For the first time this year, we are offering a full three weeks of intensive Cree and Michif language courses.  In addition, we are proud to offer two brand new courses this summer:

LING 311 Online Tools for language Revitalization

This course provides an introduction to the use of new technologies to aid in language revitalization in both home communities and urban settings.  Topics will include computer-based learning tools, online language courses, and the innovative use of social media sites.  Students will examine how these new technologies are being used in indigenous language communities around the world, and will design a language technology plan appropriate for their own community.

ANTH 485 Landscape, Meaning and Culture: The Social Meaning of Place

This course explores how and why particular places are invested with social meaning by different cultural and linguistic groups.  Students will analyze place-naming practices in their own and other Indigenous languages, and examine the ways in which people talk about place in both  conversation and narrative.  Students will also investigate various perspectives on map-making, and the ways in which Indigenous cultural and worldview can be incorporated into community mapping projects.

The full listing of our Summer School courses is shown below.  Courses marked (CLC) are part of our Provincially-recognized Community Linguist Certificate program, now in its seventh year.

Block 1 Courses: July 8-17

LING 111 Introduction to Linguistic Analysis for Indigenous Language Revitalization (CLC)

LING 212 Morphosyntax of Indigenous Languages (CLC)

LING 311 Online Tools for Language Revitalization

INTD 318 Techniques for Endangered Language Documentation (CLC)

EDEL 306 Introduction to Language and Literacy Development

EDEL 463/595 Assessment in Indigenous Language Classrooms

EDEL 496/595 Using Literacy and Drama in Indigenous Languages Education

NS 103 Cree Immersion for Adult Beginners

NS 103 Michif Immersion for Adult Beginners

Block 2 Courses: July 18-26

ANTH 485 Landscape, Meaning and Culture: The Social Meaning of Place

LING 211 Phonetics of Indigenous Languages (CLC)

LING 213 Sentence and Discourse Patterns of Indigenous Languages (CLC)

LING 311 Community Language Archiving

INTD 311 Language Policy and Planning for Indigenous Language Communities (CLC)

EDEL 461/595 Second Language Acquisition: Teaching Indigenous Languages in an Immersion Context

EDEL 462/595 Developing Classroom Materials and Curriculum for Indigenous Languages

EDEL 496/595 Teaching Indigenous Languages Through Cultural Arts

NS 104 The Structure of Cree Through Immersion

NS 104 The Structure of Michif Through Immersion

Special Session: June 4-21

EDEL 496/595 Indigenous Language and Cultural Renewal, The Maori Model

Full information on courses, bursaries and more is available on our website: www.cilldi.ualberta.ca

Questions?  Drop us a line at: cilldi@ualberta.ca or Call: (780) 248-1179

We look forward to having you with us in Edmonton this summer!

Protect, Preserve, Promote, Practice and Pass On Your Language!

~~ The CILLDI Team

The Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act (S. 3546), which authorizes and awards grants to support and strengthen Native American language immersion programs – including language nests, survival schools, and restoration programs – is currently up for reauthorization. With your help, we have the opportunity now to get the bill passed through.

TAKE ACTION NOW. Call Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Akaka (D-HI) at (202) 224-2251 today, and urge him to use the “clearance” process for a quick passage of Esther Martinez.

In your message, tell Sen. Akaka that:

• The Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act strengthens tribal language, culture, and identity.
• The survival of American Indian and Alaska Native languages is essential to the success of tribal communities and Native ways of life.
• The Esther Martinez Native American Languages Act provides tribes with critical support to establish and maintain immersion programs that revitalize Native languages.

Download this brief on the Esther Martinez Reauthorization, and NIEA’s resolution calling for reauthorization of the act, to learn more.

Related articles

• Oklahoma Schools Push to Keep Native Languages Alive (newamericamedia.org)
• Gmail to Support Its First Native American Language (chiefwritingwolf.com)

I am in a BIG search for a couple of good interns or volunteers in South Florida.  I currently manage two divisions at the Museum, Education and Oral History.  We are re-signing a 3 year contract with Randforce and Associates for the digital indexing of the Oral History Collection.  Over the last three years we indexed all of the audio interviews and had all of the video digitized with MediaPreserve.  (Both companies are phenomenal, by the way)

Over the next three years, we will be adding the videos to the index.  While Randforce will be taking care of most of the digital indexing and database management for the project, I need help adding the remaining audio to the index, conducting oral history interviews, accessioning and cataloguing the backlogged interviews, writing abstracts for the interviews, adding the interviewees to our “people biographies” database in PastPerfect, and potentially assisting with education-related projects.

The internship would be unpaid and it is possible that some of it can be done remotely.  Because of the culturally sensitive and proprietary nature of the work, I am only interested in having the best and the brightest students/volunteers work on this project.  The Seminole Tribe’s Oral History Program is utilizing some of the best technology available in the field and is on the cutting edge of field.  We are a Smithsonian Affiliate and AAM Accredited Museum as well.  This would be a great opportunity for a student or recent graduate to break into the field.

As an aside, it is imperative for the students to understand that they CANNOT use any of the content in publications due to serious restrictions on the interviews put into place by the interviewees themselves or the Tribal Council.  We utilize full informed consent and deeds of gift for the collection of our interviews and always observe the restrictions set forth by participants in the program.  Interns may be required to sign a proprietary agreement with the Tribe.  They may, however, share process and experience with others, which I have found is perfectly fine in the field.

Please let me know if you have any stellar undergraduate students, graduate students, or recent graduates interested in this opportunity.  We will be observing Native preference in picking interns/volunteers.  They must be willing to commit to a certain amount of time as well.  I can be contacted directly at elizabethlowman@semtribe.com.

Thank you so much in advance!

Elizabeth Lowman

Education and Oral History Coordinator, Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum

Seminole Tribe of Florida

elizabethlowman@semtribe.com

(863)902-1113 ext. 12210

Visit our website at: http://www.ahtahthiki.com/

Become a member at: museummembership@semtribe.com

Yesterday, in a blog post on Crikey Ngurrju!Manymak! Pupuni! NT drops First Four Hours in English policy, Greg Dickson broke the news that the NT Department of Education and Training has finally reversed its policy of Compulsory Teaching in English for the First Four Hours of Each School Day.

Communities, linguists and educators have lobbied long and hard for more than three years for the reversal of this retrogressive and damaging policy. Greg Dickson, Piers Kelly, Jane Simpson and other linguist commentators have written on numerous occasions about this topic on Crikey (e.g. 4/5/12, 4/11/10) and the Endangered Languages and Cultures Blog (e.g. 2/11/12, 31/8/11). AuSIL wrote many letters and media releases, held public forums, and produced the “Indigenous Languages in Education: What the Research Actually Shows” booklet. Opposition to the policy was a strong theme in submissions to the House of Representatives Inquiry into languagelearning in Indigenous communities.

In place of the 4 hours policy, NT Ed has released a Framework for Learning English as an Additional Language. The second policy point is entitled “Home/local languages are valued”. It notes that “Programs designed to deliver English literacy outcomes are inclusive of the student’s home/local language and culture as agreed with parents and communities. Home/local languages can and should be used where appropriate to support the learning and acquisition of concepts. There will be times, particularly in the early years, when it may be better to introduce concepts using the home/local language. This is good teaching practice and is to be encouraged. This is the Department’s approach for English as an additional language learning and one that is used across Australia and internationally.”

Point V continues “Some communities will identify a desire to have their children learn to read and write in their home/local language as well as read and write in English. The Department of Education and Training values home languages and culture and will support communities in this endeavor through the use of school facilities after hours for cultural and language activities and within the curriculum through language and culture programs.”

The Guidelines documents offers the advice that “Learning English as an additional language is complex and multifaceted as different first languages may present different challenges for teaching. The complexity of the EAL process means that schools must choose instructional approaches appropriate to the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the learners.” Further, “Instructional programs must promote positive and accurate representations of children’s (and families’) first language and cultural heritage”.

These points must offer encouragement to NT communities who have keenly felt the destruction of language programs in their schools, and the concomitant impact of the detrimental 4 hours policy on school attendance and wellbeing within the community.

Congratulations to all who have fought so hard for this outcome! Much work now lies ahead to rebuild programs and we wish strength to al through the coming months.

Chickasaw Nation, under the leadership of Governor Bill Anoatubby, decided to do something about that.  Building on the small language program begun in the late 1990s, Chickasaw Nation established the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program in 2007, and created the department of Chickasaw Language in 2009, with seven full-time employees and a 24-member Chickasaw Language Committee.  UCLA linguist Pam Munro serves as the program’s consultant, along with John P Dyson (Associate Professor, Emeritus, Indiana University at Bloomington) who also co-teaches Chickasaw language classes at East Central University, Ada.

Director Joshua D Hinson, surely one of the most ambitious and hardest-working language workers in the country, explains in a lovely metaphor the path that the language has taken historically:

The Chickasaw have a long and storied history since separating from the Choctaw circa 1450.  Today Chickasaw tribal history is conceptualized in four seasons. Summer, the start of the Chickasaw New Year, marked by the Green Corn Ceremony, is understood as encompassing the lives of Chickasaw ancestors pre-contact. In this time our lifeways and language were fully intact and strong. Fall, marked by the closing of the ceremonial grounds and preparation of food for the long winter, is understood as encompassing the challenging years of the eighteenth century, when the Chickasaw were hard pressed on all sides by the French and French-allied Choctaw, losing hundreds of our people to warfare and disease. From the Yamasee War beginning in 1715 though the defensive consolidation at Old Town in present-day Tupelo, Mississippi, to the flight of 80 Chickasaw to the Savannah River near present-day Augusta, Georgia circa 1720, the Chickasaw declined to a nadir of as low as 1600 individuals by 1760.  Winter, marked by hunger, months of limited food and long nights filled with tribal stories, is today understood to encompass the horrors of Removal to Indian Territory beginning in 1837, the struggles of reestablishing our nation in these new lands, the losses of the Civil War, and the heartbreak of allotment, as our tribal government was for all intents and purposes terminated and our tribal lands broken up into individual allotments. Winter continues into the lean years of the early to mid-twentieth century, as we struggled to survive without a functioning government, limited financial resources, and a population increasingly forced to leave traditional communities in order to find work. Spring, traditionally marked by the return of ball play, dances, and the first growth of wild onions, is today understood to encompass our present Chickasaw cultural and political renaissance.

Mounting a full-scale revitalization effort, the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program has instituted an astonishing number of projects.

Speakers Jerry Imotichey and JoAnn Ellis teach four levels of Chickasaw at East Central University in Ada, OK.  They have 15-20 students in each of their classes.

At Byng High School, two levels of Chickasaw language are taught for credit.

With the assistance of Leanne Hinton (University of California at Berkeley), Mr. Hinson has organized a Master-Apprentice program with six teams of speakers and their language apprentices.  Additionally, a group master-apprentice class meets regularly.

Chipota Chikashshanompoli, a children’s enrichment program for primary through middle school youngsters, meets once a month.  They learn vocabulary words based on themes but also learn pieces that will be performed in competition at the annual Youth Language Fair, hosted by the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma (contact Mary Linn for more information).

Community language classes are held in the towns of Norman, Purcell, Ada, Tishomingo, Ardmore, and Sulphur.

Employee language classes give special attention to those who represent Chickasaw Nation.

Family immersion and sports camps, organized periodically, keep focus on the language while playing together.

The department of Chickasaw Language also sponsors projects that affect the organized Chickasaw community councils outside Oklahoma.

The Chickasaw Press publishes books in Chickasaw and English by Chickasaw authors.   All the books have at least some Chickasaw language. So far the press has published children’s books and books of folktales.  (The press may be contacted at chickasawpress.com.)

The department of Chickasaw Language offers a Word of the Day (chickasaw.net) and Word of the Week (contact Hanna Corsello) for those who want a small infusion of Chickasaw language practice. Language videos and additional resources can be accessed at chickasaw.tv.

Finally, the program offers both translation services upon request and language materials that can be mailed to anyone who desires to learn the language at home.

Mr. Hinson himself is seeking an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Oklahoma in Native Language Revitalization.  A trained artist in his former career, many of his works can be seen in the Chickasaw Cultural Center and in the homes of lucky patrons.  Josh and his wife also encourage the use of Chickasaw in their home, reasoning that their children are the ones who will carry on the language.

All language programs should feel encouraged and inspired by the excellent work coming from Chickasaw Nation.

For the past few years, the Committee on Endangered Languages has benefited from the wise oversight of Carol Genetti (University of California, Santa Barbara), who has worked hard to see CELP reach its full potential, beginning initiatives in political activism, organizing panels at conferences on endangered languages, and launching CELP’s (social) media presence. All of us are grateful to have worked with her.

Now, we welcome in our newly-elected chair, Mary S. Linn, Associate Professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, and Associate Curator for Native American Languages at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Mary received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2001, and her research interests include American Indian languages and linguistics, description and fieldwork, language maintenance, morphosyntax, language universals, and typology. In her own words:

My main interest lies in the documentation and description of American Indian languages and language use in context. I focus on the Euchee (Yuchi) language, languages of the Southeast, and more broadly on the languages of Oklahoma. I am fascinated by what motivates morphological variation and change.

I work actively in language revitalization, and much of my research is about and is situated in community-based language revitalization. This approach includes the training of community members in language documentation, linguistics, language teaching methodology, and culturally-based language curriculum development. I am interested in strategies for youth language acquisition.

I curate the Native American Languages collection at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and extend this work by studying the roles of archives in language revitalization and the formation of community-based archives and accessibility.

Her most recent work includes A Reference Grammar of Euchee (Yuchi) (University of Nebraska Press).

Please join me in welcoming Mary as our newest chair, and thanking Carol for all her dedication and hard work!

Special Session of the LSA Annual Meeting
Friday January 6^th

Associated film screening of WE STILL LIVE HERE Âs Nutayuneân

With question and answer period featuring Jessie Little Doe Baird
Thursday January 5^th

Contents

1. Description of Panel

2. Presenters and Abstracts

3. Schedule of Presentations

4. About WE STILL LIVE HERE Âs Nutayuneân

Description of Panel (return to top)

The theme of this session is on the role of Linguistics in endangered language revitalization. While there has been a growing focus within the field of Linguistics on “best practice” methodologies for endangered language documentation, there are many challenges – for linguists, for educators, for indigenous community members – in how to move from the “documentation” (past or present) of a language which is no longer actively spoken within families and communities to its effective “revitalization”. Our goal is to illustrate through six case studies – representing diverse languages, contexts, and approaches – how linguists can contribute to language reclamation initiatives, and of how these efforts can, in turn, contribute to documentary linguistic practice so that it can better serve endangered language revitalization.

The challenges are multi-faceted and range across a broad array of transdisciplinary issues that are often subdivided into independent academic departments, disciplines, and faculties. Among the many challenges are: how to breathe life into archived manuscripts that have lain dormant for generations; how to interpret and use the formal categories of linguistic analysis that characteristically underlie the organizational structure of “dictionaries” and “grammars” for the development of curriculum materials that can effectively engage – rather than obfuscate or simplify – the underlying essence and complexities of a language; how to confront the realities of linguistic diversity and of language change as they impact on language revitalization; how to recognize and respect deep-seated psychological factors related to language prohibition, degradation, and loss, and their residual impact on indigenous community members’ attitudes about the value and future of their linguistic heritage; how to address the interface of literacy and oral traditions, the sometimes conflicted attitudes to “documentation” and archiving, the honoring of traditional heritage within the cultural worlds of the present; how to move beyond the teaching/learning of individual “words” and phrases into issues of thought and cognition, into ways of knowing and traditional knowledge systems as embedded in and/or reflected through linguistic structure.

Many linguists are eager to assist communities with revitalization efforts, but often are unaware of the diverse complexities, or feel daunted by the time commitment, or confront a lack of training in “applied” skills. There are many possible strategies and models for addressing these issues. In presenting these case studies of communities that are actively engaged in revitalization programs, our aim is to provide not only a diversity of approaches based on the collective experience of various leaders in the revitalization movement, but also a platform for discussing the complexity of these challenges. Our over-arching goal is to explore how the insights and dedicated efforts of those working in language “documentation” and those working in language “revitalization” can most effectively contribute to each other and to the continued vitality of the world’s linguistic diversity for generations to come.

Presenters and Abstracts (return to top)

1. From Our Ancestors Hands to Ours

Jessie Little Doe Baird (Wampanoag, MA)

Hundreds of years ago it was prophesized that our language would be lost, and that the children of those who had a hand in breadking that circle of language will have to work very hard, together, to welcome the language home again. For the Wampanoag, the loss of all speakers has provided the greatest opportunities for instruction, productive work, and solidarity with the contemporary generation as well as with those Ancestors that have been long on the other side. There is a great awakening to our responsibilities to the privilege of language. Indigenous nations caught on the continuum of speaker loss grapple with the same questions: whether and how to write the language, how to use dormant documents for language and cultural reclamation, and be put toward meaningful contemporary expressions in our Languages. We will discuss strategies employed by the Wampanoag People in response to these questions and others.

2. Mutual Guidance: The Klallam Language Program after Twenty Years

Tim Montler (University of North Texas)

Jamie Valdez (Elwha Klallam Tribe, WA)

Wendy Sampson (Elwha Klallam Tribe)

Georgianne Charles (Elwha Klallam Tribe)

This describes a twenty-year collaboration between a linguist and a native community on the documentation, description, analysis and revitalization of the Klallam language. The linguist collected and analyzed language data. Then with the teachers packaged this information into culturally appropriate learning tools through a process of mutual guidance. The linguist provides material on grammar in formats suggested by the community. It is then modified based on feedback from the community. Klallam is taught from pre-school through high school and adult classes. In the high school program, begun in 1998, hundreds of students, some now teachers of Klallam themselves, have had deep exposure to the language. The Klallam language program demonstrates that language documentation and revitalization are not mutually exclusive; in fact, through a process of mutual guidance, they support and enhance each other. This paper presents, in summary, the perspectives of the linguist and three key teachers in the program.

3. Breathing new life into Tohono O’odham documentation: The Mathiot

Dictionary Project

Colleen Fitzgerald (University of Texas, Arlington)

Phillip Miguel

In this talk, we address how existing language documentation serves revitalization purposes, using a case study from Tohono O’odham, a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in southern Arizona. The focus is on breathing new life into an out-of-print dictionary published by Madeleine Mathiot in 1973. An electronic version converted to the official orthography is being edited. Via a collaboration in parallel with Dr. Mathiot and O’odham teachers and tribal linguists, the dictionary is morphing into something with potential for new life and more uses. One way to enrich the electronic dictionary is to link the entries with the texts that provide out-of-context sentences or the audio. Another might be to add a ‘lite’ version (with fewer sentences) to increase its accessibility for learners. The rich documentation presented by the Mathiot dictionary offers valuable lessons for those engaged in documentation and revitalization projects in terms of anticipating limitations and future community needs.

4. Using documentation in Yurok language revitalization

Carole Lewis (Yurok Tribe, CA)

Andrew Garrett (University of California, Berkeley)

The Yurok language (northwestern California) has several first-language speakers, and very active education and revitalization programs sponsored by the tribe and community groups. Our focus is on the use of language documentation in revitalization. The long history of Yurok documentation includes vocabulary and sentences recorded since the 1880s, text and grammatical documentation by academic researchers since 1901, a rich body of material recorded within the community, and a significant archive of audiovisual documentation created by the Yurok Tribe. To ensure that learners are directly exposed to the speech of fluent elders (not just advanced learners), we have made the corpus of recordings used for academic research available in the community and have created online tools for access. For practical language education and revitalization purposes it has been necessary to reorient research in two ways. First, grammatical topics are described in “etic” and not “emic” terms. Second, text-based grammatical research is pedagogically driven.

5. Linguistics and language revitalization: community capacity-building.

Patricia A. Shaw (University of British Columbia)

Jill Campbell (Musqueam Indian Band, BC)

Larry Grant (Musqueam Indian Band, BC)

Marny Point (Musqueam Indian Band, BC)

Fern Gabriel (Kwantlen First Nation, BC)

In this presentation we draw on some of the complex challenges of language documentation, analysis, and revitalization that we have faced over a 15 year collaboration between a university-based linguist and the adjacent həəmiə (Coast Salish) community. Our approach is grounded in a commitment to capacity-building not only in “language learning”, but also in training community members in the linguistic principles, analytical methodologies, and perspectives that will give them the skills to be active research participants and to better assess many issues that impact on the future of their language – like evaluating competing orthographies, mastering complex morphophonemic variation, debating what’s dialect difference vs. language atrition, asking how linguistic knowledge about diachronic language change might contribute to notions about ‘purism’? Although initiated for the exchange of complementary systems of knowledge, the unanticipated co-construction of knowledge process that has evolved is leading to better documentation, better linguistic understandings, and better foundations for revitalization.

6. neetawaapantamaanki iilinwiaanki: Searching for our Talk

Daryl Baldwin (Miami University, Oxford, OH)

The story of Myaamia (Miami-Illinois) language loss over 100 years ago and its reclamation today is relevant to other tribes experiencing language loss. There are four pillars at the base of our reclamation efforts: as a tribal member, I had to get a linguistics degree; community elders had to support my desire for education and my efforts to revive Myaamia; the community had to develop interest, over time; and tribal leadership support was critical. Each of these foundational pillars depends on the ability of all involved parties – including linguists – to form healthy working relationships. We work hard to break down the us (native) and them (researcher) barrier. We very much believe in home-grown talent and the role of non-tribal linguists is to help us accomplish that. I think there is a place within our tribal communities for quality non-tribal linguists and our experience provides a good example of that.

Schedule of Talks (return to top)

Session Co-Chairs: Carol Genetti, Patricia Shaw

• 9:00. Brief welcome and introductory remarks
• 9:00- 9:30. Baird, Jessie Little Doe. From Our Ancestors Hands to Ours.
• 9:30-10:00. Montler, Tim, Jamie Valdez, Wendy Sampson, Georgianne Charles. Mutual Guidance: The Klallam Language Program after Twenty Years
• 10:00-10:30. Fitzgerald, Colleen & Phillip Miguel. Breathing new life into Tohono O’odham documentation: The Mathiot Dictionary Project.
• 10:30-11:00. Lewis, Carole & Andrew Garrett. Using documentation in Yurok language revitalization.
• 11:00-11:30. Shaw, Patricia A., Jill Campbell, Larry Grant, Marny Point, Fern Gabriel. Linguistics and language revitalization: community capacity-building.
• 11:30-12:00. Baldwin, Daryl. neetawaapantamaanki iilinwiaanki: Searching for our Talk.

About WE STILL LIVE HERE (return to top)

This documentary tells a remarkable story of cultural revival by the Wampanoag of Southeastern Massachusetts. Their ancestors ensured the survival of the first English settlers in America, and lived to regret it. Now they are bringing their language home again. The story begins in 1994 when Jessie Little Doe, an intrepid, thirty-something Wampanoag social worker, began having recurring dreams: familiar-looking people from another time addressing her in an incomprehensible language. Jessie was perplexed and a little annoyed– why couldn’t they speak English? Later, she realized they were speaking Wampanoag, a language no one had used for more than a century. These events sent her and members of the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanaog communities on an odyssey that would uncover hundreds of documents written in their language, lead Jessie to a Masters in Linguistics at MIT, and result in something that had never been done before – bringing a language alive again in an American Indian community after many generations with no Native speakers.

As a graduate student, I frequently wonder whether I’m doing the “right” thing – am I asking relevant research questions, making insightful observations, somehow contributing in a meaningful way to the academic discourse?  In the field, the questions are different but the concerns about “the right thing” remain the same – am I respecting the collaborators’ immediate goals and responsibilities, reimbursing their time in culturally-appropriate ways, learning how to listen carefully before asking questions?  One thing in particular that I grappled with on a recent fieldwork visit to Micronesia was trying to explain the nuances of a consent form to the community members with whom I worked.  During May and June 2011, I continued my long-term fieldwork on Mortlockese as spoken on Pakin Atoll in Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia, graciously funded by an Arts and Sciences Student Research Award from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.  I have been working with the Pakin community for several years now, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2006 to 2009, and now as a researcher in linguistics.  For me, though, I see the community not as a collection of native speakers of a minority outer island language in the FSM, but rather as friends and family with whom I continue to forge interpersonal relationships.  I still go back and live with my Peace Corps host family during my summer fieldtrips.  My former students – my first real teachers of conversational Mortlockese – never cease to share their jokes, stories, and songs with me.  I felt privileged that the handful of adults on Pakin who are known as the best storytellers on the island invited me on several occasions to be an audience to their tittilap ‘stories’.  The term “community” for me primarily refers to “people”, and then “language”.  I clearly remember some of the first pieces of advice the Peace Corps staff gave us early on in our training: rather than jump headfirst into project implementation, take the time to form interpersonal relationships with your host family, counterparts, students, and the wider community.  I feel that the length of time that I spent with the community has allowed me to gain their trust, and them mine.  This gives me the confidence to ask questions in meaningful ways, questions which I feel they would be more willing to answer candidly and honestly as compared to responding to questions posed by an academic “passerby” to their islands.

The task of asking the “right questions” could not be more relevant than in regards to consent forms.  As required by the University’s Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, I provided copies of consent forms to the contributors.  The forms were approved in English, but I gave the contributors Mortlockese-translated versions.  Despite the attempt at making the content of this form accessible to them in their native language (which is itself a novel idea, since “official” forms are always either in English or Pohnpeian), I still couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable about it all.  Mwéúmwéútáán ‘permission’ in their community is given verbally, expressed through real action, enforced by social consequences…it’s not expressed in writing or by checking off boxes and signing names on lines.  How could I talk about this unwieldy document in a way that would be relatable for them?  Some concepts were a little easier to talk about than others.  For example, the idea of a public digital archive isn’t so foreign when compared to a leenian iseis pwuuk ‘library’, which they have in the form of an elementary school library on Pakin, as well as libraries on Pohnpei.  Others, though, are rather nuanced, such as engaging in conversations with the consultants regarding the reasons why their recordings would be placed in such an archive, or why others outside of their community would be interested in their stories.  In the end, I realized that it just came down to asking questions and explaining the reasons for asking them.  I felt that one question, though, was one of the most important questions I needed to ask: “Can I archive everything that we’ve recorded?”  I wanted to clarify with the contributor if there was anything from the recordings which he/she did not want to be archived.  This is a fundamental aspect of asserting the agency of the contributor during fieldwork.  I wanted to make it clear to everyone who helped me with my fieldwork that he/she has the right to indicate what will or won’t be made public to others.  I would affirm with them by saying, esapw áái angaang, ngé aash ‘it’s not my work, but ours (inclusive)’.  In almost all cases, the contributors had no reservations about allowing the entirety of their recordings to be archived.  I’m certain that many of them felt a certain measure of pride that their words would be heard by others far away.  But in one particular case, I was so happy to hear someone say, “No”.

This summer I had the opportunity to record narratives with Lucila Linge, one of the eldest residents of Pakin.  I was very excited to work with her because she is a member of the last generation of Micronesians who were alive during the Japanese occupation of the islands during WWII.  Nohno Lucila (Mother Lucila) was only a child during that time, but she vividly remembers experiences on Pohnpei such as airborne firefights and running away from dust clouds of debris!  Nohno shared a variety of narrative accounts with me, including some that pertained specifically to her parents and family.  It was truly a privilege to hear her stories; it never ceases to amaze me the kind of connections we can make to the past – especially to events with such global significance – all through memories and words.  As I brought out the consent form at the end of our recording session, I explained to her the idea of placing her recordings in a digital archive so that they would be available to other Mortlockese, Micronesians, and re wóón ‘foreigners’ who may be interested in her stories and language.  When I asked Nohno if there was anything she would like me to exclude, I remember her stating this so clearly, so gently: the only narrative that is to be publicly archived is a specific account of visitors to Pakin during the Japanese occupation; everything else that pertains to her family will not be archived.  It could not have been clearer than that; I didn’t need to ask why.  Sensitive information pertaining to her family will remain private, as simple as that.  How exciting it was to hear someone say “No”!  This was agency in action, such a clear example of someone deciding what will and will not be made available to public ears.  I couldn’t help but feel a little proud of myself, since I was able to explain in Mortlockese to someone whom I hold in great esteem that she has the right to control the access to her recordings.  She understood what I was trying to explain…which was quite an accomplishment, since I’m fairly certain that I was stumbling through my attempts at translating things like “open-access” and “anonymity”!  That experience remains with me as something truly emboldening for future work.  Even though the questions we need to ask may be difficult to explain, or awkwardly translated (both in language and in culture), that shouldn’t be a reason not to make every earnest attempt to ask.  We should have faith that our consultants – shienash ‘our friends’, really, if we are privileged to have such a relationship – will trust us and reply honestly.  In the spirit of collaborative fieldwork, I’d like to consider the word “no” as being just as empowering as the word “yes”, for both the researcher and the contributor.

The purpose of this blog is to disseminate information about endangered languages and to profile the significant work that is happening across the globe to document, maintain, and revitalize these languages. We want to publicize successes, keep supporters abreast of political developments, inform people about programs and resources, and to generally support the cause of endangered languages worldwide. We hope to feature activities, tips, and success stories from our members – many of whom are experts in the field – as well as news from around the world.

You can also keep yourself up-to-date by subscribing to our posts via email or RSS, or to our listserv to be notified of opportunities for political activism on endangered languages (you can also click any of the subscription links on the right side of this page as well).

On this site you’ll also find our mission, information about our ongoing and previous projects and activities, a list of our members, and links to other helpful resources on language endangerment. If you have something else you’d like to see on this site or a link / resource we should point to, don’t hesitate to let us know by emailing us here! Also, we’re always happy to have guest bloggers, or to report on the great work being undertaken by linguists and community scholars, so feel free to get in touch with us with anything of interest.