not copy exactly, but I will try my best.)
Send your success story to us at Anumpa Achukma.
George Ann Gregory, Ph.D.
Choctaw/Cherokee
Fulbright Scholar