Anumpa Achukma/Good News
Language Loss Can Be Reversed
06.08
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.
Power, Prayer, and Prestige
Many people think of power in terms of politics or economics. These types of power are, of course, important for language revitalization. However, there may be a more important sense of power that each of us has—maintaining a position in space. This is simply being ourselves, and speaking our own native languages is part of being ourselves. Having and speaking our own languages maintains that position and gives us power.
In an earlier issue, I mentioned that power is also potential, those things that we can bring about. This potential can be brought about through communication. Prayer is one mode of creating this potential through communication. Moreover, prayer is a prestigious use of language: some say the most prestigious. I was reminded of this at the Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium as I listened to people praying in their various indigenous languages. I am echoing what I heard in my interviews with Maori and what I have heard my own Native American students say.
What I am trying to suggest is that each of us should use the power we have inherent in us to bring this renaissance about.
Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium
This is undoubtedly the most fun conference to attend. At this conference, there are people from all over the world, and they are all working on the same thing—revitalizing their own languages. This is a great place to hear what others are doing, to see old friends, and make new ones.
First, what others are doing is being very creative. Satoru Nakagawa, a Tokunoshima speaker, talked about the relationship between “being” and Indigenous Language Revitalization. He related the situation of his own language that has been submerged by the Japanese conquest. Now education and government is conducted exclusively in Japanese. Not only is Tokunoshima relegated to the back burner, the Japanese government denies its existence.
A group of ladies from Nambe Pueblo presented their efforts in creating language materials and trying to get others involved. Jodi Burshia reported on the efforts of Laguna Pueblo. She reported how Laguna youth perceive the benefits of learning their own language. Both of these presentations acknowledge the importance of children in creating a future for languages. One of the more interesting presentations was by the Grand Ronde community, which has chosen to use Chinook, the old trade language of that area as a common language. The Grand Ronde community is one of those that the US government relocated several different linguistic groups together.
That leads me to one of my “old” friends, Dr. Anne Marie Goodfellow (anthrodocs@shaw.ca), who was there interviewing people about their work with language revitalization. One of her areas of interest is creole languages. There were several presentations from New Zealand. Dr. Jeanette King reported on changes in pronunciation and its potential effects on Maori language revitalization and the differences between individual and group perceptions about the purpose for language revitalization. Three Ngai Te Rangi women reported on “Reo O Te Kainga” (Language in the Home), a 12 month collaborative project with 9 Ngai Te Rangi families.
Special speakers included Dr. Christine Sims and Sam Deloria, University of New Mexico; Dr. Willard Gilbert, President of the National Indian Education Association; Ryan Wilson, President of the National Alliance to Save Native Languages; and Darrell Kip, Director of the Piegan Institute. Kip’s speech had everyone nodding their heads in assent. These are just some of the presentations that I attended.
The Cibique Apache dancers provided entertainment during lunch, and the food was fantastic. Friday night, we were fed half a dozen different traditional Navajo corn dishes along with several mutton dishes. Saturday night, a group of us—from the former British colonies of Australia, US, Canada, and New Zelands-- made our way to a local pub, where we ended with a serenade by the Kiwi—both Moari and not.
If you have not yet gotten involved in SILS (Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium), I urge you to do so. For more information, you can contact Jon.Reyhner@nau.edu.
Next year’s SILS is scheduled tentatively for April 30-May 2, 2009, at Arizona State University’s Memorial Union, so put that on your calendar.
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Free Software
At SILS, I met this great Aboriginal person who was demonstrating the free software developed by Arwarbukari Cultural Resource Association, Inc. (ACRA) called Miromaa. In the Awabakal language, Miromaa means “saved.” The program is compatible with Windows XP and Vista. It provides these multimedia features—audio, image, and video. Additionally, the program allows for archiving, language storage, using additional fonts, providing security for users, the construction of word lists, and exporting the data to other language programs.
For a more complete description and the possibility of getting this software, use the contact information below.
Arwarbikari Cultural Resource Association, Ind.
840 Hunter Street Newcastle West 2302
PO Box 2004 Dangar 2309
Phone: 02 4961 0515
FAX: 02 4940 8455
Email: contact@arwarbukarl.com.au
Web: http://www.arwarbukarl.com.au
Native Language Teacher’s Institute
Sponsored by the Institute for American Indian Education
University of Arkansas
June 2-7, 2008
8:30 AM – 4 PM
For more information contact Dr. Christine Sims csims@unm.edu, csimsacoma@aol.com, or Andera Ramon aramon1@unm.edu.
The April 2008 Comanche Language Newsletter is now online and ready to read/print at http://www.comanchelanguage.org
Scroll down to "April 2008 Language Newsletter" then click on April 2008.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Barbara Goodin, editor.
FIRST BIANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON TEACHING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES OF LATIN
AMERICA (STILLA-2008)
Organized by the Minority Languages and Cultures of Latin America Program (MLCP) and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS). August 14-16, 2008 – Indiana University – Bloomington
http://www.iub.edu/~mlcp/stilla/
CONVENORS
Serafín M. Coronel-Molina, School of Education
John H. McDowell, Folklore and Ethnomusicology
Jeff Gould, CLACS
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Nora C. England
Dallas TACA Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin
Director, Center for Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA)
Jean-Jacques Decoster
Director, Centro Tinku
President, Asociación Kuraka
Director, Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigación (ILAI)
Academic Director, Instituto de Investigación de la Lengua Quechua,
Cusco, Peru.
For more information about this event, including the Call for Papers,
please visit this link: http://www.iub.edu/~mlcp/stilla/
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Serafín M. Coronel-Molina, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Language Education
Indiana University
School of Education
Language Education Department
3036 Wendell W. Wright Building
201 North Rose Ave.
Bloomington, IN 4705-1006
Jobs
The Chickasaw Cultural Center Complex (currently under construction) will include an exhibit center, IMAX theater and cafe, amphitheater, traditional village, library/research center, and administration/center, and administration/we will begin a performing arts center. The campus sits on 109 acres in Sulphur, Oklahoma next to a national park. It's scheduled to open about a year from now. It is really going to be something special.
Jobs include
Directors of Museum Education and Business Operations
Visitor Services Managers
Outreach and Education Staff
Multimedia/Tech/Multimedia/Te
Conservators and Registrars
Curators and Exhibit Designers
Archivists
Marketing Staff
Contact Amanda Cobb at acobb@unm.edu
or
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Success Stories from Various Sources
Preserving a Language and Culture: Teaching Choctaw in the Public Schools
Newswise — Choctaw, a language that once was used for government, commerce, school and church in the Oklahoma Territory, faces extinction. In a program that could become a model for other threatened languages, Freddie A. Bowles, foreign language educator at the University of Arkansas, works with the Choctaw Nation to preserve and revitalize this indigenous heritage language.
Access full article below:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/540063/
Letter Men: Brothers Fight for Ojibwe Language
NPR
Listen Now [18 min 21 sec]
Fresh Air from WHYY, April 23, 2008 · Brothers David and Anton Treuer are members of the Ojibwe nation from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. They are working to preserve the Ojibwe language, one of the fewNative American languages in use.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89851668
Mi'kmaq to start immersion program
Published Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
In a province where language education has been a contentious issue since the Liberal government's decision to cut early French immersion programs, a First Nations community is taking its linguistic destiny into its own hands.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/actualities/article/275816
Gov't funds language program
The StarPhoenix
Published: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Heritage Canada will spend more than $700,000 over the next three years to help the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre (SICC) with ongoing efforts to preserve and promote the use of aboriginal languages for future generations. The SICC will receive a total of $737,613 over three years to continue its language strategy, which aims to increase fluency levels among all ages and encourage the use of traditional languages by aboriginal people in their everyday lives.
Cultural Survival Takes the Fight to Save Native Languages to the U.N.
2008-04-22 | Indigenous Languages Hold Keys to Global Warming Solutions and Preserving Biodiversity
New York, NY, April 22, 2008 ; Cultural Survival, a global leader in the fight to protect Indigenous languages, lands and cultures around the world, this week takes the fight to save native languages to the United Nations. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based organization will bring issues relating to American Indian/Native Hawaiian language revitalization to an international audience at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The United Nations has declared 2008 the "International Year of Languages" and the leadership of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recognizes biological, linguistic and cultural diversity as "inseparable and mutually reinforcing � when an Indigenous language is lost, so too is traditional knowledge on how to maintain the world's biological diversity and address climate change and other environmental challenges."
http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=4693&blz=1
Push for teaching Aboriginal native language in schools
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
April 28, 2008 12:00am
PRIMARY school students may learn Aboriginal languages as part of bold plan to improve education on the country's cultural heritage.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23607669-5005941,00.html
Pokagons work to preserve language
April 26. 2008 6:59AM
OUR OPINION
Language is among the most important symbols of a culture. And while there may be as many as 50,000 Potawatomi Indians living today in North America, as few as 60 speak their native language. Just five to seven are able to teach it. The urgency to keep the language from dying away is at the heart of the Pokagon Band's participation in a federally funded program that now involves between 25 and 30 adults in Lower Michigan.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/Opinion/804260380/1062/Opinion
Wed April 30, 2008
Tribal language preservation in state at issue
By Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
Tribal leaders should seek legislation next year to preserve native languages in Oklahoma if voters this fall approve a state English-only measure, several tribal members said Tuesday.
Jim Gray, principal chief of the Osage Nation, said some tribal leaders are concerned exemptions for languages of Oklahoma's 39 federally recognized tribes don't go far enough.
http://newsok.com/article/3236850/?print=1
Summit planned at Barona reservation
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 29, 2008
Pat Curo grew up on the Barona Indian reservation in the 1950s, when the tribe's native language was heard outside church and at funerals, parties and tribal gatherings. “We grew up speaking English,” Curo said. “We didn't speak much Indian in the house.” But Curo's grandparents lived 300 yards away, and they spoke it at home. One time, an uncle who was there “told me something in Indian,” Curo recalled. He couldn't answer.
Embarrassed, he asked his grandparents to speak to him in their native language so he could learn.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080429-9999-1m29yuman.html
The spoken and written Tibetan language is widely studied and used, and being developed
Source: english.people.com
04-28-2008 17:11
The Tibet Autonomous Region is an area where Tibetan people live in concentrated communities, constituting more than 95 percent of the population of the region. In Tibet, the spoken and written Tibetan language is universally used. In accordance with the stipulations of the Constitution and the Law on Ethnic Regional Autonomy, the Tibet Autonomous Region has paid great attention to maintaining and safeguarding the Tibetan people's right to study, use and develop their spoken and written language.
http://www.cctv.com/english/special/todaytibet/20080428/107350.shtml
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
OHA awards $5,000 grant
Ka Haka `Ula O Ke`elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaii at Hilo has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to promote language proficiency in elementary school children.
INJUNCTION: Bethel residents, others say state must do more.
By ANNE SUTTON
The Associated Press
Published: May 6th, 2008 01:24 AM
Last Modified: May 6th, 2008 01:38 AM
The Anchorage Daily News
JUNEAU -- Residents of Bethel and five Kuskokwim River villages are asking a federal court to order more effective elections assistance for Yup'ik-speaking voters. The Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed for a preliminary injunction on behalf of the plaintiffs in an Anchorage district court on Monday.
They are asking state and local elections officials to ensure that bilingual staff are available at the polls to assist voters and translate ballots and elections materials into Yup'ik for the August primary.
http://www.adn.com/western_alaska/story/397303.html
05.05.08
Word Choice
How Hebrew was (and continues to be) transformed into a modern language
Reported by Daniel Estrin
Sixty years ago this week, the modern state of Israel was born. Since then, thousands, and ultimately millions, of Jews have adopted Hebrew as their primary language, despite the fact that their ancestors stopped speaking it nearly two thousand years earlier. Linguists say it is the most successful instance yet of a “dead” language’s revival.
http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=828&page=comments
Kern River Valley Tubatulabal Tribesman Helps Create Dictionary
POSTED: 10:02 am PDT May 9, 2008
UPDATED: 12:09 pm PDT May 9, 2008
KERN RIVER VALLEY, Calif. -- The last known speaker of a North American tribal language is now helping others learn the language. Hundreds of years ago in Kern County, before one word of English or Spanish was ever uttered, people communicated in Native American dialects.
Pakaanil, the native language of the Tubatulabal tribes of the Kern River Valley, is a language that has been spoken for hundreds, possibly thousands of years in Kern County. What makes this language so unique is the man who is speaking these words. Jim Andreas, 77, is the last known native speaker of Pakaanil.
http://www.turnto23.com/news/16214187/detail.html
Radio Taiwan International
05/18/2008
1st aboriginal culture revival zone to be set up in Taiwan
An aboriginal Thao culture revival zone will be set up in central Taiwan. The revival zone will be the first of its kind in the country.
http://english.rti.org.tw/Content/GetSingleNews.aspx?ContentID=58095