From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 02:49:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:49:29 -0700 Subject: Giving Indigenous People a Voice (fwd) Message-ID: Giving Indigenous People a Voice [photo inset - Finding skilled and experienced indigenous staffers who can speak their own tribal languages is quite a challenge for TITV. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Publication Date：08/01/2007 Byline：CINDY SUI http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=24476&CtNode=119 Even its critics admit that Taiwan's first aboriginal TV station is performing a vital task. Being one of Taiwan's first aboriginal news reporters, Kolas Yotaka wrestles with a dilemma-how to reach out to the island's 13 recognized tribes when she cannot speak any of their languages, including that of her own tribe. "I grew up speaking Mandarin with my parents. They thought the language of our tribe, the Amis tribe, was useless, so they didn't teach it to me. They wanted me to learn English and Japanese instead," she says. The dilemma she faces as head of the news department of Taiwan Indigenous TV (TITV), the first TV station devoted to the island's original inhabitants, was just one of many facing TITV as it marked its second anniversary on July 1. Two years after it was set up, the station is celebrating its successes as well as contemplating how to overcome its obstacles. Previously, only a once-a-week, hour-long program was shown on the Public TV station about the 470,000 aborigines in Taiwan's population of 23 million people. After the Executive Yuan set up the Council of Aboriginal Affairs in 1996 (later renamed the Council of Indigenous Peoples), aborigines began pushing for government funding for their own TV station. Funding was granted and the station went on the air for the first time on July 1, 2005. "With an aboriginal TV channel, we can express ourselves from an aboriginal viewpoint. Before, there wasn't a way for us to do that. Information and portrayals of aborigines went through a third party. There were some misrepresentations," says TITV's director Masao Aki. Since TITV's inception, it has been well-received by Taiwan's indigenous population, almost all of whom claim to watch it, and gets viewers from the general population as well. Programming is offered 24 hours a day and the news department often breaks stories concerning aborigines. Programs are diverse, ranging from cooking shows featuring traditional recipes from the various tribes, rarely shown on mainstream TV, to segments educating children about their native languages and cultures, to talk shows and interviews covering serious topics including the health, economic and educational problems faced by aborigines. The station even has a dating show-one of its most popular programs-which tries to match single youngsters with each other and help elderly widows or widowers find new love. "Since our numbers are so small, it's a way to help aborigines find partners who are also aborigines," says Masao. Also, the station is filming the first situation comedy about aborigines, to air in July. Broadcast Babel But at the same time, the station is struggling with how to broadcast to people from 13 tribes, each of which speak a different language and have widely different customs. "It's very difficult to be fair," says station director Masao, himself from the Atayal tribe. "Out of 13 tribes, which tribe's language do you choose to broadcast in? So we have no choice but to use Mandarin" (the language of the majority Han Chinese population). "Some Atayal viewers complain there's too little Atayal news. Of course it would be best if every tribe had its own channel, but that's impossible." Another problem the station faces is finding skilled aboriginal staff, especially reporters and technicians, and those who can speak their own tribal language, even if not fluently. Although 87 percent of the broadcaster's staffers are indigenous people (the rest of the jobs being held by Han Chinese), it has to constantly strive to maintain that level. "Now the most important task is staff training," Masao says. The TV station's problems finding skilled aborigines is shared by other professions. With a history of being oppressed, losing their land through being cheated or seizures and forced to forsake their languages and customs to adopt the majority's ways, aborigines have become economically inferior in Taiwanese society and few end up obtaining a higher education and working in skilled professions. In recent years, more universities are devoting resources to training aborigines to go into media. Hualien County's National Dong Hwa University has a media studies program that reaches out to aborigines, many of whom live in the area. Kolas, who grew up in the city with no aboriginal friends, recalls realizing the importance of being able to speak her own language when she first switched from being a mainstream reporter to being a reporter covering aboriginal issues for TITV. "I realized that, just because I was an aborigine, it didn't mean I could get interviews with aborigines. Without speaking their language, it was very hard for me to win their trust and interview them," she says. She is now studying the Amis language. Less than 5 percent of aboriginal children can speak their own language, Masao estimates, but like many things concerning aborigines, no solid statistics are available. To encourage the learning of one's own language, the station has now made it an employment requirement. Giving Indigenous People a Voice-1 [photo inset - Elderly contestants dress in costumes and even put on wigs and mini skirts to woo the opposite sex in a dating show, one of the most popular programs aired by TITV. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Doing What It Can The desuetude of aboriginal languages is such a problem that the TV station is trying to devote more airtime to tribal language broadcasting. Throughout the day, tribal folk tales are told in tribal languages, although the programs are generally short, resembling commercial breaks. Once a week, there are news programs in a select number of tribal tongues. The main programs, however, including news and cooking shows, are mostly broadcast in Mandarin, unlike another Taiwanese minority channel, Hakka TV, which broadcasts almost entirely in the Hakka language. Hakkas are Han Chinese from certain regions of southern China who speak a language very different from the northern-derived Mandarin. Some people in the aboriginal community complain that the station is simply scratching the surface on aboriginal issues and that programming is not reaching a certain segment of the population. "There is a lot of room for improvement," says Namoh Rata, an Amis language professor at National Dong Hwa University. "Many of the elderly indigenous people do not understand Mandarin, so it's useless for them." The language instruction provided on TITV is, he says, a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done to help aborigines save their languages and cultures from dying, beset as they are by lack of recognition of their importance, insufficient government support and the trend among aborigines of assimilating into mainstream society for economic survival. "Loss of language is at a crisis stage. Aboriginal languages are in the emergency room. They need emergency life-saving procedures," he says. Funding, meanwhile, is also a problem. The Council of Indigenous Peoples provides funding, which will be NT$350 million (US$10.6 million) this year and is expected to grow in the future. But in order for the station to provide more and better programming, it will need more money. For example, the number of reporters, currently 15, is simply not enough to meet the demands of reporting about tribes spread all over the island, including the remote mountainous areas. The station only has five bureaus in outlying rural areas and these bureaus are manned by one reporter each. But despite the problems, even its critics believe the TV station is making a difference. "It can't fix all its problems in one day," says Namoh. "It has made a big impact in terms of education and getting people interested in aboriginal culture. At least when aboriginal parents sit down with their children for dinner, they flip to the TV channel and use it to encourage their kids to learn about their culture." A Starting Point "Having an indigenous TV station is not a final solution," he says. "It's just a starting point." He says he would like to see aboriginal children allowed to attend schools where subjects are taught in their own languages, as they are in China. No statistics are available on viewers and ratings. The international ratings agency ACNielsen does not rate TITV because its target population of 470,000 aboriginals is considered too small. One viewer, Yang Weixiu, says he thinks the TV programs do not have enough of an aboriginal flavor and the programs are not attractive enough. "They also don't give much information about the rights of aborigines," says Yang, a social worker and director of the Taiwan Indigenous Social Work Association. That kind of comment is not a surprise to the station, which is constantly trying to develop more programs, despite a limited budget and staffing. The TV station's staffers such as Kolas are well aware of the need to better meet the high expectations of tribespeople whose opinions have long been overshadowed and voices ignored. Staff members believe in their work and have a strong sense of mission. "When I used to work as a reporter for a mainstream TV station, all I cared about were the ratings. Now I don't think about ratings. I think about how to tell the stories of indigenous people," Kolas says. "My hope is that the news I report is accurate. There are so many stereotypes about Taiwan's indigenous people. I hope I can report about them in a correct way, and at least be fair so that I can let non-aborigines truly understand aborigines." Reaching out to mainstream viewers is a major goal for her and others at the station. "A very big reason for reaching out to the general population is to say 'I'm not the way you used to think of me,'" she says. Giving Indigenous People a Voice-2 [photo inset - TITV's 24/7 programming is diverse, ranging from news reports, cooking and dating shows, talk shows, interviews and native language teaching targeting children, to situation comedies. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Fighting Stereotypes Mainstream society traditionally had very negative stereotypes of aborigines. "When I first entered college, a lot of my classmates asked me if people in my tribe carried out beheadings," Masao says. While views have generally changed after aborigines have been portrayed more positively in recent years, by such as TITV and through well-known aborigines such as the famous pop singer A-mei, stereotypes still persist. "Many of our staff have trouble renting apartments in Neihu (the district where TITV is located) because Taiwanese landlords hesitate to rent to aborigines," Masao says. To change such stereotypes and educate the public as well as aboriginal communities, TITV regularly invites distinguished aborigines such as respected scholars to speak on air about matters concerning indigenous people, including unemployment, alcoholism, inadequate health care, fading customs and the sense of isolation felt by youth unable to assimilate into mainstream Taiwanese society. On a recent program, an aboriginal doctor being interviewed told the story of a young aboriginal man who went to several job interviews. Even though the young man didn't drink, all the employers asked him if he drank and didn't believe him when he said he didn't. "This has become an image Taiwanese have of aborigines, so that's why I think we must make health a priority," said the doctor, who urges the government to provide more funding to NGOs that help aborigines as well as calling on aboriginal communities to help their own youngsters who have gone astray. "Looking at Native Americans and Canadians, we can see that, like them, we need to have our elders reach out to our young people and help them," he said. To reach out to general viewers, the station does not go out of its way to distinguish itself from other broadcasters, except in program content. Kolas, for example, looks like any other news anchorwoman when she's on air-sharp, with perfect makeup and hair and an intelligent look. But she always wears a subtle decorative item with an aboriginal design on her clothing. Anchors who present the weekly news in aboriginal languages, however, wear traditional tribal garb. Although it is funded by the government, the station does not shy away from tackling sensitive issues, such as the ongoing dispute between indigenous people and the government over unclear land rights and the increasing problem of government approval of aboriginal land for development projects in recent years, station officials say. "We stand on the side of indigenous people. There's no contradiction and we're not afraid of criticizing the government," Kolas Yotaka says. The station was the first to break the story about three aboriginal men from a mountainous area in Taiwan's Hsinchu City who were arrested and convicted of stealing national forestry products last year. The men had taken some wood from trees toppled during a typhoon. They and other aborigines argued they were innocent as the land belonged to aborigines, not the government. The cases involves a much bigger issue, which is that current Taiwanese law does not clearly define which land belongs to the original inhabitants and which belongs to the government. After the government moved from China to Taiwan in 1949, land for which no clear title could be shown was claimed as government land. Aborigines often could not show title to land that they had lived, hunted and farmed on for hundreds of years. The men were sentenced by a Hsinchu local court earlier this year. TITV's coverage, including that of a protest over the sentencing, and its ongoing coverage of the men's appeal, has sparked coverage by the mainstream media. Kolas says her news department does not get pressure from the government. Sometimes legislators may call the station to express concern that the station may have misunderstood their position. But the same thing happens elsewhere. In late May the station also reported about a protest by aborigines over the attempt by the Taipei City Government to rename a street originally named after an aboriginal tribe. "We're not afraid of this kind of news. Our goal is to let viewers see the truth. Reporting balanced news is our best protection," Kolas says. ___________________________ Cindy Sui is a freelance reporter based in Taipei. Copyright (c) 2007 by Cindy Sui From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 17:50:21 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 10:50:21 -0700 Subject: Language camp keeps Ojibwe culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: Language camp keeps Ojibwe culture alive © Indian Country Today August 01, 2007. by: The Associated Press http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415477 [AP Photo/The Daily Press, Karen Hollish -- Kathleen ''Sis'' Wiggins of Odanah, Wis., (far right) demonstrated her brain tanning technique for deer hides during the Ojibwe Language Camp on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, July 12. She was helped by her son, Mitchell Crowe Jr. of Ashland, Wis., and Lisa Brown of Eau Claire, Wis., who traveled to the Raspberry Bay Campground for four days of learning about Ojibwe language and culture.] By Karen Hollish -- The Daily Press, Ashland RED CLIFF, Wis. (AP) - To a virgin nose, the scents wafting up from buckets of brain juice are overpowering. But to Kathleen ''Sis'' Wiggins of Odanah - who has long practiced tanning deer hides with deer brains - inhaling the pungent smell represents another step in strengthening her Ojibwe culture. ''The fact that you're keeping tradition alive, you can't beat that,''' said Wiggins, demonstrating her brain tanning technique at Red Cliff's Raspberry Bay Campground. Wiggins joined others for the four-day Ojibwe Language Camp, an annual event sponsored by the Red Cliff Tribal Council and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Office of Multicultural Affairs. Campers traveled to Red Cliff from the St. Croix, Bad River and Lac Courte Oreilles reservations and beyond to pass along and absorb Ojibwe traditions. Under Raspberry Bay's lakeside canopy of reaching red pines, far removed from many of modern technology's distractions, they organized loosely into small learning groups, splintered off for impromptu one-on-one lessons and reconvened as a whole to hear elders' stories. Camp coordinator Andy Gokee, a former Red Cliff resident who now handles outreach for the UWSP Native American Center, explained why both Ojibwe language lessons and traditional hands-on skills are taught at the camp. It just doesn't work to teach the Ojibwe language in a sterile classroom, he said. ''Language and the culture - you can't separate the two; you need both,'' Gokee said. ''One kind of interprets another; the language gives you insight into how the Indian mind perceives things.'' Today's dearth of Ojibwe language speakers can be traced to past U.S. government and church-related dictums, which forbade Native people to speak their languages, Gokee said. Locally, some elders who attended the St. Mary's Catholic School in Odanah - including a relative of Gokee - still remember losing their Native tongue as children, when the nuns ordered them to speak English only. The need to revive and strengthen knowledge of the Ojibwe language is especially acute today, as the remaining fluent speakers are aging, Gokee said. ''It's a critical point in time now. ... The younger generation, are they going to be able to do it? Our ceremonies won't work in English,'' Gokee said. ''If we don't have our language, we don't have our ceremonies. And if we don't have them, we won't be Ojibwe anymore; we won't be Anishinabe anymore. We will lack that fundamental identity that defines us as Ojibwe.'' While it's a critical point in time, it's also a time of opportunity for language growth, Gokee said. Some area children have been attending an Ojibwe language-immersion charter school in Hayward, and many advanced Ojibwe learners are reaching child-bearing age and will speak Ojibwe to their children soon, he said. As for the camp, the complicated Ojibwe language ''can't be taught in a week,'' Gokee acknowledged - but a week is enough time to ignite an interest. An interest appeared to spark for 9-year-old Pearl Crowe of Ashland. When first asked about her Ojibwe language ability, she sheepishly said she only knows ''boozhoo'' and ''migwetch'' - ''hello'' and ''thank you,'' respectively. But Crowe's eyes lit up when she described how her elders had been teaching the kid campers vocabulary through song. ''They were singing; they started you off with two songs, and if you could handle it, you go to three,'' she said. The songs - which included an Ojibwe language version of ''Itsy Bitsy Spider'' and a ditty about numbers - also excited 11-year-old Angie Matrious, of Lake Lena, Minn. She was honing her introductory speaking, if not spelling, abilities at the camp. ''Ashi beshig,'' she fired back, when asked her age. But could she spell that? ''No!'' Matrious said just as quickly, though after prodding she gave it a good shot. At a feast later that night, fluent Ojibwe speaker Brian Goodwin said Matrious' answer about her age was technically correct, but still at a ''baby talk'' level. A more experienced Ojibwe speaker, Goodwin said, would've likely answered ''beboonigizyaan ashi-beshig,'' a more thorough explanation which can be roughly translated to ''I am 11 winters old.'' Building up the tribe's number of functional Ojibwe speakers is a big undertaking, Gokee said, but he thinks activities like the camp in Red Cliff are helping. Kids ran from campsite to campsite, digging up holes in the dirt, pushing each other on a tree swing and watching the adults work on moccasins and make dinner. During the course of the week, Gokee will sometimes overhear the little ones speaking to each other in limited doses of Ojibwe - a heartening sign, he said. ''You see flashes of it; not as consistently as you hope, but you see flashes of it,'' he said. ''That's a good sign.'' From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 18:01:43 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 11:01:43 -0700 Subject: Russia’s Babel (fwd) Message-ID: August 1, 2007 Russia’s Babel By Scott Spires Special to Russia Profile http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=International&articleid=a1185967998 Linguistic Heritage under Threat It is an interesting paradox: as the earth's population expands, the number of languages decreases. The language you are reading in now is one of the causes of this situation. English rolls over other, weaker languages like a tidal wave, obliterating the smallest ones and leaving even some of the larger tongues gasping for breath. But it is not the only such killer language--Spanish, French, Chinese, and Portuguese have been doing deadly work as well, and Russian definitely belongs in this formidable company. Languages die for any number of reasons. They die because a few languages, led by English, dominate the Internet, science and business. They die because you can't take a test, get a driver's license, book a hotel room, or watch a movie in Ladakhi, or Huron or Ainu. They die because the Beatles sang in English (not Cornish or Manx), and because Alexander Pushkin wrote in Russian (not Vepsian or Karakalpak). They die because their speakers see no use for them, or are ashamed of them. They die because their speakers do. In spite of factors like these, the Russian Federation has remained one of the world's greatest preserves of linguistic diversity. Here you will find specimens of Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Caucasian and many other families in their natural habitat. There are oddities to amuse you: The Caucasian language Ubykh, recently extinct, contained a jaw-breaking 81 consonants and only three vowels; the Chukchi language maintains different sound systems depending on whether a man or a woman is doing the talking; Izhor, with fewer than 500 speakers, is nonetheless divided into three separate dialects. Surveys indicate that over 100 languages have indigenous speech communities within Russia. Yet this "nature preserve" is under severe threat of turning effectively monoglot within a few decades. Many of these languages are, like Ubykh, already extinct; others are in the process of extinction or are barely holding on. The process of extinction has, in fact, been going on for centuries; place names attest to this. Northern Russia, for instance, is studded with toponyms from Finno-Ugric dialects that died out long ago--the most famous example being Moskva, which probably means something like "dark water." Siberia’s Loss Siberia, in particular, can be seen as the ground zero of these trends in Russia. Many of the phenomena that lead to the demise of minority languages are especially apparent there. Geography, politics, and culture all interact to create a space in which it is difficult for such languages to thrive. The lack of linguistic compactness, for example, is a problem that especially affects Siberia. "Many of the peoples of the North are non-compact peoples," says Vida Mikhalchenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics. They live sparsely scattered across a vast territory, which makes communication as sizable communities difficult. This contrasts with, for example, the situation in the Northern Caucasus. It remains, in an expression that goes back to Roman times, "the mountain of languages," a region of densely packed and clearly demarcated tongues. Linguist Irina Samarina points to Archi, a language in Dagestan, as an extreme example of compactness: It is spoken in a single village of 1,200 people, but everyone in the village speaks it. As long as this situation persists, it is likely to survive. Policy choices have contributed to the situation. The family is one of the most important forces in ensuring the survival of a language--if parents are able to hand it down to their children, it will continue for at least another generation. In the last century, however, it was common for children of minority-language speakers to be taken away from their parents and raised in boarding schools together with children of other small nationalities. The inevitable result of this situation was that everyone grew up fluent only in Russian. In many cases, only people born before approximately 1940 have preserved knowledge of a language. Once that happens, language death becomes almost inevitable--when the younger generation drops the baton, the race is over. Standardization can also present a problem. If a language has never been equipped for use in any official sphere, deciding where the standard ends and dialects begin can be problematic. The Nenets language, for example, comes in two distinct varieties--Forest and Tundra. Should one of these be chosen as the basis for the standard; should a hybrid language be created; or should each be recognized as a separate language and treated accordingly? These are the sort of questions that can keep a language out of classrooms, radio stations, and newspapers, and promote its eventual extinction. Even standardization does not guarantee a continued use, since elderly or longtime speakers rebel against using the new standard. The Stigmatizing Effect And there is the important issue of will. Much depends simply on the desire of speakers to maintain their language, a factor that is typically independent of both official support and official suppression. If the will to speak a language exists, it can survive neglect and repression; conversely, if the will isn't there, no amount of support will save it. While outsiders may perceive small languages as something romantic or exotic, speakers of small languages often view their native tongues from a very different perspective. Frequently, they associate such languages with poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. Sheer utility is a powerful argument in favor of switching to a few mega-languages, and many people who might speak indigenous languages follow that pragmatic argument to its logical end in their own lives. Linguists know that the effectiveness of outside forces is limited. "We can't stop the process of disappearance," Mikhalchenko says. "And it's not good to try to decide things from above." The important thing is to gather data, create detailed descriptions of those languages threatened with extinction, make information widely available, and support those initiatives that promise success. Laws can also play a role. According to Mikhalchenko, Russia may soon ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The charter sets out a series of measures to promote the use of minority languages in education, the media and other spheres. At this point a skeptic might ask if there is any point in trying to preserve these languages at all. Language death is a normal phenomenon of history. Linguist Andrew Dalby estimates that a language dies every two weeks. Why put so much effort into recording, teaching and preserving dialects that might be limited to a handful of villages? A novel line of reasoning, laid out in Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine's 2000 book Vanishing Voices, treats linguistic diversity as analogous to biodiversity. Languages, the argument goes, are like species in an ecosystem. Just as the extinction of species leads to the degradation of the natural environment, so the extinction of languages degrades the human environment. Thus, systems of local knowledge are somehow dependent on the languages in which they were originally developed. One can find echoes of this in Russia. Some languages have highly developed vocabularies for locally specific activities, such as reindeer-herding. People who usually speak Russian in their everyday lives will switch to the local language whenever they pursue local practices. The problem with this view is that every language is capable of expanding and changing to meet new challenges. There are no recorded instances of a language dying out because it confronted a world it couldn't describe. If it is necessary to invent reindeer-herding terminology for Russian, that will be done. A Cultural Preserve In fact there are good reasons to preserve minority languages, although those reasons are rather prosaic and may not appeal to people who perceive endangered tongues as something exotic and magical. Culture is really the key factor. Mark Abley, in his book Spoken Here, quotes an activist for the Celtic Manx language as saying: "the language is almost like a peg to hang the culture onЙThe music, the Gaelic way of storytelling, the folklore--all these things come out of the Manx language." Cultures can survive the translation to a new language, but in the process they lose something unique and essential. Poetry, folklore, songs and customs have a unique sound and shape, and possibly a unique meaning, in one language that they don't have in another. Abley also quotes the graphic words of MIT linguist Ken Hale, who says that losing a language is like "dropping a bomb on the Louvre." The outside world tends to take little notice of the small peoples of Siberia. Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa's Siberian epic Dersu Uzala featured a Goldi hunter who befriends a Russian explorer; the Tuvan throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu has enjoyed success around the globe, singing songs in their native language that simply couldn't produce the same effect in Russian--or any other language. But it is hard to think of much beyond these admittedly esoteric examples that have made it into the wider world. Linguistic homogenization is one of the factors that could blur the peoples' distinctive cultural profile. While language death, as Mikhalchenko notes, is something that is largely beyond prevention by outside forces, the disappearance of even the smallest dialect represents a loss of a cultural treasure-house. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 2 05:30:36 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 22:30:36 -0700 Subject: Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages http://linguistlist.org/callconf/browse-conf-action.cfm?ConfID=55641 Call for Papers Call Deadline: 17-Aug-2007 This will be the fourth biennial Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages hosted by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Our conference series serves to bring together those who work to maintain and reclaim the indigenous languages of Native North America. We believe that our ancestral languages can and should be spoken in our communities and we continuously seek and support efforts toward this end. The conference planning committee, in their selection of presenters strives to balance linguistic research, instructional techniques, technological innovations and most recently, indigenous languages in the context of the visual, written and performing arts. We invite you to share your work and in so doing, further efforts to reclaim, perpetuate and celebrate Native North America's unique and precious languages of heritage. Conference topics: A. Instructional Techniques, such as those that focus on producing first and second language speakers, workbooks, CDs, computer-interactive programs, videos, TPR, the Silent Way, Immersion Nests, etc. B. Artistic Application of Language, such as storytelling, performing artists, authors and playwrights for all age groups, visual artists, etc. C. Linguistics in the Context of Language Preservation and Reconstruction, such as historical linguistics of Native - North America, preferably but not limited to Algonquian languages and those of Southern New England. Papers addressing methodologies and sources used in preservation and reclamation projects as well as place-names' analyses sought. D. Technological Innovations in the areas of language documentation, databases and dictionary software, educational and instructional software, etc. Roundtable 1: Dictionary Development, participants and moderator sought for this session Roundtable 2: Language Project Policies and Protocol, participants and moderator sought for this session Session Specifics: Each presenter will be allotted a one-hour session to include a brief question and answer period. The roundtable sessions will include a moderator for which interested presenters will be considered. Presenters' expenses such as travel, lodging, most meals, and a small honorarium will be provided for. Submission Guidelines: Please submit a one-page abstract indicating which conference subject area described above, or roundtable session, best suits your presentation to LanguageConference at mptn.org or mail to Language Conference Team, PO Box 3060, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Mashantucket, CT 06338. Final decisions will be made in September (2007); please include detailed contact information so that we may notify you of your status. If your presentation is selected we will require a one page bio and/or C.V. and a photograph, if available, to be included in our program book and promotional material. Additional questions may be sent to LanguageConference at mptn.org or dgregoire at mptn.org (phone: 860-396-2052). A URL entitled ''Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages'' will be accessible by August 2007. If you are not planning to submit an abstract but would like to receive information on conference registration please send your contact information via e-mail to cseifart at mptn.org or mail to Language Conference Team, PO Box 3060, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, CT 06338. Registration forms will also be available via the conference Web page in August. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 2 17:32:08 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 10:32:08 -0700 Subject: College receives grant for Ojibwe language and culture program (fwd) Message-ID: College receives grant for Ojibwe language and culture program The College of St. Scholastica 8/1/2007 http://www.businessnorth.com/pr.asp?RID=2386 DULUTH - The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth has recently received a new five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support its Ojibwe Language and Culture Education (OLCE) program. In announcing the grant earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar called the program a “good investment,” saying that it helps ensure “that our teachers are ready for the challenges in today’s classrooms.” The $1.19 million grant is administered by the Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition. It will support 10 students who are interested in teaching and working in the American Indian community. Students will major in elementary or secondary education and in Ojibwe language and culture education. The dual-major program takes five years to complete. The grant will provide students with tuition support as well as a monthly living stipend. The financial support is open to native and non native students. However, students must be interested in working in a school with a high native population. “We find that there are many teachers working with the native communities who do not have an understanding of the history, culture or value systems of the students in their classrooms,” said Valerie Tanner, OLCE program director and assistant professor of education at St. Scholastica. “Graduates of the OLCE program will not only be able to better understand and communicate with native students, they will also be able to educate non-native students about the American Indian community.” The grant will also provide ongoing training to a cohort of 12 area teachers each year, serving a total of 60 teachers over the grant period. In addition, the grant will continue to support the integration of American culture, history and language into Duluth Public Schools' K-12 curriculum. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Gigashki’ewizimin ji gikenjigeyang (We Are Powerful When We Have Knowledge) Consortium, which is dedicated to promoting American educational access, achievement and success. Consortium members will meet regularly throughout the grant period and will help with field placements, cultural components, recruitment and program evaluation. The recent grant complements another received by St. Scholastica in 2006. Funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education supports the Native Teachers for the Seventh Generation program. This program allows native students, with two years of previous college education, the opportunity to earn a bachelor of arts in education with a K-12 licensure from St. Scholastica. Applications for fall 2008 are still being accepted. For questions about the OLCE program contact Valerie Tanner at (218) 723-6014 or (800) 447-5444, ext. 6014 or vtanner at css.edu. Program information can be found at http://www.css.edu/x1598.xml. The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2007 “America's Best Colleges” survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities. The Washington Post has rated St. Scholastica as one of the nation’s 100 “hidden gems” among U.S. colleges and universities. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 3 21:12:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:12:39 -0700 Subject: green computing... Message-ID: Greetings, fyi, for those interested in "green" and computing-for-less, you should check out Zonbu. Zonbu rivals the Mac mini in some ways though for much less and contains all open source applications. It is all flash-driven, no hard drive components. You do need your peripherals though (e.g. keyboard, monitor, etc.). An internet connection is needed I think but am not sure. Alternatives are good, green alternatives are even better. Zonbu http://www.zonbu.com/home/ Phil UofA From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 6 18:06:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:06:41 -0700 Subject: Rancher, linguist working to preserve native language (fwd) Message-ID: Rancher, linguist working to preserve native language The Associated Press - Monday, August 06, 2007 TWIN BUTTES, N.D. http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8QRI3V00 An effort to save the Mandan language may rest on the shoulders of a 75-year-old horse rancher. Experts believe Edwin Benson is the only person living who speaks fluent Mandan, the language of the American Indian tribe that became the host of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during the explorers' winter encampment in North Dakota more than 200 years ago. For past three summers, in six-hour shifts, Benson and California linguist Sara Trechter have camped out in a small office so he can speak into a microphone while Trechter takes notes. The two recently finished transcribing seven Mandan folk stories. Benson's grandfather insisted on keeping alive Mandan traditions and language. Ben Benson forbid speaking English in his home, a log cabin near the mouth of the Little Missouri River. Trechter, who teaches at a university in Chico, Calif., learned about efforts to preserve the Mandan language from her doctoral thesis adviser, a Siouan language expert at the University of Kansas. She got in touch with Calvin Grinnell, who works in the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara cultural preservation office on North Dakota's Fort Berthold reservation. Grinnell directs the language preservation project with Joseph Jasztrembski, a history professor at Minot State University. The effort started about seven years ago with a grant from the National Park Service, which paid to videotape Benson telling folk stories at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton. The project's goal is to produce material for language labs on the reservation, ideally with the videotapes of Benson telling his stories in Mandan and follow-along captions of Trechter's transcriptions on the bottom of the screen. Work has been slow, plagued at times by technical problems, sporadic funding and busy schedules. Benson uses an office near the Twin Buttes Elementary School, where he teaches Mandan. Since finishing the folk stories, Trechter and Benson been recording and transcribing Mandan social and cultural customs. Trechter has had master some quirks of the language. She learned, for example, that a bird is said to "stand" while flying but "sit" when perched on a tree. She has found that some words or phrases simply defy translation into another tongue. In the archives of the North Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Bismarck, Trechter said she found "boxes and boxes" of material, including a Mandan dictionary compiled in the 1970s and 1980s, and manuscripts from the 1920s and 1930s. Jasztrembski compared the work to restoring an endangered plant or animal species. "I think language revitalization is something like that," he said. "It takes a great deal of time to do." Grinnell said the tribal college archives has hours of tape recordings of elders from the 1970s that might provide helpful material. Trechter, 44, said she already seen enough material to keep her busy for the rest of her career. "There is no finishing with Mandan," she said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 6 18:58:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:58:40 -0700 Subject: A whisper away from extinction (fwd) Message-ID: Published: August 06, 2007 11:34 am print this story email this story comment on this story A whisper away from extinction Local program working against the clock to save the Euchee language through their children By HEATHER SLEIGHTHOLM Herald Assistant Editor http://www.sapulpadailyherald.com/homepage/local_story_218113459.html?keyword=leadpicturestory On a hot August afternoon in Sapulpa, about a dozen children gather at a shaded table for snack time. Chattering excitedly about the game they have just finished playing, they are offered a drink and a snack by their teachers at the Euchee Language Project’s summer program. One by one the children take their snack and thank their teacher in the Euchee language. They try their best to use their new vocabulary words, but a few giggled English phrases make their way into the conversation. Watched closely by their teachers, the children –– who range from young teenagers to toddlers –– are encouraged to use the language of their people. On a lighthearted afternoon such as this, is easy to forget the importance of this interaction. Quite literally, these children are the only hope for the Euchee language, which is a whisper away from extinction. “We believe that the Creator gave us this language,” said Richard Grounds, Director of the Euchee Language Project. “It’s coming very close to being lost. And when it’s gone, its gone forever.” Currently, there is only one man left that speaks Euchee as a first language, and a handful of women native speakers. These slim numbers are not just the number of speakers left in the Sapulpa area; they are the only people left in the world that are native Euchee speakers. In an effort to combat the loss of their language –– and a large part of their culture –– the Euchee community has taken action to save their language by teaching it to a younger generation and preserving their stories and songs in their native tongue. “We’re still very much in triage mode,” Grounds said. “This is an emergency intervention, and the language is hanging in the balance.” The goal of the program is to produce new fluent speakers of Euchee and to reintroduce the language into the community as well as ceremonial gatherings. “The problem is, 75 percent of native languages are only spoken by grandparents, with parents knowing little or none of the language,” Grounds said. Now, the program is hoping it can bring fluency in Euchee to the younger generation through activities, lessons, and interaction with the remaining elders. “We want our learners to be young enough that they can teach their children the language,” Grounds said. “We don’t expect them to be monolingual, but bilingual in English and Euchee.” The influence of the Euchee has been profound on the community, although this in many instances has been forgotten over time. The site of the current Sapulpa High School and junior high is located on the previous grounds of the Euchee Indian Boarding School, a boarding school for young Euchees at the turn of the century. Both boys and girls attended the school (which later became an all boys school) and later Creek, Cherokee and Seminole boys were also enrolled. At the mission school, students were punished for speaking Euchee, a lesson that many students took to heart. Ground’s grandmother was one of these students. “She began going to the school when she was a teenager, so she was old enough by then to retain the Euchee language while learning to speak English,” Grounds said. “And while she continued to speak Euchee within the Euchee community, she never taught my father the language. The school had ingrained in her something that made her think that her children should only speak English.” Now Grounds, like most of his colleagues at the program, is becoming fluent in the language that he was never taught as a child, although he heard it often from the elders around him. Linda Harjo, the assistant director for the language program, is also becoming fluent in the language and is focused on passing it on to the younger generation. “It’s been a long process, and we’re a grass roots organization,” Harjo said. Currently, the program gets its funding through grants, donations and federal dollars, and is making great strides since the first language class was given in 1994. “We just moved into our new location in October 2006 and are holding classes here four afternoons a week for the smaller children,” Harjo said. In addition to the children’s class, there are also gatherings of elders to visit and pass their knowledge on to the staff and older learners, as well as weekly community nights. Currently, children aged two to five years come to the program four days a week for two hours of immersion in the Euchee language. Through games, activities and conversations, the children are given a chance to hear the language of their people and attempt to speak it themselves. All the program asks in return is that parents attend a weekly community night and encourage the use of Euchee in their home. “What we would really love to do is have an after school program for the older kids to come to,” Harjo said. “At the moment, they are only able to attend during the summer.” The administrators of the program are cautiously optimistic about their endeavor, while realizing that the clock is ticking on the time they have with their aging elders. But as a people, the Euchees have overcome many obstacles, including being virtually written out of the history books when many of the Euchee were forced to register as Creeks during the government mandated removal from their homelands in the southern states to Indian territory in the 1830s. “According to the history books, the Euchee people and their language are already extinct,” Grounds said. “But we’re still here, and we still have our language, even after the assault on our people and our culture. That’s a testimony of strength of our people.” The Euchee Language Project is currently located on South Main Street in Sapulpa. For more information on their classes or if you would like to help maintain their language, contact The Euchee Language Project at 224-6481. Heather Sleightholm 224-5185 Ext.204 education at sapulpadailyherald.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 7 19:00:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 12:00:41 -0700 Subject: Acoma kids show off language skills (fwd) Message-ID: Acoma kids show off language skills http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2007/08/06/news/news11.txt Monday, August 6, 2007 5:09 PM MDT ACOMA - One by one they proudly stood on the stage dressed in traditional clothing. All eight of the students in the Oral History Project introduced themselves in the Keresan language to the gathering of more than 100 community members at the Acoma Auditorium last Tuesday. The eight students, along with help from their instructors, showed off their acting talents too as they performed a skit based on the Acoma Emergence Story. William Estevan, one of the instructors of the project, talked about the unique program that has tribes from all across the country seeking Acoma's help in reestablishing their own efforts to save their languages. “The students studied oral language which included the Acoma emergence story, how the people came to their present state. Every day, excluding feast days, the students were involved with the Acoma Keres language and the oral story telling of the history of Acoma,” Estevan said. Vina Leno, Program Director for the Acoma Language Retention Program, said the program continues to improve each year as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a brand new place to call home. “Last year the tribal council approved appropriations for a new building and the building will be arriving this month,” Leno said. With much of its focus on the Acoma youth, Leno said she is looking to expand the program to include adults and newborns. “Then when the newborns get to the schools they can continue with the program,” Leno said. One positive aspect of the program that Leno did not foresee when it started was the security the students felt with their instructors. “The kids usually find the language classes a safe haven. They find it easy to talk with the instructors and they are able to tell them what they want to learn about Acoma,” Leno said. For Dakota Chino, 15, a sophomore at Grants High School, the language class taught him a lot about his people and who he is. “We learned about our history and colors and stuff like that. They taught us in a way that was fun,” Chino said. Chino said the classes encouraged him to get help from his mom and dad when he was at home. One problem Chino may face is continuing the language program while pursuing his athletic goals at Grants High School. “I heard they were going to have an after-school program which I will probably come to, but it might be kind of hard because I run cross country,” Chino said. Despite the hurdles he will face this fall, Chino is optimistic that he will continue with the language program. “Our language is a big part of our traditions and we have to learn our language because it is everything and I know it will help me in the future,” Chino said. By Will Kie Beacon staff writer will at cibolabeacon.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:28:12 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:28:12 -0700 Subject: Preserving the 'language of Canada' (fwd) Message-ID: Preserving the 'language of Canada' Mi'kmaq rarely spoken by younger generation BRIAN FLINN http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=52012&sc=89 Mi'kmaq has somehow survived repeated attempts to wipe it out. But despite current efforts to keep it alive, the only language to ever arise from Nova Scotia's forests, rivers and coast is in trouble. Many young people whose parents speak Mi'kmaq have switched to English and French. And that generation is the only thing keeping it from joining the 13 aboriginal languages currently listed as endangered. "It is the language of Canada itself," said Eskasoni resident Joel Denny. "There should be a law in protecting the language in Canada." Statistics Canada says Mi'kmaq is the sixth most widely spoken of Canada's 50 aboriginal languages, with almost 9,000 reporting they understood it in 2001. That's remarkable, considering the Mi'kmaq might have been the first aboriginal people in Canada to encounter Europeans. They were almost killed off by imported disease and state-sponsored murder. The government in Halifax put a bounty on the head of all Mi'kmaq men, women and children in the 1750s. In mainland Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq never recovered from the period in the mid-20th century, when aboriginal children throughout Canada were taken from their families and forced into residential schools. The language is more widely spoken in eastern New Brunswick and the Gaspe. Cape Breton is home to most of the people who speak Mi'kmaq as a first language. The biggest concentration of Mi'kmaq speakers is in Eskasoni, 40 kilometres southwest of Sydney. The largest aboriginal community in Atlantic Canada, it's built on the side of a hill that reaches deep into Cape Breton's Bras d'Or Lakes. Denny believes isolation helped the language survive in his community. But technology is making distance less of a barrier. TV, computers and video games speak English and French to children. Denny said many don't want to use Mi'kmaq, and he fears they are losing their culture. "We don't need government and non-native people to come in and kill us off now," said Denny, whose family is a noted group of Mi'kmaq dancers. "We're doing that to ourselves." Many of Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq bands are trying to reverse the trend by introducing more Mi'kmaq language instruction into reserve schools. Denny isn't convinced it's working. Increasingly, Mi'kmaq is becoming a second language. Governments have done much to eradicate native languages. Today, they fund Mi'kmaq education programs. But there is no publicly supported organization advocating for preservation of the language, like the province's new Office of Gaelic Affairs. And aboriginal languages don't enjoy official status in Canada, like English and French. Denny, 55, avoided residential school while his parents struggled to protect him from the authorities. He recalls hiding in a tree while the RCMP and an Indian agent grabbed two of his friends for forced education in English. Assimilation wasn't always so deliberate. Europeans brought disease, which killed thousands of people. They also brought technology that forever changed the province's ecology. Memories of the lost way of life are contained in the Mi'kmaq language. Caribou - kalibu - is a Mi'kmaq word. The province's last caribou was shot in 1921. Walrus lived in the inland sea around Eskasoni and along the Nova Scotia coast. They were finally hunted out in the late 1800s. Denny said the Mi'kmaq were a winter people, like the Inuit of northern Canada. Inuktitut and Mi'kmaq have an almost identical word for a boat with a skin stretched over it, which helped people travel and hunt in cold months. In Denny's language it's ka'ak - or kayak. Toboggan is a Mi'kmaq word. English is a collection of words borrowed from Latin, French, German and just about every language that encountered the British Empire. The original meaning of words is usually obscure. Anna Nibby Woods, a Mi'kmaq master's student at Mount Saint Vincent University, said people who grew up with an aboriginal language find it difficult to express themselves in English. They find English words are inadequate, because they have little relationship with other words, or with the environment. The Mi'kmaq words for headache and the cure for headache are related to the word for a plant that cures headaches, she said. In English, there is nothing in common between the words "headache" and "aspirin." Denny said he has been studying Mi'kmaq for 20 years, collecting old songs and figures of speech. He's convinced it originates from the sounds heard in the environment, and is vital to understanding the environment. The meaning of words is embedded in those sounds."When you talk Mi'kmaq, you talk feelings, you talk description, you talk what happened and what's going to happen," Denny said. "We don't name stuff. We describe stuff." The word for skunk, abigjilu, literally means "an animal that steps backward and farts." That's useful information if you ever encounter one. "When he's stepping backwards, get out of the way," Denny laughs. "You know damn well he's going to fart on you." Other words are filled with traditional values. Woman, or e'pit, means "she carries the egg within." It's a constant reminder of her reproductive role. Man, ji'nm, means "he carries the great life force." Denny said a father is one responsible for passing on that life force. The maternal grandmother, kukmijinu, is the traditionally most important figure in a child's upbringing. She "put the egg within" the child's mother. "There's no good or bad in Mi'kmaq. There's just consequences," Nibby Woods said. "Everything is interconnected and interrelated. That's why there is respect for everyone around you." Woods spoke Mi'kmaq before she went to residential school in Shubenacadie. She recalls later asking her grandmother to teach her the language. Her grandmother refused. She said it would only be a burden. As today, employment opportunities were in English. Woods got an education in English and had a career in advertising, before rediscovering her Mi'kmaq heritage in her mid 30s. Teaching Mi'kmaq as a second language has some value, she said, but it's not the same as having it as a mother tongue. "It's kind of like a novelty thing, because you're not thinking in Mi'kmaq, you're not dreaming in Mi'kmaq," she said. "You're translating for Mi'kmaq." bflinn at hfxnews.ca From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:36:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:36:30 -0700 Subject: ‘Hogan Heroes’ Bridge Native American Digital Divide (fwd) Message-ID: ‘Hogan Heroes’ Bridge Native American Digital Divide TsosieSeveral UNM departments are involved in the initiative http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/002113.html In a large urban center like Albuquerque, it’s easy to forget that many parts of the world – and the state – lack access to basic resources taken for granted in city life. Internet to the Hogans (ITTH) is a movement to bridge that gap by connecting northwest New Mexico to the Internet and digital television, expanding access to services like distance education and telehealth. [Photo: Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie (center) shows an elder and youth from ToHajiilee how to access the Internet for distance learning and telehealth.] “It’s a movement to close the digital divide in Native American communities,” said Colleen Keane of the UNM Institute for American Indian Education. In 2005, then-Senator and current Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie decided to bring together representatives of the Navajo Nation, technology corporations, universities and national labs to address the digital divide in northwest New Mexico. Keane helped him arrange a gathering at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, where ITTH was born. The “Hogan Heroes,” as Keane calls them, bring together complimentary resources to form a holistic information technology plan – from communications infrastructure to the services it will deliver – linked with the broader Navajo Nation IT plan spanning Arizona and Utah as well as New Mexico. Casting the ’Net across northwest N.M. The first step for ITTH is building a backbone of communications technology. Once in place, that backbone will spread through a wireless canopy to bring service to homes and hogans, traditional Navajo dwellings. UNM Information Technology Services is helping Navajo Technical College to get connected to LamdaRail, an ultra-high-speed network serving universities and research organizations. Navajo Technical College is erecting a tower to establish a point to point wireless connection with the Albuquerque GigaPop, New Mexico’s onramp to LambdaRail. “They’re leapfrogging in technology,” said ITS Director Moira Gerety, pointing out that the Navajo Nation is building its own infrastructure with newer, more cost effective technology. The Center for High Performance Computing is consulting with Navajo Technical College on developing cyber-infrastructure and high performance computing projects. “I really like the idea of having a technical school bring technology to the local community,” said UNM Chief Information Officer Barney Maccabe. ITTH is also expanding access to digital television. One goal is to produce Navajo language programming. Through a signal sent by KNME, the Ramah Navajo community is one of the first native communities in the United States to receive digital public television. One day, Council Delegate Tsosie would like to see PBS’s Big Bird speak Navajo to help Navajo children become fluent in both the Navajo and English languages. Content, the key ingredient “It’s not about the Internet. It’s about the services you can provide on the Internet,” Gerety said. UNM can supply some of those services – particularly telehealth and distance education. Telehealth uses communication technologies to provide health care, information and training at a distance. Center for Telehealth Medical Director Dale Alverson has been consulting with Navajo Nation telecommunications officials on how to best serve their specific health needs. One priority area is behavioral health, especially for returning veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and for suicide prevention among adolescents. Alverson said that virtual counseling through two-way video “gives that sense of presence as if you were physically face-to-face.” Other priorities that can be addressed through telehealth include diabetes, substance abuse and Alzheimer’s. Through Extended University, UNM will make distance education available to Navajo communities, including online and interactive television courses. In addition, the Institute for American Indian Education is providing e-mentoring to New Mexico Native American teachers and pre-service teachers with the support of a grant from the New Mexico Public Education Department. Benefits for UNM With so many services – from admissions applications to course registration – moving online, Internet access is virtually a prerequisite for access to higher education. As ITTH plans develop, UNM will have greater opportunities to reach potential students. “We have looked at utilizing this technology and network as a means to expose more students to health careers, and a mechanism to prepare students for those fields as well through electronic education,” said Gayle Diné-Chacon of the Center for Native American Health. Ken Van Brott of the Extended University Gallup Center said that he sees ITTH as an opportunity to build partnerships with Diné College and Navajo Technical College. The extension of wireless connections through northwest New Mexico will also directly benefit the campus by providing access to LambdaRail. Hogan Heroes come to UNM Aug. 15 The University Libraries Indigenous Nations Library Program will host the next ITTH meeting at Zimmerman Library, Willard room on Aug. 15. To participate, RSVP to Colleen Keane at (505) 379-3315 or ckeane at unm.edu. Photo credit: Colleen Keane Posted by scarr at August 8, 2007 12:16 PM From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:38:35 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:38:35 -0700 Subject: Fort Folly youth learning to embrace Mi’kmaq culture (fwd) Message-ID: Last updated at 9:07 AM on 08/08/07 Fort Folly youth learning to embrace Mi’kmaq culture KATIE TOWER The Sackville Tribune Post http://sackvilletribunepost.com/index.cfm?sid=52226&sc=129 [photo inset - Students at Fort Folly are learning more about their culture, including native drumming, through a month-long program taught by Mi’kmaq historian and storyteller Gilbert Sewell.] Fort Folly youth are gaining a greater understanding of their native heritage thanks to a renowned Mi’kmaq elder who is sharing his knowledge with the youngsters at the First Nations reserve. Gilbert Sewell, a storyteller and historian from Pabineau First Nation, has visited the small reserve near Dorchester for the past five years to pass on the legendary stories and songs and, of course, the language that is such a vital part of the Mi’kmaq heritage. During a month-long program, the young natives - ranging in age from 11 to 18 - are taught the fundamentals of their native culture, including: traditional songs and dances; how to survive in the woods, including what plants are safe to eat; the Mi’kmaq language; as well as native history in the region, including the story behind many of the place names such as Dorchester, Westcock, Parrsboro, Mactaquac, Kouchibouquac and Shediac, The youngsters say they feel fortunate to take part in Sewell’s program and are eager to learn more about their culture, particularly to become more skilled in their mother tongue. “It’s our native language,” says 15-year-old Gerald Knockwood, who has taken part in the summer course for three years now. “It’s our background and it’s what we stand for.” And that’s exactly what Sewell hopes to instill in the next generation – a love and understanding of their native traditions. The native historian, who has travelled extensively and teaches others about his culture, traditions and medicines, says teaching native youth the importance of their culture is vital so that it can be passed on to future generations. With so many mixed marriages in the native communities, many of the traditions and customs are no longer followed, he adds. “They’re rapidly losing their language and their culture,” he says of the Mi’kmaq people, noting a large percentage of them now speak only English. But that all could change, according to Sewell, who says he is pleased to see a resurgence of people becoming more interested in their backgrounds. “There’s a new wave of appreciation for the language and the (Mi’kmaq) culture,” he says. “There’s a lot more people digging into their past and checking out their genealogy. “I think the stigma of being native is not as prevalent as it used to be…and people are more aware of their heritage and who they are,” says Sewell, whose knowledge and appreciation of his cultural background came from his grandfather. He was quick to give praise to the Fort Folly youth for their willingness to learn new things and their dedication. Twelve-year-old Alex Knockwood returned the praise, however, and insisted she feels honoured just to have taken part in such an essential program. “There’s not many people that can still speak the language…so it’s a privilege just being a part of this.” Mike Belliveau, 18, says he couldn’t agree more. “I am the only one now in my immediate family who knows how to speak Mi’kmaq,” he says. “ This is a way to preserve the Mi’kmaq language…and I think that’s pretty darned important.” Many of the students Sewell has taught over the past five years have gone on to university, with one preparing to start on her master’s degree and another recently moving on to work with the Department of Indian Affairs. Sewell, who grew up hunting, trapping, and gathering medicines from natural vegetation, offers guided tours back at his home reserve in Papineau, including hiking, fossil hunting, and snowshoeing, and teaching awareness of the environment. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:40:05 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:40:05 -0700 Subject: N.B. woman recording elders speaking Maliseet for posterity (fwd) Message-ID: N.B. woman recording elders speaking Maliseet for posterity Last Updated: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 | 2:40 PM AT CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/08/08/nb-maliseetclips.html A New Brunswick woman has launched an online campaign to save a dying native language. Imelda Perley says her new project hopes to capture the voices of about 100 people in New Brunswick, most of them elders, who speak Maliseet as their first language. Perley, who has devoted her life to connecting Maliseet people to their culture as a university and high school teacher, says the fact children aren't speaking the language means Maliseet is facing a real threat. "It's been taught in schools in the community, but it's been taught as a subject and not something you can carry," she said. "I'm really worried that it's going to become extinct." She says she hopes her site will generate more interest in Maliseet. "I think there's going to be a generation who's going to embrace us and thank us for leaving it behind for them, and they'll carry it forward," Perley said. "If it isn't this generation, it will be a generation coming." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 23:14:00 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 16:14:00 -0700 Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Assistant Professor, Indigenous Languages http://ling.ucsd.edu/who/jobs.html The Department of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego (http://ling.ucsd.edu) invites applications for a tenure-track position in the area of indigenous languages, with preference for Native American languages. This position is part of a 3-year initiative to hire scholars doing work in the area of Indigenous and Native American Studies at UCSD. Applicants should have a strong research program on indigenous language(s), including fieldwork and establishing relationships within indigenous communities. Any subfield will be considered; candidates should contribute to the department's focus on empirically-driven experimental and theoretical research. A Ph.D. or Ph.D. candidacy is required and candidates should demonstrate research productivity, undergraduate and graduate teaching ability, and extramural funding potential. Duties include research, teaching, and departmental/university service. Please visit the online application link below for further application information and requirements. For fullest consideration, all application materials, including letters, should be received no later than December 1, 2007. Salaries are in strict accordance with UC pay scales. Non-citizens should state their immigration status. UCSD is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity. Applicants are invited to preview campus diversity resources and programs at the campus website for Diversity http://diversity.ucsd.edu. Applicants are also invited to include in their cover letters a personal statement summarizing their contributions to diversity. From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Wed Aug 8 21:21:27 2007 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 14:21:27 -0700 Subject: The impact of television on language Message-ID: It seems fair to say that the implications are the same for learning a second language. For most indigenous communities this would mean that random television is not good for children attempting to learn a heritage language (endangered or not). What are your thoughts? Phil Cash Cash UofA ~~~ Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 By ALICE PARK http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html 'Baby Einstein': a bright idea? Infants shown such educational series end up with poorer vocabularies, study finds. Researcher says 'American Idol' is better. By Amber Dance, Times Staff Writer August 7, 2007 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 17:50:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 10:50:53 -0700 Subject: Indigenous peoples’ concerns must be tackled with urgency (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous peoples’ concerns must be tackled with urgency - Ban Ki-moon http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23460&Cr=indigenous&Cr1= 9 August 2007 – The world’s 370 million indigenous people continue to suffer discrimination, marginalization, extreme poverty and conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for urgent action to deal with their pressing concerns. In a message marking the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, observed each year on 9 August, Mr. Ban pointed out that while the occasion is a time to “celebrate the contributions that indigenous peoples make to humanity through their rich civilizations,” it is also important to remember the critical issues they grapple with daily. Aside from discrimination, marginalization and poverty, Mr. Ban said indigenous peoples also face dispossession of their traditional lands and livelihoods, displacement, destruction of their belief systems, culture, language and way of life. “Our fast-paced world requires us to act with urgency in addressing these issues,” he said, stressing that in doing so indigenous peoples’ full and effective participation must be ensured at every step along the way. Mr. Ban noted that recently, the world has grown “increasingly aware of the need to support indigenous people,” and has done so by establishing and promoting international standards, and by vigilantly upholding respect for their human rights. Recognition of, and respect for, indigenous knowledge on issues related to the environment and climate change has also been reinforced. The Secretary-General also highlighted the three-decade-long partnership between indigenous peoples and the United Nations, which culminated in 2000 with the establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues – an expert body that discusses indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. “Today, indigenous peoples have a home at the United Nations,” he stated. Echoing Mr. Ban’s comments, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour emphasized that while the Day is a “celebration of humankind's diversity and richness, it needs also to serve as a reminder of the continuing exclusion indigenous peoples face.” In a joint statement issued with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Ms. Arbour urged Member States to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is due to be taken up by the General Assembly in the coming weeks. The Declaration, adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2006, sets out global human rights standards for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. It is drawn from the experiences of “thousands of indigenous representatives who have shared their anguish and their hopes.” “As we stand at the brink of this historic decision by the General Assembly, it is the time to call upon Member States of the United Nations to join as one and adopt the Declaration and thereby establish a universal framework for indigenous peoples' rights, social justice and reconciliation,” she said. The Declaration also recognizes that respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable development, including proper management of the environment. At its 2008 session, the UN Permanent Forum will focus on the particular vulnerability of indigenous communities to climate change and their important role in responding to it. “The Saami community in Scandinavia is well-known for having brought the issue of climate change and its impact on their future livelihoods to the fora of the international community,” stated Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Also today, Mr. Ban’s Special Representative in Nepal Ian Martin welcomed a recent agreement between the Government and the Janajatis to ensure the latter’s inclusion in the electoral process and the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for November, calling it a “major step for Nepal’s indigenous peoples.” Mr. Martin said the agreement also highlights the need for continuing dialogue to ensure electoral rights for other traditionally marginalized groups. “This will contribute to achieving the ultimate goal of the election: to produce a Constituent Assembly that is truly representative and able to frame a constitution which responds to the aspirations of all Nepalese people,” he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 17:54:06 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 10:54:06 -0700 Subject: Colombia's indigenous people find little to celebrate on key day (fwd) Message-ID: Colombia's indigenous people find little to celebrate on key day http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-75WHP3?OpenDocument COLOMBIA, 9 August (UNHCR) – Rising 6,000 feet above sea-level, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada tower above Colombia's Caribbean Coast in the north of the country. The Kogi Indians are the guardians of the mountain, which they believe to be a magical place, the Heart of the World, linked by invisible black lines to other sacred sites in Colombia. The Kogis call themselves the Elder Brothers of Humanity and until recently had avoided all contact with the outside world. The lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada are populated by three other groups, the Arhuaco, the Wiwa and the Kankuamo, whose role it is to protect the Guardians at the top. But in the past decade, Colombia's armed conflict has erupted into their sacred world, with irregular armed groups fighting for territory, selective killings, threats and violence. Today, as the Kogis watch from their snow-capped mountaintop, the black lines have turned into a trail of blood for many of their indigenous brothers. "As we prepare to mark World Indigenous Day, our people continue to live in the midst of violence, general impunity and lack of state protection," said Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, President of Colombia's National Indigenous Organisation (ONIC) during a news conference in Bogota on Wednesday. According to ONIC, some 17,000 indigenous people suffered from direct human rights – or International Humanitarian Law – violations in the first seven months of this year. This represents an average of 80 people a day, who have been victims of crimes ranging from forced displacement to targeted killings or threats against their lives. ONIC added that some 12% of the total indigenous population is currently at risk because of the conflict, suffering from violence, intimidation, and reduced access to economic resources. As a result, the malnutrition rate among children of the Embera and Wounaan groups is as high as 75% in the Pacific Coast region of Choco. On the other side of the country, in southern Putumayo, the Cofan Indians are also facing starvation, as the conflict impedes their freedom of movement and limits their possibilities to fish, hunt and grow their traditional crops. "We are not so many, there are only about 1,200 of us Cofans," Ivan Queta explained for the group. "We are trying to hang onto our culture, to teach our children to speak our language. But how can our children go to school, when they are dying of starvation and we have to move from one place to the next in search of peace?" Under Colombian and international law, the State has a duty to pay special attention to the protection of ethnic minorities and their culture in the midst of the armed conflict. Forced displacement affects indigenous people in a devastating way, not only as individual but as cultural groups with their own traditions and organizations. UNHCR works with the State to help it fulfill this duty of protection, and with indigenous organizations all over the country. It has also been campaigning to raise awareness of the magnitude of a crisis that goes on year after year. "We have to ask ourselves what we are doing to overcome this situation," said UNHCR Representative in Colombia Roberto Meier during the news conference. "Last year, we denounced the killings of five displaced Awa indigenous people on World Indigenous Day. A year on, we have the sad news that five Awa have died in a landmine accident on their own lands." He added that some 1,300 Awa are confined in their territories in Nariño, also in southern Colombia, unable to flee combat because their lands are ridden with mines. Some 600 of them have taken refuge in five schools inside Awa territory. Hundreds more have been forced to displace again this year, some across the border to Ecuador. Other indigenous people have fled to Brazil, Venezuela and Panama in search of safety. In order to address the regional dimensions of the crisis, UNHCR is developing a joint strategy based on local resources and needs on both sides of Colombia's borders, starting with Ecuador and Venezuela. Speaking on behalf of the four tribes of the Sierra Nevada, Leonor Zabaleta, who received a Human Rights Prize this year from the Swedish government, said all the laws and humanitarian assistance in the world cannot alone stop the tragedy. "There is a law in Colombia to help the victims of forced displacement, but there is nothing concrete in place to guarantee that we do not have to displace. Yet if we have to leave our land, everything is lost," she said. And while Colombia's armed conflict goes on, fear will remain for the cultural survival of the 80 indigenous groups who together make up around 3% of the country's total population and represent one of the richest and most varied indigenous heritage in the world. By Marie-Hélène Verney and Gustavo Valdivieso in Bogota, Colombia From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 18:01:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 11:01:48 -0700 Subject: Indigenous peoples day (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous peoples day Russia Today August 9, 2007, 9:06 http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/12178 With the spread of globalization, native communities across the world are struggling to maintain their own unique languages and customs. And those living across Russia are no different. But efforts to prevent their various cultures from dying out are paying off. Thursday marks The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. It was established by the United Nations in 1994 as a celebration of some of the world's oldest traditions and cultures. Russia has more than 100 indigenous minorities which are trying to pass on their heritage to younger generations A standard definition of an indigenous person is one who naturally belongs to a particular region or land. This implies a close link between a person's cultural identity and his relationship with a particular area. Russia is a country replete with indigenous nationalities that are spread from the Caucasus to the Northern regions, to the country's Far East. Many of these peoples number no more than a few thousand. But most of these peoples have one and the same dilemma: maintaining their language and culture while trying to keep the ubiquitous technological age at arms length. “The villages are dying out. Young people go away to study. Those who return here can't find a job,” said bitterly an old woman. Some of these communities, like those in the Sakhalin region, are at the mercy of energy companies whose encroachment on their land is often being carried out without their consent. The Teleut people in Southern Siberia have been pushed from their native land by giant factories, their language has been practically replaced by Russian and their population is decreasing. Other ethnic communities seem to have been able to find a way out. Rural tourism provides an indispensible mechanism of maintaining the ethnic consciousness of some of the minorities. It continues to be one of the main guarantors for the employment of the Vepsian people in the Northwestern Russian Republic of Karelia. All the indigenous peoples of Russia are devoting great attention to the teaching of their native languages. Some of these efforts are paying off: many students in various indigenous areas now anxious to learn more of their native tongue. With all the ups-and-downs the native peoples of Russia are currently facing, they continue to teach their languages, celebrate their traditional festivals, worship their deities, take care of their museums and maintain close links with their centuries-old cultural roots. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 18:08:58 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 11:08:58 -0700 Subject: Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO (fwd) Message-ID: Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO http://portal.unesco.org/culture/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=34718&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1186682582&PHPSESSID=5d91ed3978fca68f1950d959f5720f45 On the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, 9 August 2007: "Indigenous knowledge systems represent an invaluable and irreplaceable resource and a critical component of sustainable development". The worldviews of most indigenous peoples, which recognize the inextricable links between culture and nature, clearly resonate with UNESCO’s efforts to protect and promote cultural as well as biological diversity. This is a matter of growing concern to many indigenous communities around the world and constitutes the essence of their recent call for "development with identity". The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People provides an excellent opportunity for the international community to reflect on indigenous peoples’ perspectives and aspirations, especially on how they relate to the sustainable development of our planet. Safeguarding intangible heritage, particularly through the transmission of indigenous knowledge systems and cultural expressions, is inextricably linked to issues of land use, natural resource management and tangible heritage conservation. This has been recognized by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which devoted this year’s session in May to the theme of indigenous communities’ rights to "lands, territories and natural resources" – a contentious issue with far-reaching economic and social implications. The various activities spearheaded by UNESCO in areas of cultural landscapes, sacred sites, water, and participatory mapping of indigenous cultural resources reflect the Organization’s concern for this timely question. Moreover, to date, more than 55 "cultural landscapes" from some 35 countries are inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. However, UNESCO’s most unique contribution towards enhancing the worldwide visibility of indigenous issues lies in its standard-setting activity. The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted in 2001, specifically refers to the rights of indigenous peoples (Article 4), and the Declaration’s action plan calls for "respecting and protecting traditional knowledge, in particular that of indigenous peoples"; and "recognizing [its] contribution, particularly with regard to environmental protection and the management of natural resources, and fostering synergies between modern science and local knowledge". More (pdf) Publication Date 08 Aug 2007 Author(s) Koïchiro Matsuura Website Director General's Website From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Thu Aug 9 22:25:24 2007 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 12:25:24 -1000 Subject: REMINDER: 2 position openings at the University of Hawaii (application deadline - September 15) Message-ID: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Second Language Studies Assistant or Associate Professors (2) The Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, seeks to fill two tenure-track vacancies, both full time 9-month positions, pending position availability and funding, to begin August 1, 2008. The Department offers a Master of Arts in Second Language Studies, and administers a PhD program in Second Language Acquisition and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Second Language Studies. A BA with an ESL specialization is available through the University's Interdisciplinary Program. Faculty have interests in a wide range of domains in second and foreign language research. For more information, visit our website: http://www.hawaii.edu/sls POSITION #82454. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Applicants should have major research interests and instructional competence in technology and language learning & teaching (e.g., computer-assisted language learning; computer-mediated communication; electronic and multimodal literacies; distance learning; emerging technologies; and language courseware design and evaluation). MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Doctorate in second language acquisition, applied linguistics or closely related field by August, 2008; demonstrated ability to carry out research; second or foreign language teaching experience; and evidence of excellent teaching ability at the university level. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: Publication in journals and books; teaching experience in a second language studies or equivalent graduate program; ability to win competitive research funding; interest in the Asia-Pacific region, including Asian and Pacific languages; and teacher education experience. POSITION #84105. ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Applicants should have major research expertise and instructional competence in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology as they relate to second language learning, processing, and instruction. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: For Assistant Professor, a doctorate in second language acquisition, applied linguistics or closely related field by August, 2008; demonstrated relevant research ability as evidenced by publications; and evidence of teaching excellence. For Associate Professor, in addition to these requirements, current appointment at that rank. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: Evidence of research productivity commensurate with rank; prior teaching experience in a second language studies or equivalent graduate program; second or foreign language teaching experience; demonstrated ability to win competitive research funding; interest in the Asia-Pacific region, including Asian and Pacific languages. DUTIES FOR BOTH POSITIONS: Teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the area of specialization in the Department of Second Language Studies; conduct and publish research; participate fully in supporting activities for academic programs, departmental governance, and service to the University and community. ANNUAL 9-MONTH SALARY RANGE, BOTH POSITIONS: commensurate with experience E-MAIL INQUIRIES: Position #82454: Dr. Lourdes Ortega, Chair of Search Committee lortega at hawaii.edu Position #84105: Dr. Richard Schmidt, Chair of Search Committee schmidt.dick at gmail.com TO APPLY: Applicants should submit letter of application, curriculum vitae, list of courses taught, and sample publications. In addition, letters of reference should be submitted directly by three recommenders. All application materials should be sent by September 15, 2007 to: Richard R. Day, Chairman Department of Second Language Studies 570 Moore Hall 1890 East-West Road University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA CLOSING DATE FOR BOTH POSITIONS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2007. The University of Hawaii is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. ************************************************************************* N National Foreign Language Resource Center F University of Hawai'i L 1859 East-West Road, #106 R Honolulu HI 96822 C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 email: nflrc at hawaii.edu VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu ************************************************************************* From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Aug 10 13:10:19 2007 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:10:19 -0700 Subject: InField Institute on Field LInguistics and Language Documentation Message-ID: CALL FOR PROPOSALS *Workshops on Language Documentation, Maintenance, and Revitalization* to be held as part of InField: Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation University of California, Santa Barbara June 23rd – July 3rd, 2008 The Organizing Committee of InField solicits applications for workshops in language documentation, language maintenance, and/or language revitalization to be held as part of the Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, June 23rd – July 3rd, 2008. We particularly seek proposals from current practitioners in this area, who would like to teach a workshop of two to eight hours in length to an audience of practicing linguists, graduate students in linguistics, and/or language activists with an interest in documenting, maintaining, or revitalizing a language. For a full description of InField, including workshops currently being planned, visit the website at http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/infield. The proposal should include a statement of the topic of the proposed workshop, the rationale for including it as part of InField, the proposed length of the workshop, and a brief description of the workshop content and how it would be taught. Please keep proposals to a maximum of two-pages in length. Please include also a statement of qualifications of the instructor. Workshop instructors will receive reimbursement for travel, room and board, and a modest honorarium. Proposals should be submitted to *infield at linguistics.ucsb.edu*. *Deadline for proposals: September 15, 2007* -- ____________________________________________________________ Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Associate Director, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) Department of English (Primary) American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT) Department of Language,Reading and Culture Department of Linguistics The Southwest Center (Research) Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836 "Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities." Wade Davis...(on a Starbucks cup...) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Aug 11 18:36:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:36:30 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: Mohawk language program launched Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way to preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their mother tongue. The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, a $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software technology which will help to teach the language to children within the Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the software. "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is what makes us who we are today." Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has been lost over many generations. He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening to an audio recording. They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether or not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more information. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Aug 11 18:41:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:41:39 -0700 Subject: Tribes say No Child Left Behind leaves no room for culture (fwd) Message-ID: Tribes say No Child Left Behind leaves no room for culture By JOHN SENA | The New Mexican August 10, 2007 http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/66427.html# Native American officials make plea for change to Sen. Jeff Bingaman at hearing Native American officials and educators told U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., that the federal No Child Left Behind Act does not recognize native cultures and languages, and limits the ways schools can use them in their curriculums. Bingaman was in Santa Fe on Friday to conduct a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has jurisdiction over federal education law. The hearing was part of an effort to seek public input on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and specifically on how it affects Native American students. “I’ve come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the act,” said James Mountain, governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo. Mountain said he’s heard from teachers in the Pojoaque school district, where many San Ildefonso pupils attend classes, that the act does not take into account cultural differences and has forced schools to focus strictly on English, leaving no room for native languages. “Once we lose our language, we lose our culture,” Mountain said. Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance, Ariz., said her school is an example of what can happen when schools use native language as a tool. Pupils in grades K-2 there learn only in the Diné language and switch gradually to an English-language curriculum after that. The school has made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for the past three years, Benally said. “Language and culture have a positive effect on student achievement,” she said. If lawmakers reauthorize the act, Benally said, they need to leave room for schools to incorporate language and culture. The government also should encourage and fund ways to make sure Indian schools have enough high-quality teachers, she said. State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said schools in isolated rural areas, where many tribal and pueblo schools are located, often have difficulty recruiting teachers. The government needs to support ways to encourage Native Americans to become teachers so they can return to teach in their tribes and pueblos, Garcia said. The law also disregards tribal sovereignty by forcing schools to adhere to state academic standards, said Samantha Pasena, a recent graduate of the Santa Fe Indian School. In addition to issues facing Native Americans, the panel also brought up the concern that under No Child Left Behind, special-education students are forced to take the same tests as regular students. “A lot of specifics were brought up that I had never heard before,” Bingaman said after the hearing. He said would take concerns about maintaining culture in the face of the federal law back to Washington. No Child Left Behind requires testing of students in grades three to eight and at least one grade of high school. Proponents of changes to the law argue there should be different methods of assessment, including a growth model that follows the progress of individual students. Gov. Bill Richardson, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has said he will work to get rid of the law if he is elected. Supporters of the law say changes might weaken it and undermine the accountability it was intended to establish. Contact John Sena at 995-3812 or jsena at sfnewmexican.com. From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Sat Aug 11 19:08:34 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:08:34 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of indigenous language colors and numbers does preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or providing some supplemental assistance for children with indigenous language reinforcement. It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved as living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a medium for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social groups, such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous language again. Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to children extensively. I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native American, so English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his language extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I learning quite a bit of the language. Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native American and First Nations people. I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn a language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return home. We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all done *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. Painfully, Wayne ----- Wayne Leman Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > Mohawk language program launched > > Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder > Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 > http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= > > A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to > keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. > > The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way > to > preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their > mother tongue. > > The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, > a > $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from > the > Ontario Trillium Foundation. > > The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software > technology which will help to teach the language to children within the > Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will > also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the > software. > > "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, > executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is > what makes us who we are today." > > Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has > been > lost over many generations. > > He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. > > A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn > simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening > to an audio recording. > > They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the > word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether > or > not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it > will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. > > Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. > > The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more > information. > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: 8/10/2007 > 3:50 PM > > From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Sat Aug 11 19:25:29 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:25:29 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: >I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after >many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" >(traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of >indigenous language colors and numbers does Sorry, there should have been "not" after "does" > preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value > the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or providing some > supplemental assistance for children with indigenous language > reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved > as living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a > medium for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social > groups, such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous > language again. Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where > they are exposed to language the way any baby or toddler learns language, > by listening to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can > help if they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to > children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our > indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front > of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native > American, so English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his > language extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I > learning quite a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary > caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding > schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know > the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native > American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly > traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It > can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn > a language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total > immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work > today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation > language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents > and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return > home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us > preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside > money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has > to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including > commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all > done *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language From rzs at TDS.NET Sun Aug 12 01:38:19 2007 From: rzs at TDS.NET (Richard Smith) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:38:19 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched In-Reply-To: <008601c7dc4b$0c50ac60$8400a8c0@wlemandesktop> Message-ID: Kweh Wayne, Thanks for sharing...it gets a little stuffy academic here at times. Maybe linguists worry to much about using correct words! Well, I think you are right. Our native languages are not just words equivalent to words of dominant languages. There is a whole system of thinking that's learned only as the language is heard and comprehended during daily existence. Technology, as you hinted can preserve the bones of a language but its our mind that must change in order to approach any fluency. Computer programs will never have the capacity to replace the inherent expertise founded on thousands of years of indigenous thought patterns. A machine won't ever substitute that and shouldn't be programmed to try. However, sadly some of us are stuck with no surviving speakers, No elder to sit with on the porch to ask questions We are stuck depending upon "PHD expert-linguists" who are sometimes like ultra-qualified surgeons, who might be able to help us find a correct pronominal prefix but won't be able to sip lemonade on the porch with us or explain why grandfather avoided certain places, why we do certain ceremonies or why we say things the way we do. If fluency ever does return to my own Wyandot people (and i'm hoping some of my students will ignite that fire!) it will be a somewhat "different language" in that many "reasons" for things are lost.We can learn speeches,addresses, and prayers,songs, but we will never think as our ancestors once did. Once the last speaker of a language dies there is a break forever in a certain cord that binds us to our past I mentioned before I recently spoke to the last Quapaw speaker/elder and was amazed how little is done by the tribe to rebuild, strengthen and revitalize that frayed strand before its too late. I hope more and more grants will be made available to sponsor summer camps and youth immersion programs but it does seem many are excited about promoting the latest techno-gadgets.... Richard Wyandotte Oklahoma On 8/11/07 12:08 PM, "Wayne Leman" wrote: > I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after > many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" > (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of > indigenous language colors and numbers does preserve a language > conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value the use of computers > for preserving language *data*, or providing some supplemental assistance > for children with indigenous language reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved as > living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a medium > for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social groups, > such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous language again. > Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to > language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening to it as > it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if they go toward > helping social units actually speak the language to children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our > indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front of > eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native American, so > English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his language > extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I learning quite > a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary > caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding > schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know > the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native > American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly traditional > ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It can be > supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn a > language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total > immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work > today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation > language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents > and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return > home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us > preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside > money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has > to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including > commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all done > *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM > Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > > >> Mohawk language program launched >> >> Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder >> Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 >> http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648 >> 925&catname=Local%20News&classif= >> >> A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to >> keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. >> >> The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way >> to >> preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their >> mother tongue. >> >> The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, >> a >> $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from >> the >> Ontario Trillium Foundation. >> >> The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software >> technology which will help to teach the language to children within the >> Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will >> also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the >> software. >> >> "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, >> executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is >> what makes us who we are today." >> >> Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has >> been >> lost over many generations. >> >> He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. >> >> A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn >> simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening >> to an audio recording. >> >> They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the >> word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether >> or >> not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it >> will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. >> >> Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. >> >> The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more >> information. >> >> >> >> -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >> Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: 8/10/2007 >> 3:50 PM >> >> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 13 06:15:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:15:40 -0700 Subject: Tongan language now in curriculum (fwd) Message-ID: Tongan language now in curriculum Monday, 13 August 2007, 11:17 am Press Release: New Zealand Government 13 August 2007 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00200.htm Ko e Lea Faka-Tonga 'i he Silapa Nu'usila Tongan language now in curriculum The inclusion of the Tongan language in the New Zealand Education Curriculum will help preserve and enhance the language for future generations, Associate Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said today. Speaking today at the launch of the curriculum at the University of Auckland, Laban said that while the 2006 Census showed there are around 50,000 people usually resident in New Zealand of Tongan ethnicity, there are less than 30,000 speakers of Tongan in New Zealand. "We want to see that number increase, and the number of all New Zealanders able to speak a foreign language – particularly their native tongue – increase," said Laban. The addition of Tongan to the curriculum is supported by the Labour-led government's 2006 budget announcement of a $4.5 million increase over four years for teaching Pasifika languages. "This is great news for our Pacific communities and something to be very proud of. "Losing a language is to lose diversity, culture and identity. Everyone suffers. Today we celebrate an important milestone that will help ensure Tongan will not be lost," said Laban. One research estimate suggests that nearly half of the world's 7000 languages will be extinct by the end of the century. Laban said it was not only important to preserve Tongan, but also important to preserve it in New Zealand. "New Zealand is a Pacific country. The Pacific is our home. Pacific culture and language are increasingly important in the way New Zealanders see themselves," said Laban. The inclusion of Tongan in the curriculum follows the recent launch of a new school curriculum for teaching Vagahau Niue, which joined the Samoan and Cook Island Maori language curricula. ENDS From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 14 05:48:56 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:48:56 -0700 Subject: Province tries to protect vanishing languages (fwd) Message-ID: Province tries to protect vanishing languages Aug, 13 2007 - 10:40 AM http://tinyurl.com/2hs5zg VANCOUVER - The provincial government has set up a two-million dollar fund to support first nations language initiatives in early childhood development programs. Children and Family Development Minister Tom Christensen announced the funding this morning in Victoria. He's hoping the money will ensure indigenous languages are not lost for generations to come. More than 60 per cent of canada's aboriginal languages are found in B-C and many are in danger of becoming extinct. - CKNW From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Aug 14 23:04:39 2007 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:04:39 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) In-Reply-To: <008601c7dc4b$0c50ac60$8400a8c0@wlemandesktop> Message-ID: I agree. Immersion is important but constrained in some ways. Not only has there been radical changes in the ability to speak ones heritage language(s) (fluency > language shift) but there has also been a radical shift in the forms of social interaction speakers have naturally engaged in. These changes have certainly impacted the way we talk to one another. So in some way or another we have lost some or all of our traditional or cultural oriented "ways of speaking" and have gained others or simply adapted to newer forms. One could fairly predict that those forms that do survive are to be found in more traditional contexts or in isolated speech communities. This is certainly the case for my own community. But this is not to claim that there exists a more purer or more natural form of talk rather I simply trying to point out that there are forms of speaking that are linked to a cultures perception of itself. Having the ability to engage in these forms of talk is just as valuable as learning the language itself. So herein lies part of the problem. Most communities adopt immersion as a principle but sometimes the actual practice may be antithetical to educational or institutional standards. That is, they are informal in orientation and less rigid, less componential. This is because the community style of learning is attempting to "immerse" itself in some aspect of the culture in addition to immersion in the language. An added factor in all of this is the "old school" language description and documentation tend to be grammar-centric and linguists have generated a mill of grammars and dictionaries all the while missing some of the more interesting and challenging cultural aspects of language and talk. Communities certainly value these grammars and dictionaries greatly as I do myself. We could not get along without them. However, I see some of this changing, at least for my own orientation as a linguist. I and others are greatly interested in our community's and others "ways of speaking" AND the grammar which produces it. I think endangered language communities are just as interested if not keenly more so. Just a few more thoughts today. Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) Phd Candidate in the Joint Program in Anthropology and Linguistics University of Arizona On Aug 11, 2007, at 12:08 PM, Wayne Leman wrote: > I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. > But after many years of observation, I have concluded that the > "traditional" (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" > education) teaching of indigenous language colors and numbers does > preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as > I value the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or > providing some supplemental assistance for children with indigenous > language reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be > preserved as living languages for communication between > individuals, that is, as a medium for conversation and other kinds > of communication, is for social groups, such as family and clan > units, to begin using the indigenous language again. Children need > to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to > language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening > to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if > they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to > children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to > see our indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language > died in front of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, > not a Native American, so English was spoken in our home, but I > heard him speak his language extensively to his mother and > siblings. And just from that I learning quite a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their > primary caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put > in boarding schools where they are forced to speak a certain > language. And we all know the terrible things the boarding school > language thing did to our Native American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly > traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the > home. It can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for > children to learn a language to be able to communicate in it in > school, unless it is total immersion, such as in a boarding school > environment. Perhaps it would work today if we had truly total > immersion schools where the First Nation language is the only > language used in school by everyone, even if parents and > grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they > return home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to > help us preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If > we need outside money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But > the actual teaching has to be done by primary caregivers and it > must be rich language, including commands, questions, and > everything else that we do with language. all done *naturally*, as > part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" > > To: > Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM > Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > > >> Mohawk language program launched >> >> Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder >> Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 >> http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp? >> contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= >> >> A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a >> way to >> keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. >> >> The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a >> unique way to >> preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak >> their >> mother tongue. >> >> The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two >> grants, a >> $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant >> from the >> Ontario Trillium Foundation. >> >> The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software >> technology which will help to teach the language to children >> within the >> Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. >> It will >> also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the >> software. >> >> "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, >> executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. >> "It is >> what makes us who we are today." >> >> Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the >> language has been >> lost over many generations. >> >> He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in >> Mohawk. >> >> A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could >> learn >> simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by >> listening >> to an audio recording. >> >> They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to >> recite the >> word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see >> whether or >> not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding >> that it >> will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. >> >> Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning >> Centre. >> >> The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 >> for more >> information. >> >> >> >> -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >> Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: >> 8/10/2007 3:50 PM >> From hardman at UFL.EDU Tue Aug 14 23:12:02 2007 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (MJ Hardman) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:12:02 -0500 Subject: Jaqaru speaking community decide their own alphabet In-Reply-To: <24B54335-179C-4869-AC25-330FE0C9AC41@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: July 6, 2007 was a turning point for Tupe, for the whole town joined with the teachers and the authorities local and national to make a profound decision in favor of the preservation of the Jaqaru language. I was not present, but the event was videotaped and tape recorded and photographed. The attached are my personal appreciations of this important event together with the official document. Dr. MJ Hardman website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ A news story, in Spanish, from a national newspaper published in Lima can be found at http://www.laprimeraperu.com/edicionNota.php?IDnoticia=2000&EN=868 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: July 6, 2007 .pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 3010503 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:01:10 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:01:10 -0700 Subject: Indians criticize No Child Left Behind (fwd) Message-ID: Indians criticize No Child Left Behind Tribal College News by Associated Press Aug 13, 2007, 22:36 SANTA FE http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_9066.shtml The No Child Left Behind law fails to recognize native cultures and languages, American Indian officials and educators told a U.S. Senate committee. The law also restricts the ways schools can use native cultures and languages in their curriculums, the committee was told Friday. "I've come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the act," said San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. James Mountain. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the hearing to seek public input on renewal of the law and how it affects American Indian students. The law requires annual math and reading tests in grades three through eight and once in high school. Schools that miss progress goals face consequences, such as having to offer tutoring or fire their principals. Mountain said he has heard from teachers in the Pojoaque school district that the act does not take into account cultural differences and has forced schools to focus on English, leaving no room for native languages. "Once we lose our language, we lose our culture," Mountain said. Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance, Ariz., said her school is an example of what can happen when schools use native language as a tool. Students in grades K-2 there learn only in the Navajo language and gradually switch to an English-language curriculum after that. The school has made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for the past three years, Benally said. "Language and culture have a positive effect on student achievement," she said. If lawmakers reauthorize the act, they need to leave room for schools to incorporate language and culture, Benally said. The government also should encourage and fund ways to ensure American Indian schools have enough high-quality teachers, she said. State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said schools in isolated rural areas, where many tribal and pueblo schools are located, often have difficulty recruiting teachers. The government needs to support ways to encourage American Indians to become teachers so they can return to teach in their tribes and pueblos, Garcia said. The law also disregards tribal sovereignty by forcing schools to adhere to state academic standards, said Samantha Pasena, a recent graduate of the Santa Fe Indian School. The legislation is a priority for President Bush, who pushed for its initial passage in 2001. The law has been widely scorned by teachers who argue it does not provide schools the money needed to meet federal standards. A majority of Americans want the law to be renewed as it is or with minor changes, according to a poll released July 30 by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com - Associated Press © Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:03:35 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:03:35 -0700 Subject: No Child Left Behind Act: Impacts on Indian Country (fwd link) Message-ID: No Child Left Behind Act: Impacts on Indian Country Byline/Source: NIEA Tuesday, 14 August 2007 Field Hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the Impacts of the No Child Left Behind Act in Indian Country at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico on August 10, 2007 http://www.tanasijournal.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468&Itemid=1&ed=62 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:21:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:21:41 -0700 Subject: Desert sweep (fwd) Message-ID: Desert sweep Nicolas Rothwell | August 11, 2007 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22223488-28737,00.html?from=public_rss ABORIGINES across the Northern Territory can feel it like a hot, fierce wind from the southeast, blowing through their communities and pulverising the old established order and its familiar routines. sweep [photo inset - One of the most significant changes advocated by the reforms is a strong police presence in the Northern Territory. Picture: Renee Nowytarger] The 500-page NT National Emergency Response legislation - passed by the House of Representatives in Canberra on Tuesday, examined by a high-speed Senate inquiry yesterday and due to become law early next week - aims at nothing less than the refashioning of indigenous northern Australia. Constraint and education, health checks and modernisation, surveillance and opportunity: it holds out the prospect of all these things. It begins from one key, all-justifying assumption: the federal Government sees a social breakdown in the bush so deep that the life and wellbeing of young indigenous children are at risk. The plan comes with a large price tag. Its implementation will cost more than $500 million in its first year, a sum that equates to $8 million in additional funding for each of the 73 main target communities. These new laws, which give Canberra wide control over remote Aboriginal lands and confer a heavy responsibility on the nation, rescind a range of basic rights granted to indigenous bush communities only a generation ago, or restrict those rights drastically, to guarantee a future of promise. The legislation is unapologetic about this and quite clear about the reasons: "In the case of indigenous people in the NT, there are significant social and economic barriers to the enjoyment of their rights to health, development, education, property, social security and culture. The emergency measures are part of the action to improve the ability of indigenous peoples to enjoy these rights and freedoms." But few observers have yet grasped just how coercive the new regime will be and how much it will change life in the remote world. Family heads who repeatedly fail to send their children to school will not only have the cash part of their welfare or community work payments cut back; the remainder will be supplied in vouchers that can be spent in the local community store only, essentially producing a kind of movement control. Until now, bush Aborigines could collect their payments in town. With that system drastically changed, a lifestyle of subsidised nomadism will be much more difficult to sustain. The Community Development Employment Program that provided most of the wages in remote settlements and served as the low-grade fuel of their economies is being scrapped across the NT. In its place comes training and work for the dole. The same principles will apply to the new labour programs as in mainstream society. If remote community members regularly fail to discharge their appointed tasks, they will be held to be in breach and lose their work slots, and money, for several weeks. This is a big change from the CDEP system, which had an opt-in, opt-out flavour: people often worked only when convenient. Remote community members also will need to prove they are job-seekers, in training or looking for employment through their registered local work provider, or they will lose their weekly payments: a sharp departure from the days of unconditional money and yet another mechanism for keeping people close to their communities. Power in remote Aboriginal societies comes from organisations and their funds. Almost unnoticed until now, the new laws have changed this power game, giving Canberra full override. Federal Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough gains complete control over NT indigenous community governance. He can suspend and take over Aboriginal local councils and any of their associations, including art or resource centres, and transfer their assets to the new local government shires being designed. An axe thus hangs over any bush indigenous grouping that fails to perform. This all adds up to a new regime with bite. It spells the end to the hazy days of many remote communities, of all-day television watching and card playing, watched over by a clutch of harassed mainstream advisers. It is intervention that brooks no appeal and is designed to change behaviour fast. "In a crisis such as this," declares the commonwealth's background memo, "the measures are necessary to ensure that there is real improvement before it is too late for many of the children. The bill will provide the foundation for rebuilding social and economic structures, and give meaningful content to indigenous rights and freedoms." So runs the extraordinary argument behind this policy revolution. Not since wartime has language of this kind been presented to federal parliament, and the index of the crisis lies in federal Labor's broad acceptance of these startling measures. Yet the emergency response, for all its high seriousness and deep pockets, faces an uncertain evolution as it moves from blueprint to reality in the field. There are two fundamental challenges ahead of its architects and the teams of experts charged with making a difference on the ground. The first, and most perplexing, is the sheer resistance of remote Aboriginal societies to improvements mandated and delivered from outside. Many of the observers of this other Australia have come to the conclusion that its problems lie much deeper than economics and education, and relate more to loss of hope and purpose, to an almost subterranean ailment of the spirit that besets many small cultures overwhelmed by the outside world; an affliction that may require as much care and compassion as administrative guidance and financial transfusion. The second, more immediate, challenge is political: the commonwealth's intervention has a degree of soft popular support but is opposed, in part or whole, on practical and moral grounds by a range of interest groups, including Labor politicians of radical stripe, the NT Labor Government, the established Aboriginal intelligentsia and organisational leadership, a variety of academic experts in indigenous affairs and legal voices. These voices were raised high in yesterday's emotive Senate inquiry hearings. Some of them warn of cultural genocide, while some bitterly condemn the lack of consultation with the affected communities. Some argue that the limited lifting of the access permit system for the larger communities, a change designed to promote economic and social connection with the outside world, will in fact gravely harm their interests and erode their cultural timbre. Much of this criticism is a form of mourning for an old paradigm that is now dismantled: the model that advanced the three-fold agenda of land rights, self-determination and reconciliation. But the reaction has been intense for, like all the most profound reform projects embarked on by the Prime Minister, the intervention has a strong ideological component. The Aborigines occupy a hallowed symbolic role in the pantheon of the intelligentsia and the cultural establishment. This social class has a deep influence over national opinion and much of its membership is inclined by instinct to oppose the Coalition Government and to resist measures that infringe on indigenous rights. Neither John Howard nor his various Aboriginal affairs ministers have prepared the case for indigenous reforms during the past decade. That task has been left to one man: Cape York leader Noel Pearson who, step by step, has argued his way towards a new understanding of the plight of remote Aboriginal societies, finding few supportive echoes beyond the editorial columns of this newspaper. It is the Pearson analysis that stands, like a shaping shadow, behind the chief measures in the new legislation. One of his core arguments is that alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling should be viewed as illnesses, subject to treatment, rather than just afflictions caused by indigenous social deprivation. He also contends that passive welfare rots away post-traditional societies. On to these Pearsonian ideas another current of thought has been patched: the view that collective land tenure stunts economic activity and that private leases are essential to bringing security, growth and commerce to bush economies. This view, developed by Aboriginal affairs veteran Neil Westbury when he ran the NT's office of indigenous policy, lies behind the federal Government's backing for the introduction of 99-year leases on Aboriginal land in the NT. Westbury, significantly, is also the chief proponent, together with another former senior NT public servant, Mike Dillon, of the argument that Aboriginal Australia is a failed state within the nation: a view that almost invites the emergency-response model developed by Australia in Solomon Islands. This, then, is a theory-driven legislative package, and its creators and proponents will be looking for swift signs of success to back up their prescriptions for remote Australia. The deeper problems confronting the indigenous world, though, may take decades to address. Housing shortages can be remedied with money, which is beginning to flow, but the behavioural problems that doom houses to short lifespans are more difficult. Educational failure and illiteracy can be stemmed by systematic improvements in the quality and permanence of teaching staff, and by the availability of boarding school places or dedicated regional colleges, but the two generations of ill-educated, quasi-illiterate bush Aborigines now in their maturity present a more disquieting problem. Healthcare and nutrition for the young children who are the chief focus of the intervention can be quickly boosted, but what of the middle-aged desert and Top End Aborigines whose kidneys are failing and who will need lifelong dialysis? Alcohol and drugs can be banned in communities, and their smuggling by grog-runners more thoroughly policed, but who will stop the drift of bush drinkers into towns, where they are already prone to congregate, or fill the void in their lives that drink and drugs once occupied? The blanket alcohol prohibition and the quarantining of welfare payments, two of the most urgent measures in the Brough plan, are at best a stop-gap solution rather than a step towards a cure. If the emergency response does succeed in creating calm and order in bush communities, it is clear - though not yet conceded by the Prime Minister - that a further, generational commitment to educating and developing indigenous remote Australia will be needed. And in this natural progression, the Howard Government's thinking, and multi-billion-dollar spending package, inevitably converges on the most expansive blueprint for Aboriginal progress advanced by the idealistic Left. It is also clear that a transition time lies ahead. As soon as next week, the new regime will be imposed on some central Australian communities. Hard choices loom: Brough made it plain late in the week that the continuation of full-scale funding for the NT's remotest outposts, many of them mere shells in the deep bush, was not guaranteed. This warning came on the same day as the leak of a report from his department suggesting remote outstations may be economically viable. The divergence of views illustrates how much depends on the framing of initial assumptions. The truth is that a particular vision of remote Aboriginal society is under threat. Until now, development experts and anthropologists have favoured the idea of far-flung outstations or homelands, sometimes occupied by only a single family group, and developing a "cultural economy" based on pillars such as art, ranger patrols and land care. But the federal intervention will concentrate services in regional core communities. These will be offered 99-year leases and will become, so the plan goes, economic and educational centres. If there are 70-odd communities in the NT today, that number will shrink, perhaps to as few as 50, while bureaucratic streamlining will follow the establishment of the new, shire-based local government system. The soft, introductory phase of the emergency response is over. Already, the new government business managers, all drawn from the senior ranks of the public service, have been appointed to the communities they will run. An atmosphere of cautious, expectant waiting fills some of these small societies. Among older women of the central desert, in particular, there is a palpable hope that the new measures will have positive effects and reduce the crushing poverty. In the NT's political domain, though, the perfunctory support of the Darwin Government for the emergency response has been continually undermined by the furious criticisms levelled by ministers against key parts of the program. Meanwhile, regional Aboriginal spokesmen, ranging from veteran Yolngu leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu to Central Land Council director David Ross, have condemned the sweep and effects of the plan. Such attacks, of course, form part of the environment in which the commonwealth reforms will unfold and help to cue the popular reaction. But Brough is not courting love or popularity with his scheme, and a degree of sharpness seems built in with his measures of constraint and control. The first striking signs that some Aboriginal communities see the logic behind the broader lines of the Brough philosophy and its aim to set up long-term futures for the bush, even at a high cost, began to emerge this week. The tiny, well-managed Anindilyakwa Land Council, on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, announced on Monday the completion, after a year's talks, of a regional partnership agreement with the federal Government: a landmark deal that, in return for the grant of 99-year leases to three communities, secures Groote a tightly targeted $20million first package of extra federal investment, designed to craft a viable remote economy, with substantial further funding to be agreed later. By no great coincidence, the conceptual architect of the 99-year leasing scheme is Westbury, an adviser to the Anindilyakwa, an Aboriginal group of impeccably traditional slant. Transformation, rather than continuity. Constraint, rather than license. Imposition, rather than consultation. Obligations, rather than rights. Such is the novel language of Aboriginal north Australia. These are new tones for the remote world and for the whole nation: the future of a distinct domain hangs in the balance. From jordanlachler at GMAIL.COM Wed Aug 15 20:10:50 2007 From: jordanlachler at GMAIL.COM (Jordan Lachler) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:10:50 -0800 Subject: Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Message-ID: Sunday, August 12, 2007 (SF Chronicle) Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Jen Ross, Chronicle Foreign Service (08-12) 04:00 PDT Santiago, Chile -- While most 16-year-old boys are busy playing video games or worrying about girls, Joubert Yanten spends most of his spare time reading dictionaries and singing tribal songs. In the heart of Chile's bustling capital, this teen finds a place to meditate amid the plants on the patio of his family's modest home. He hums to himself, in the high-pitched tone of a pubescent boy. Minutes later, his voice deepens, and he seems to enter a sort of trance. Guttural sounds escape his mouth, as he pronounces the inflections of this native tongue with obvious ease. Yanten is speaking Selk'nam, the language of an extinct aboriginal group that lived in the Tierra del Fuego islands off southern Chile and Argentina. They were among the last native communities in South America to be settled, in the late 19th century. When the Spaniards arrived in Chile, 11 languages were in widespread use: Quechua, Aymara, Rapanui, Chango, Kunza, Diaguita, Mapudungun, Chono, Kawesqar, Yagan and Selk'nam. Today, only the first three remain. Experts now consider Yanten to be the only living speaker of a language that died with the last ethnic Selk'nam in the 1970s. His obsession began at age 8, when he wrote an elementary school project on Chile's native groups. "It frustrated me that no one really saw the magnitude of the extinction of an entire race in the south," he said. "Now you'll only find a couple of indigenous faces; it's really sad." But learning a language when there is no one to speak it with is no small task. Yanten used dictionaries and audiocassettes of interviews and shamanic chants, recorded by Jesuit missionaries. The teen leafs through the photocopied pages of a Selk'nam dictionary he borrowed from the library, which includes special sections on grammar and sentence structure. He explains that Selk'nam differs from Spanish in that the object comes at the beginning of a sentence, followed by the subject and the verb. He then pulls out a worn CD and plops it into his player. The low-pitched chant of a medicine woman fills the room, while Yanten sings along in perfect harmony. Experts say there are precedents for reviving extinct languages, and the use of songs is key to the process of learning pitch and intonation. "Through recordings, people can understand the mechanics and grammar of a language," said Arturo Hernandez, a language professor with the Catholic University of Temuco, in southern Chile. "Listeners can imitate sounds and learn to speak in a less technical way, just like someone who learns a language using a CD or DVD. ... What's surprising in this case is that this is not a professional, but a boy who began learning at the age of 8." In an age when more than half of the world's 6,000 languages are nearing extinction, Hernandez says Yanten's quest to revive Selk'nam won't be easy, but could make waves with the right media coverage. A straight-A student, Yanten is something of a child prodigy. Besides Selk'nam and Spanish, he also speaks fluent Mapudungun - the language of Chile's largest indigenous group - the Mapuche. He considers himself only semi-versed in the native languages of Onikenk, Haush, Kawesqar, and Quechua - not to mention English. He's also learning Yagan - a nearly extinct language from Chile's far south. He's been learning from its last living speaker, Christina Calderon, for three years, on the phone and by Internet messages. She has sent him recordings of songs and tribal stories. Yanten has also traveled to visit her in remote Tierra del Fuego, most recently on a trip financed by a Chilean television station. But Yanten's love affair with language doesn't end with words; he is also composing songs in Selk'nam. In an effort to popularize traditional native music, he is fusing it with modern electronic beats, and working on a demo CD with friends. "Music uses language to connect people in a communication community," said Rodrigo Torres, an ethno-musicologist from the Universidad de Chile. "Music has the power to penetrate where logic and reason don't, creating a type of emotional connection, which is very positive." Yanten's mother, Ivonne Gomez, a housewife, believes there may be a mystical element to his exceptional linguistic abilities. "I've always believed that the spirits of his ancestors are with him," she said. "He goes through many changes of voice and of mental state." Her great-grandfather was Selk'nam, something she hid from her son when he was younger. "I never wanted to say anything because when I was in school, kids used to tease me and call me 'Indian,' " she explained. "That made me sad, so I said to myself, 'Why should I tell that to my son?' " But by the time Yanten was 12, his linguistic abilities were confirmed by a university professor. So his mother told him about his ancestry, and started recording his singing and encouraging him to perform. He now gives performances every two or three months at universities and museums in Santiago. Yanten has recorded two CDs of Selk'nam music, using his own savings from part-time work at a grocery store. His father is an artisan, and his lower-middle-class family had to take out loans to finance his unusual passion. Yanten applied for cultural grants from the government, but was rejected because he's younger than the minimum age of 18. So Yanten has teamed up with a cultural group called Fuego Ancestral (Ancestral Fire), which promotes the culture of Tierra del Fuego indigenous, through documentaries, musical presentations, talks, and workshops on traditional medicine. "People can identify with the spirituality of indigenous cultures, and their knowledge, culture and language are all an important part of connecting ourselves with nature and with our past," said Oscar Galleguillos, director of Fuego Ancestral. "And I don't think you have to be of native ancestry. We're all members of a tribe. There's the French tribe. The North American tribe. The Chilean." Yet lack of financial support has frustrated Yanten and those who work to preserve Chile's indigenous heritage. "It's unfortunate that in our country, culture gets no support," said Juan Carlos Avilez, an anthropologist from the rural town of Curacavi, who recently came to see Yanten perform at a Santiago museum. "Not only should the state be helping this special boy, but a university should study and work with him." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Aug 16 05:21:17 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:21:17 -0400 Subject: Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Message-ID: I first heard the audio version of this online a couple of weeks ago, and wrote to the student's mentor at Temuco. Never heard back, but then its winter down there. Just tried again, now that this has hit the electronic shores. Hopefully something will happen. One linguist familiar with the situation suggested forgetting about it, that it was probably some sort of hoax. Better safe than sorry, though. Right now linguists aren't too popular with the powers that be in Ukika. People who should know better have decided they DO know better, unfortunately. I have all sorts of materials that would be useful. Just have to make that connection. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 16 08:02:44 2007 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:02:44 -0700 Subject: Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Wayne is right in stating that the *only* way for a community to keep its language alive is to ensure that children learn the language from elders when they are still young enough to absorb the language naturally. Because those who have gone through standard Euro-american schooling have a model and image of how a "foreign" language should be taught (which almost never works in the first place), they tend to assume that this is how the native language should be taught -- i.e., formally, following a curriculum, memorizing words or expressions, etc. For numerous reasons, this approach is doomed to failure as a way of perpetuating the living language, just as it fails to succeed as a way of developing fluency in foreign languages in school. The optimum age for language learning is before the age of formal schooling, but the built-in biological ability to acquire language naturally begins to decline rapidly as puberty approaches. We know from the experience of the Navajo and Cherokee code-talkers that native languages can be adapted to the most modern of cultural contexts. It is only a matter if speakers choose to do this, or replace their use of native linguistic resources with the dominant national language. By replacing native resources, I am referring to the grammatical structure, not lexical items. All languages, English included, become enriched through incorporation of vocabulary from other sources for referring to novel elements of experience. It is not necessary, in order to maintain the integrity of a language, to invent native terms for every new thing. An instructive example comes from Korean -- one day I asked some of my Korean students how to say in Korean, "I want a pen". They laughed, and said, "I want a [in Korean]" "pen [in English]". When I protested, and asked what they would call a pen in Korean, they laughed again and said, "We would say 'pen'". But the grammatical frame for the use of the word remains entirely in Korean. Aymara and Quechua are examples of native languages which have incorporated numerous Spanish lexemes as verb and noun bases, while retaining the complex and subtle grammatical structure and semantic system, so that it is possible to talk or write about even the most current technological and political developments in the native language. Being able to talk about the complexities of modern life emphatically does not mean having to give up the native language. Unfortunately the issue is too often framed in this way as a choice, putting the language in a museum mode as being of value only for expressing traditional cultural matters but otherwise of no use. Community psychology must change to embrace the use of the language for all aspects of life, adopting terms and adapting usage as needed to maintain relevance. And language learning must begin in the home and family in the natural way. Any other way is the way to language death. Rudy Troike From maiaponsonnet at HOTMAIL.COM Thu Aug 16 10:18:55 2007 From: maiaponsonnet at HOTMAIL.COM (Ponsonnet Maia) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:18:55 +0000 Subject: Desert sweep (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070815122141.wz7gug4ks8080oks@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Thank you very much for this article. I work with Aboriginal communities of Northern Australia myself, and I am really glad that this piece of news is eventually coming up on this list. May I emphasize an aspect of the Australian government emergency plan that is not that clear in the article from the Australian? The plan is many fold and most of its points can plausibly impact the welfare of NT Aboriginal community members, children in particular. But the land rights aspect of the plan, consisting in scrapping the permit system and taking hold of some territories that were previously the property of indigenous inhabitants for 5 years, is more pernicious. The government has never explained the link between scrapping the permit system and the welfare of children. To all those who know the context, this scrapping can only make things worse. And there are many reasons to think that the 5 year confiscation of territories is part of a more general agenda targeting to scrap indigenous Land Right more generally. The underlying motivations for this agenda are economical, ideological, political, etc. So yes, the law, that the government wants passed today despite vigorous protests, is the beginning of a new era, for better and worse. But, if nothing comes to stop the current government, today may also be remembered as the day when the indigenous people of Northern Australia will enter the process of loosing the legal Land Rights they have gained 30 years ago. That is, they are loosing their own land; and this could kill many of them. With many thanks for reading this. Ma�a Ponsonnet >From: phil cash cash >Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology >To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU >Subject: [ILAT] Desert sweep (fwd) >Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:21:41 -0700 > >Desert sweep > >Nicolas Rothwell | August 11, 2007 >http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22223488-28737,00.html?from=public_rss > >ABORIGINES across the Northern Territory can feel it like a hot, fierce >wind >from the southeast, blowing through their communities and pulverising the >old established order and its familiar routines. >sweep > >[photo inset - One of the most significant changes advocated by the reforms >is a strong police presence in the Northern Territory. Picture: Renee >Nowytarger] > >The 500-page NT National Emergency Response legislation - passed by the >House of Representatives in Canberra on Tuesday, examined by a high-speed >Senate inquiry yesterday and due to become law early next week - aims at >nothing less than the refashioning of indigenous northern Australia. > >Constraint and education, health checks and modernisation, surveillance and >opportunity: it holds out the prospect of all these things. It begins from >one key, all-justifying assumption: the federal Government sees a social >breakdown in the bush so deep that the life and wellbeing of young >indigenous children are at risk. > >The plan comes with a large price tag. Its implementation will cost more >than $500 million in its first year, a sum that equates to $8 million in >additional funding for each of the 73 main target communities. > >These new laws, which give Canberra wide control over remote Aboriginal >lands and confer a heavy responsibility on the nation, rescind a range of >basic rights granted to indigenous bush communities only a generation ago, >or restrict those rights drastically, to guarantee a future of promise. > >The legislation is unapologetic about this and quite clear about the >reasons: "In the case of indigenous people in the NT, there are significant >social and economic barriers to the enjoyment of their rights to health, >development, education, property, social security and culture. The >emergency measures are part of the action to improve the ability of >indigenous peoples to enjoy these rights and freedoms." > >But few observers have yet grasped just how coercive the new regime will be >and how much it will change life in the remote world. > >Family heads who repeatedly fail to send their children to school will not >only have the cash part of their welfare or community work payments cut >back; the remainder will be supplied in vouchers that can be spent in the >local community store only, essentially producing a kind of movement >control. Until now, bush Aborigines could collect their payments in town. >With that system drastically changed, a lifestyle of subsidised nomadism >will be much more difficult to sustain. > >The Community Development Employment Program that provided most of the >wages >in remote settlements and served as the low-grade fuel of their economies >is >being scrapped across the NT. In its place comes training and work for the >dole. The same principles will apply to the new labour programs as in >mainstream society. If remote community members regularly fail to discharge >their appointed tasks, they will be held to be in breach and lose their >work >slots, and money, for several weeks. This is a big change from the CDEP >system, which had an opt-in, opt-out flavour: people often worked only when >convenient. > >Remote community members also will need to prove they are job-seekers, in >training or looking for employment through their registered local work >provider, or they will lose their weekly payments: a sharp departure from >the days of unconditional money and yet another mechanism for keeping >people close to their communities. > >Power in remote Aboriginal societies comes from organisations and their >funds. Almost unnoticed until now, the new laws have changed this power >game, giving Canberra full override. > >Federal Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal >Brough gains complete control over NT indigenous community governance. He >can suspend and take over Aboriginal local councils and any of their >associations, including art or resource centres, and transfer their assets >to the new local government shires being designed. An axe thus hangs over >any bush indigenous grouping that fails to perform. > >This all adds up to a new regime with bite. It spells the end to the hazy >days of many remote communities, of all-day television watching and card >playing, watched over by a clutch of harassed mainstream advisers. It is >intervention that brooks no appeal and is designed to change behaviour >fast. > >"In a crisis such as this," declares the commonwealth's background memo, >"the measures are necessary to ensure that there is real improvement before >it is too late for many of the children. The bill will provide the >foundation for rebuilding social and economic structures, and give >meaningful content to indigenous rights and freedoms." > >So runs the extraordinary argument behind this policy revolution. Not since >wartime has language of this kind been presented to federal parliament, and >the index of the crisis lies in federal Labor's broad acceptance of these >startling measures. > >Yet the emergency response, for all its high seriousness and deep pockets, >faces an uncertain evolution as it moves from blueprint to reality in the >field. There are two fundamental challenges ahead of its architects and the >teams of experts charged with making a difference on the ground. > >The first, and most perplexing, is the sheer resistance of remote >Aboriginal >societies to improvements mandated and delivered from outside. > >Many of the observers of this other Australia have come to the conclusion >that its problems lie much deeper than economics and education, and relate >more to loss of hope and purpose, to an almost subterranean ailment of the >spirit that besets many small cultures overwhelmed by the outside world; an >affliction that may require as much care and compassion as administrative >guidance and financial transfusion. > >The second, more immediate, challenge is political: the commonwealth's >intervention has a degree of soft popular support but is opposed, in part >or whole, on practical and moral grounds by a range of interest groups, >including Labor politicians of radical stripe, the NT Labor Government, the >established Aboriginal intelligentsia and organisational leadership, a >variety of academic experts in indigenous affairs and legal voices. > >These voices were raised high in yesterday's emotive Senate inquiry >hearings. Some of them warn of cultural genocide, while some bitterly >condemn the lack of consultation with the affected communities. Some argue >that the limited lifting of the access permit system for the larger >communities, a change designed to promote economic and social connection >with the outside world, will in fact gravely harm their interests and erode >their cultural timbre. > >Much of this criticism is a form of mourning for an old paradigm that is >now >dismantled: the model that advanced the three-fold agenda of land rights, >self-determination and reconciliation. > >But the reaction has been intense for, like all the most profound reform >projects embarked on by the Prime Minister, the intervention has a strong >ideological component. The Aborigines occupy a hallowed symbolic role in >the pantheon of the intelligentsia and the cultural establishment. This >social class has a deep influence over national opinion and much of its >membership is inclined by instinct to oppose the Coalition Government and >to resist measures that infringe on indigenous rights. > >Neither John Howard nor his various Aboriginal affairs ministers have >prepared the case for indigenous reforms during the past decade. > >That task has been left to one man: Cape York leader Noel Pearson who, step >by step, has argued his way towards a new understanding of the plight of >remote Aboriginal societies, finding few supportive echoes beyond the >editorial columns of this newspaper. > >It is the Pearson analysis that stands, like a shaping shadow, behind the >chief measures in the new legislation. One of his core arguments is that >alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling should be viewed as illnesses, subject >to treatment, rather than just afflictions caused by indigenous social >deprivation. > >He also contends that passive welfare rots away post-traditional societies. >On to these Pearsonian ideas another current of thought has been patched: >the view that collective land tenure stunts economic activity and that >private leases are essential to bringing security, growth and commerce to >bush economies. > >This view, developed by Aboriginal affairs veteran Neil Westbury when he >ran >the NT's office of indigenous policy, lies behind the federal Government's >backing for the introduction of 99-year leases on Aboriginal land in the >NT. > >Westbury, significantly, is also the chief proponent, together with another >former senior NT public servant, Mike Dillon, of the argument that >Aboriginal Australia is a failed state within the nation: a view that >almost invites the emergency-response model developed by Australia in >Solomon Islands. > >This, then, is a theory-driven legislative package, and its creators and >proponents will be looking for swift signs of success to back up their >prescriptions for remote Australia. The deeper problems confronting the >indigenous world, though, may take decades to address. > >Housing shortages can be remedied with money, which is beginning to flow, >but the behavioural problems that doom houses to short lifespans are more >difficult. Educational failure and illiteracy can be stemmed by systematic >improvements in the quality and permanence of teaching staff, and by the >availability of boarding school places or dedicated regional colleges, but >the two generations of ill-educated, quasi-illiterate bush Aborigines now >in their maturity present a more disquieting problem. > >Healthcare and nutrition for the young children who are the chief focus of >the intervention can be quickly boosted, but what of the middle-aged desert >and Top End Aborigines whose kidneys are failing and who will need lifelong >dialysis? > >Alcohol and drugs can be banned in communities, and their smuggling by >grog-runners more thoroughly policed, but who will stop the drift of bush >drinkers into towns, where they are already prone to congregate, or fill >the void in their lives that drink and drugs once occupied? The blanket >alcohol prohibition and the quarantining of welfare payments, two of the >most urgent measures in the Brough plan, are at best a stop-gap solution >rather than a step towards a cure. > >If the emergency response does succeed in creating calm and order in bush >communities, it is clear - though not yet conceded by the Prime Minister - >that a further, generational commitment to educating and developing >indigenous remote Australia will be needed. > >And in this natural progression, the Howard Government's thinking, and >multi-billion-dollar spending package, inevitably converges on the most >expansive blueprint for Aboriginal progress advanced by the idealistic >Left. > >It is also clear that a transition time lies ahead. As soon as next week, >the new regime will be imposed on some central Australian communities. > >Hard choices loom: Brough made it plain late in the week that the >continuation of full-scale funding for the NT's remotest outposts, many of >them mere shells in the deep bush, was not guaranteed. > >This warning came on the same day as the leak of a report from his >department suggesting remote outstations may be economically viable. The >divergence of views illustrates how much depends on the framing of initial >assumptions. > >The truth is that a particular vision of remote Aboriginal society is under >threat. Until now, development experts and anthropologists have favoured >the idea of far-flung outstations or homelands, sometimes occupied by only >a single family group, and developing a "cultural economy" based on pillars >such as art, ranger patrols and land care. > >But the federal intervention will concentrate services in regional core >communities. These will be offered 99-year leases and will become, so the >plan goes, economic and educational centres. > >If there are 70-odd communities in the NT today, that number will shrink, >perhaps to as few as 50, while bureaucratic streamlining will follow the >establishment of the new, shire-based local government system. > >The soft, introductory phase of the emergency response is over. Already, >the >new government business managers, all drawn from the senior ranks of the >public service, have been appointed to the communities they will run. > >An atmosphere of cautious, expectant waiting fills some of these small >societies. Among older women of the central desert, in particular, there is >a palpable hope that the new measures will have positive effects and reduce >the crushing poverty. > >In the NT's political domain, though, the perfunctory support of the Darwin >Government for the emergency response has been continually undermined by >the furious criticisms levelled by ministers against key parts of the >program. > >Meanwhile, regional Aboriginal spokesmen, ranging from veteran Yolngu >leader >Galarrwuy Yunupingu to Central Land Council director David Ross, have >condemned the sweep and effects of the plan. > >Such attacks, of course, form part of the environment in which the >commonwealth reforms will unfold and help to cue the popular reaction. > >But Brough is not courting love or popularity with his scheme, and a degree >of sharpness seems built in with his measures of constraint and control. >The first striking signs that some Aboriginal communities see the logic >behind the broader lines of the Brough philosophy and its aim to set up >long-term futures for the bush, even at a high cost, began to emerge this >week. > >The tiny, well-managed Anindilyakwa Land Council, on Groote Eylandt in the >Gulf of Carpentaria, announced on Monday the completion, after a year's >talks, of a regional partnership agreement with the federal Government: a >landmark deal that, in return for the grant of 99-year leases to three >communities, secures Groote a tightly targeted $20million first package of >extra federal investment, designed to craft a viable remote economy, with >substantial further funding to be agreed later. By no great coincidence, >the conceptual architect of the 99-year leasing scheme is Westbury, an >adviser to the Anindilyakwa, an Aboriginal group of impeccably traditional >slant. > >Transformation, rather than continuity. Constraint, rather than license. >Imposition, rather than consultation. Obligations, rather than rights. Such >is the novel language of Aboriginal north Australia. These are new tones >for >the remote world and for the whole nation: the future of a distinct domain >hangs in the balance. _________________________________________________________________ Advertisement: 1000s of Sexy Singles online now at Lavalife http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Flavalife9%2Eninemsn%2Ecom%2Eau%2Fclickthru%2Fclickthru%2Eact%3Fid%3Dninemsn%26context%3Dan99%26locale%3Den%5FAU%26a%3D29891&_t=764581033&_r=email_taglines_1000s&_m=EXT From rrlapier at AOL.COM Thu Aug 16 14:03:43 2007 From: rrlapier at AOL.COM (rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:03:43 -0400 Subject: Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival In-Reply-To: <20070816010244.l91z8kcgokcs0sg8@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: When Native language use is challenged -- every method should be embraced and all stakeholders (tribe, schools, families) should be encouraged. Making statements that only one way works is discouraging to communities who are attempting to make positive changes within thier communities. I wish there were more methods and not less within our community. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute -----Original Message----- From: Rudy Troike To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Sent: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 2:02 am Subject: [ILAT] Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival Wayne is right in stating that the *only* way for a community to keep its? language alive is to ensure that children learn the language from elders? when they are still young enough to absorb the language naturally. Because? those who have gone through standard Euro-american schooling have a model? and image of how a "foreign" language should be taught (which almost never? works in the first place), they tend to assume that this is how the native? language should be taught -- i.e., formally, following a curriculum,? memorizing words or expressions, etc. For numerous reasons, this approach? is doomed to failure as a way of perpetuating the living language, just as? it fails to succeed as a way of developing fluency in foreign languages in? school. The optimum age for language learning is before the age of formal? schooling, but the built-in biological ability to acquire language naturally? begins to decline rapidly as puberty approaches. We know from the experience? of the Navajo and Cherokee code-talkers that native languages can be adapted? to the most modern of cultural contexts. It is only a matter if speakers? choose to do this, or replace their use of native linguistic resources with? the dominant national language. By replacing native resources, I am referring? to the grammatical structure, not lexical items. All languages, English? included, become enriched through incorporation of vocabulary from other? sources for referring to novel elements of experience. It is not necessary,? in order to maintain the integrity of a language, to invent native terms? for every new thing. An instructive example comes from Korean -- one day? I asked some of my Korean students how to say in Korean, "I want a pen".? They laughed, and said, "I want a [in Korean]" "pen [in English]". When I? protested, and asked what they would call a pen in Korean, they laughed? again and said, "We would say 'pen'". But the grammatical frame for the? use of the word remains entirely in Korean. Aymara and Quechua are examples? of native languages which have incorporated numerous Spanish lexemes as? verb and noun bases, while retaining the complex and subtle grammatical? structure and semantic system, so that it is possible to talk or write? about even the most current technological and political developments in? the native language. Being able to talk about the complexities of modern? life emphatically does not mean having to give up the native language.? Unfortunately the issue is too often framed in this way as a choice,? putting the language in a museum mode as being of value only for expressing? traditional cultural matters but otherwise of no use. Community psychology? must change to embrace the use of the language for all aspects of life,? adopting terms and adapting usage as needed to maintain relevance. And? language learning must begin in the home and family in the natural way.? Any other way is the way to language death.? ? ? Rudy Troike? ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From charles.riley at YALE.EDU Thu Aug 16 16:08:30 2007 From: charles.riley at YALE.EDU (Charles Riley) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:08:30 -0400 Subject: FCC opening for community radio In-Reply-To: <8C9AE25642D421F-348-8D4@FWM-M31.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: In October, the FCC will have a one-week window for accepting applications from non-profits for full-power radio frequency, up to 100,000 watts, depending on availability of the spectrum in the community's area. The application process will require some planning ahead before then, but it looks like a good opportunity. The applying organizations would have to be non-commercial with an educational mission, but would not need to have 501(c)3 status in hand. More details here: http://www.getradio.org/secure_a_station From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 17 16:48:28 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:48:28 -0700 Subject: New Indigenous TV station turns on (fwd) Message-ID: New Indigenous TV station turns on Posted Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:02am AEST http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/13/1977687.htm Australia's first 24-hour Indigenous television service was switched on in Sydney today. Aboriginal leaders, actors, singers, and sports stars attended the launch by the Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The Government-funded National Indigenous TV (NITV) will broadcast to more than 200,000 people across Northern Australia, Queensland, and South Australia on the Optus Aurora satellite and Imparja's second satellite channel. But remote Aboriginal communities say they are worried they could be excluded from the new channel. The general manager of Warlpiri media in Yuendumu Northern Territory, Rita Catoni, says many cultural videos might not be picked up by NITV because they are not up to industry standard. "What's not going to be around is ... a platform for a whole lot of people in remote communities to view their own grassroots content and to see people in other remote communities," she said. "It's going to be a very different type of content on television, which is a shame really, because they're not mutually exclusive, they could have coexisted." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 17 17:32:20 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:32:20 -0700 Subject: UN adds Norfolk language to endangered list (fwd) Message-ID: Friday, 17 August 2007, 16:15:04 AEST UN adds Norfolk language to endangered list http://www.abc.net.au/message/news/stories/ms_news_2008195.htm The United Nations has included the language spoken by Norfolk Islanders on its list of the world's languages in danger of disappearing. The language, known locally as 'talking Norfolk', is a mixture of Olde English and Tahitian and can be traced back to the Bounty mutineers. Norfolk Island Chief Minister Andre Nobbs says inhabitants of the Island have been seeking greater recognition of the language for many years. "Establishing it in this way - especially as it is one of the rarest languages in the world - gives us a great deal of pride and at the moment we're looking at as many ways as possible to, as many other islands are doing, to reinvigorate our culture," he said. From gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV Sun Aug 19 18:48:13 2007 From: gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV (McCone, Gary) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:48:13 -0400 Subject: Endangered Native American Languages Message-ID: Cult ural Survival Quarterly of Cambridge, Massachusetts dedicated their summer 2007 issue, Volume 31, to Endangered Native American languages. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/csq/index.cfm Gary K. McCone Associate Director, Information Systems National Agricultural Library 10301 Baltimore Avenue Beltsville, Maryland 20705-2351 (301) 504-5018 Fax. (301) 504-6968 "We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." -- R. D. Laing -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:13:56 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:13:56 -0700 Subject: Speak now...or forever hold your peace (fwd) Message-ID: [photo inset - Joe Ayala, center, works with his mother, Holly Wyatt, left, one of the few Chukchansi tribal members left to speak the native language, in recording phrases that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator."] Speak now...or forever hold your peace Rare Chukchansi speakers gather to record and preserve their language. By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee 08/19/07 04:33:04 http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/116195.html COARSEGOLD -- A few Native Americans who still speak the ancient Chukchansi language are preserving tribal words and songs with state-of-the-art electronic translators inspired by military technology. Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, and her sister, Holly, 65, were among six tribal members who gathered Friday across the street from the Picayune Rancheria's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out a newly acquired "Phraselator." The electronic translator was developed just a few years ago from technology used for military translators, said Don Thornton of Thornton Media Inc., based in Banning. Thornton Media is working with 70 tribes in the United States and Canada to preserve native languages, he said. "What's my name?" he asked the box in his hand. He pressed another button and it replied in what Thornton said was Chukchansi. The Wyatt sisters learned the unwritten Chukchansi language at home while they were growing up in the Madera County foothills. Chukchansi is one of many native California dialects considered to be nearly extinct. "We're recording our language ... to save our language," Jane Wyatt said. "I learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." She estimated that of about 500 Chukchansi scattered throughout the United States, the six tribal members using laptop computers and a hand-held military black-box recorder Friday at Picayune tribal headquarters were probably among the few fluent enough in the language to teach others. Jane Wyatt said she and her sister have been teaching the Chukchansi language at the Wassuma Round House culture center in Ahwahnee. Not all those recording Chukchansi for the electronic translator were tribal elders. Dustin Johnson, 19, of Coarsegold said his grandmother taught him the language. The Wyatt sisters agreed that their tribe has lived "forever" in the California foothills. But even communication with their Mono neighbors was limited by language difficulties. Contacts with Spanish- and English-speaking invaders influenced native languages. For instance, the Chukchansi word for apple is pronounced "abbule" and the word for mattress is the same as the Spanish word. Of course until the tribe encountered outsiders, it had no mattresses. Juanita Lahon, 37, of Coarsegold expected to record some songs from tribal culture, such as one in which a coyote asks the creator's permission to howl at the moon. "There's a song for everything," she said. "Everybody has to ask permission to do something." Preserving language is important because it's intertwined with tribal culture, artifacts and family life, Lahon said. "That's the way we say what's what and what goes where," she said. Until the white settlers arrived, there were no "cursing words" in the tribe's language, Lahon said. Even the name Chukchansi was bestowed by white settlers little more than a century ago. Before that, the tribe was Yokut, meaning "the people," Holly Wyatt said. Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy said the tribe has purchased three Phraselators. They arrived Friday with Thornton. The list price is about $3,000 apiece, he said. The three devices will be kept to begin a language program, supported by tribal funds, to preserve the language that has no books. "The culture and language are hand in hand," Pewewardy said. Without written records, it's hard to estimate the tribe's former population or map exactly where they ranged. The Chukchansi homeland roughly centered on the present casino location, but tribes didn't observe strict cultural land boundaries. Those arrived with the whites, Pewewardy said. The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy at fresnobee.com or (559) 675-6804. [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee The electronic "Phraselator" was developed just a few years ago from technology used for military translators. The Chukchansi tribe bought three of the translators to record and help teach the native language.] [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee Jane Wyatt, right, one of the few Chukchansi Indian tribal members left to speak the native Chukchansi language, records phrases, that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator." Tribal member Juanita Lahon, left, also speaks the native language.] [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee Kara Thornton, vice president of Thornton Media Inc., demonstrates the "Phraselator" during a session Friday morning.] From greg.dickson at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU Mon Aug 20 06:25:16 2007 From: greg.dickson at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU (Greg Dickson) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:55:16 +0930 Subject: New Indigenous TV station turns on (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070817094828.skksc0ggo4okcgso@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Yes, there is more to this story. The creation of NITV also meant the scrapping of ICTV, a channel with less distribution but more language content and more content produced by bush communities. Read this blogpost for more info: http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2007/07/ the_closure_of_the_remote_area_1.html By the way, that blog is an excellent read, especially for some excellent insights into what the Australian Federal Government is doing to Aboriginal communities in the NT with their 'intervention'. Cheers from an 'intervened' community... Greg Dickson Linguist Ngukurr Language Centre Email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au On 18/08/2007, at 2:18 AM, phil cash cash wrote: New Indigenous TV station turns on Posted Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:02am AEST http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/13/1977687.htm Australia's first 24-hour Indigenous television service was switched on in Sydney today. Aboriginal leaders, actors, singers, and sports stars attended the launch by the Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The Government-funded National Indigenous TV (NITV) will broadcast to more than 200,000 people across Northern Australia, Queensland, and South Australia on the Optus Aurora satellite and Imparja's second satellite channel. But remote Aboriginal communities say they are worried they could be excluded from the new channel. The general manager of Warlpiri media in Yuendumu Northern Territory, Rita Catoni, says many cultural videos might not be picked up by NITV because they are not up to industry standard. "What's not going to be around is ... a platform for a whole lot of people in remote communities to view their own grassroots content and to see people in other remote communities," she said. "It's going to be a very different type of content on television, which is a shame really, because they're not mutually exclusive, they could have coexisted." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:25:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:25:48 -0700 Subject: Following the songlines (fwd) Message-ID: Following the songlines Researchers are working with Warlpiri elders to record, transcribe and interpret disappearing dreaming songs that are the basis of Warlpiri culture. http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Newsletters_and_Journals/ANU_Reporter/096PP_2007/_03PP_Winter/_songlines.asp [photo inset - This design representing the Milky Way was painted as part of a Warlpiri winter solstice ceremony to shorten the long cold nights. Photo: Nic Peterson] As two Warlpiri elders sing a water song, it rains. Thomas Rice Jangala and Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi, Warlpiri people from Yuendumu, sit with anthropology PhD student Georgia Curran in a small office at ANU working on a project to record the fading song cycles of the Warlpiri. They interpret and transcribe in Warlpiri and English a water song during a visit to Canberra, in tune with a rare day of rain that moistens the dust and hydrates the lawns of the Ngunawal lands. As they stop to explain the songlines project, a CD recording of Jangala plays on a computer. It is a Warlpiri song to shorten the long, cold winter nights. “He sings about the Milky Way,” Nungarrayi says. “That it will go quickly across the sky to bring the dawn.” The water song and night song are just two of the ancient songlines being recorded to preserve Warlpiri songs as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project coordinated by the School of Anthropology and Archaeology at ANU and the University of Queensland, with partner funding from the Warlpiri Janganpa Association and the Central Land Council. Warlpiri songlines link ancestral power with the landscape, emotions and aesthetics and are central to their religious life, but because the songs are known by fewer and fewer Warlpiri people and the ceremonies are being performed less and less often, this spiritual core of Warlpiri culture is disappearing. Curran spent 15 months from November 2005 in Yuendumu – 300 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs – working with Jangala, who remembers and still sings the ancient songs, and Nungarrayi, who helps to interpret the “old words” in the songs and assists Curran to transcribe and translate the songs into Warlpiri and English. They already have over 80 hours of songs transcribed and translated. While in Canberra, they are transcribing more recordings, including some recorded on tape by anthropology professor Nicolas Peterson, at Yuendumu in 1972 (and since kept in a box in his office). “Jangala tells me those I’ve recorded are men’s love songs,” Peterson says. “Like all of the old songs, the language is different. It’s old and some of the words are pronounced differently when sung or are contracted so it’s not always obvious what they mean.” According to Nungarrayi, “The young people talk in modern talk, they don’t know the old language – it’s like there is old English and what there is now. What the old people use is changing, dying; the young people mix it with English. “Sitting with the old people, I’m learning the old language. This project will bring it alive again, make it strong again. It’s important for us to write it down before it goes.” Jangala says many of the young Yuendumu people know the tunes used in ceremonies, but because they don’t have the authority to sing, they don’t have the confidence to sing or they don’t know the words, many just hum. Song cycles are intricately and integrally connected with dance and ceremony, such as the ceremony for boys’ initiation. These ceremonies are still conducted over summer, but in contrast to the past when a ceremony was held for just two or three boys together with several separate ceremonies being held if there were six or seven boys of the right age, today as many as seventeen boys may be initiated at one ceremony. This is because there are now only a handful of elders, including Jangala, who have the knowledge to follow the songline all night. The Warlpiri ceremony takes much energy from the elders who have to sing from around 10pm to sunrise on two occasions for each ceremony. “I spent 13 months at Yuendumu in 1972-1973, and at that time they were holding a wide range of ceremonies,” Peterson says. “It is different now, because there are less than half a dozen people who remember the songs for many of the ceremonies, and all the energy today goes into boys’ initiation and women’s yawulyu ceremonies, versions of which are seen at many art exhibition openings in southern Australia. “To me, it seems we’re right on cusp of time where most of this knowledge will be gone.” The songlines project is designed to maintain young people’s familiarity with the songs and their ongoing connection with ceremony and spirituality, as well as to write down and explain the esoteric language of the songs. The academic project leaders, as the recorders of the songs, have signed over their copyright to the community via PAW (Pintubi, Anmatjere and Warlpiri) Media, the Warlpiri community broadcaster. This means that anyone wanting to use the recordings needs permission from PAW, as well as the elders. The royalties flow back to the community (with an archival copy of the songs eventually being placed with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies). According to Peterson, although the project has “more than scratched the surface” of recording the full range of Warlpiri songlines, there is still much to be done in the latter half of the project. The songs that have been recorded and transcribed are mainly women’s songs – related to health, attracting husbands, or providing strength to boys before initiation – as well as community songs, such as most of the initiation songs, that are performed publicly. What is lacking are recordings of men’s songs, performed in secret in association with rituals at sacred sites. To remedy this gap, Stephen Wild of the School of Music, who wrote his PhD thesis on Warlpiri song and dance, will travel to the Northern Territory in September to work with Warlpiri men to record secret songs. These recordings will go further towards not only preserving the songs, but also towards providing insights into a culture much of which has been handed down through songs, such as the initiation songs which tell about the journey of a group of ancestral women and boys to a initiation ceremony held in the dreamtime. Today, as in the past, one of the boys to be initiated is often taken on a journey – Jilkaja - to inform other groups that the initiation is about to be held. “Today, with cars and planes, these journeys can cover huge distances, sometimes of a thousand kilometres or more one way and involve large groups numbering five hundred or more people returning for the ceremony,” Peterson says. The Warlpiri initiation ceremony is extraordinarily complex and of central importance to both Warlpiri culture and for both men and women. It does not just make boys into men, but it enhances the standing of the boys’ mothers, turns other women into mothers-in-law, their daughters into promised wives, and gives prominence to the boys’ sisters who have to dance for their brothers all night. “It’s against this background that there’s a convergence of interest between ethnographers of Warlpiri life and senior Warlpiri people, both groups of whom are concerned by the impending loss of the songlines. “For Warlpiri people the significance of the loss is deeply complex as it brings with it and reflects the transformations that are going on in their religion, in their society more generally and in the conflict between generations with its threats to Warlpiri identity,” Peterson says. The visit of Jangala and Nungarrayi was made possible by a grant from the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at ANU. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:32:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:32:13 -0700 Subject: Languages to live longer (fwd) Message-ID: Languages to live longer August 20, 2007 Aboriginal culture is turning to technology, writes Lia Timson. http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/aboriginal-culture-turns-to-technology/2007/08/18/1186857828354.html# In a true marriage of old and new, the internet is set to perpetuate, if not, revive dozens of Aboriginal languages facing extinction. The Miromaa software project - miromaa means "saved" in Arwarbukarl language - was developed by two Aboriginal men in Newcastle despite assurances from linguists that lay community members were ill-equipped to save languages. Daryn McKenny, general manager of the not-for-profit Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (www.arwarbukarl.com.au) led the development of the program. It will be used in a yet-to-be-launched website that aims to take the linguistic salvaging effort worldwide. It is estimated that from the 250 known Australian Aboriginal languages, only 15 to 20 are fluently spoken today. The top five indigenous languages are spoken at home by between 2500 and 5800 people only, according to the 2006 census. "What culture is left is disappearing every day with each elder who passes away," McKenny says. "We need not just linguists but an army of people and technology to slow down the loss." Arwarbukarl, originally spoken by the people of what is now Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the lower Hunter Valley, is among those languages in danger of disappearing. "We were doing song and dance to educate the community and our own kids, we wanted to teach them the culture, but without the language there was something missing. Here we are teaching and talking about our language but in English. It's not the same," McKenny says. The project was almost killed four years ago when the now-defunct ATSIC conducted a review that recommended funding be cut because "two fellas without a linguist could not revive a language", he says. "It was a big kick up the butt but it meant we had to change our ways and work smarter." With a background in computing, he started a search for language software around the world but settled for developing one from scratch when he realised existing programs were aimed at professionals studying threatened languages, not those practising them. Miromaa allows community users of different language groups to post text, images, sound and video of words and phrases in a sort of communal multimedia dictionary effort and in the process create a resource others can use. It has a separate section for linguists. It has been licensed to cultural centres in Victoria, Western Australia and north Queensland. But it is the Our Languages website that will allow the wider community to learn indigenous languages when it launches later this year. It will cater for multiple dialects, so that an online search for the word "emu", for example, will elicit several regional results, including audio of the correct pronunciations. The site (www.ourlanguages.com.au) is still under development and inaccessible but will be open to all when finished. "Everyone in Australia talks Aboriginal and they don't even know it - it's in the street names, the places, everywhere," McKenny says. Our Languages will be launched with significant pro-bono help from Microsoft under its Unlimited Potential program and technology-enabling company, Dimension Data. It received partial funding from the Federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) but additional funds will be needed to add more languages. The first dedicated national Aboriginal TV channel was launched last month. National Indigenous Television (nitv.org.au) carries 24-hour programming and can be seen by Optus Aurora satellite subscribers and Imparja's Channel 31 viewers in remote Australia. The $50 million venture, backed by the federal department, will be available nationally via Foxtel and Austar from October. The channel is calling for program submissions from the community, including language-preservation ideas From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:29:08 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:29:08 -0700 Subject: Speak now...or forever hold your peace (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070819231356.sx8hgc88ws4oco0w@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: The general observation made by the folks/company who promote and sell the phraselator is that the majority of communities who buy the phraselator are those with only a few fluent speakers left.  The story below is a good example of this.  Phil UofA Quoting phil cash cash : > [photo inset - Joe Ayala, center, works with his mother, Holly Wyatt, left, > one of the few Chukchansi tribal members left to speak the native language, > in recording phrases that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator."] > > Speak now...or forever hold your peace > Rare Chukchansi speakers gather to record and preserve their language. > > By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee > 08/19/07 04:33:04 > http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/116195.html > > COARSEGOLD -- A few Native Americans who still speak the ancient Chukchansi > language are preserving tribal words and songs with state-of-the-art > electronic translators inspired by military technology. > > Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, and her sister, Holly, 65, were among six > tribal members who gathered Friday across the street from the Picayune > Rancheria's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out a > newly acquired "Phraselator." > > The electronic translator was developed just a few years ago from technology > used for military translators, said Don Thornton of Thornton Media Inc., > based in Banning. Thornton Media is working with 70 tribes in the United > States and Canada to preserve native languages, he said. > > "What's my name?" he asked the box in his hand. He pressed another button > and it replied in what Thornton said was Chukchansi. > > The Wyatt sisters learned the unwritten Chukchansi language at home while > they were growing up in the Madera County foothills. Chukchansi is one of > many native California dialects considered to be nearly extinct. > > "We're recording our language ... to save our language," Jane Wyatt said. "I > learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." > > She estimated that of about 500 Chukchansi scattered throughout the United > States, the six tribal members using laptop computers and a hand-held > military black-box recorder Friday at Picayune tribal headquarters were > probably among the few fluent enough in the language to teach others. > > Jane Wyatt said she and her sister have been teaching the Chukchansi > language at the Wassuma Round House culture center in Ahwahnee. > > Not all those recording Chukchansi for the electronic translator were tribal > elders. Dustin Johnson, 19, of Coarsegold said his grandmother taught him > the language. > > The Wyatt sisters agreed that their tribe has lived "forever" in the > California foothills. But even communication with their Mono neighbors was > limited by language difficulties. Contacts with Spanish- and > English-speaking invaders influenced native languages. > > For instance, the Chukchansi word for apple is pronounced "abbule" and the > word for mattress is the same as the Spanish word. Of course until the > tribe encountered outsiders, it had no mattresses. > > Juanita Lahon, 37, of Coarsegold expected to record some songs from tribal > culture, such as one in which a coyote asks the creator's permission to > howl at the moon. > > "There's a song for everything," she said. "Everybody has to ask permission > to do something." > > Preserving language is important because it's intertwined with tribal > culture, artifacts and family life, Lahon said. > > "That's the way we say what's what and what goes where," she said. > > Until the white settlers arrived, there were no "cursing words" in the > tribe's language, Lahon said. > > Even the name Chukchansi was bestowed by white settlers little more than a > century ago. Before that, the tribe was Yokut, meaning "the people," Holly > Wyatt said. > > Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy said the tribe has > purchased three Phraselators. > > They arrived Friday with Thornton. > > The list price is about $3,000 apiece, he said. The three devices will be > kept to begin a language program, supported by tribal funds, to preserve > the language that has no books. > > "The culture and language are hand in hand," Pewewardy said. > > Without written records, it's hard to estimate the tribe's former population > or map exactly where they ranged. The Chukchansi homeland roughly centered > on the present casino location, but tribes didn't observe strict cultural > land boundaries. > > Those arrived with the whites, Pewewardy said. > > The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy at fresnobee.com or (559) 675-6804. > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > The electronic "Phraselator" was developed just a few years ago from > technology used for military translators. The Chukchansi tribe bought three > of the translators to record and help teach the native language.] > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > Jane Wyatt, right, one of the few Chukchansi Indian tribal members left to > speak the native Chukchansi language, records phrases, that will be > downloaded later to a "Phraselator." Tribal member Juanita Lahon, left, > also speaks the native language.] > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > Kara Thornton, vice president of Thornton Media Inc., demonstrates the > "Phraselator" during a session Friday morning.] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:50:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:50:48 -0700 Subject: Speaking up for culture; Fundraiser supports native languages (fwd) Message-ID: Speaking up for culture; Fundraiser supports native languages Richard Beales Monday, August 20, 2007 - 07:00 http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=659789&catname=Local%20News&classif= Local News - A glint came to Art Martin's eye as he spoke about fighting to save the Mohawk and Cayuga languages. "See this?" he said, pointing to his T-shirt. "It says 'Hanyoh!' That means 'Come on!' with urgency; it means 'Let's go!' "Our languages are in a state of crisis, bottom line." Martin, 28, of Chiefswood Road, was among a small but spirited group Sunday at the Six Nations Community Hall to help stage an all-day fundraising event called "Hanyoh! Language for tomorrow!" Organizers hoped to raise as much as $15,000 through a sponsored plastic turtle race down the Grand River, a silent auction, concessions, entertainment, smoke dancing and traditional games. educational materials The event was put on by the Kawenni:io/Gaweni:yo Language Preservation Project, a group dedicated to producing educational materials in Mohawk and Cayuga for use primarily in Six Nations schools, but available to anyone with an interest. Martin acknowledged he could have used the project's books, videos and other teaching aids as a youngster. "I grew up without my language (Mohawk)," he said. "But I always knew it was there." As a graphic artist, he has been helping promote the project, but has been too busy to benefit from its most basic advantage - learning the Mohawk language. "It's unfortunate, but true." Sitting near Martin at a table selling commemorative ribbons was Margaret Green, 16, of Stoneridge Circle. Though just a dozen years younger than Martin, she has benefited from a different attitude toward languages. "I've pretty well been learning (Cayuga) all my life," said Margaret, a student at Kawenni:io high school. A third language of the Six Nations, Onondaga, is also in peril, said project co-ordinator Angela Elijah. Efforts are ongoing to preserve Oneida in the London area, while Seneca is being taught in a school at Allegheny, N.Y. The sixth tongue, Tuscarora, is most vulnerable. Elijah said there are few speakers of that language still alive. brainstorming session Sunday's fundraiser responsed to the provincial education ministry's refusal to extend funding to the project. Elijah said a brainstorming session led to the idea, which was as much about awareness as raising money. Funding remains crucial, however. The project's annual $290,000 operating budget, provided by the Department of Indian Affairs, ends this year. But the need to produce quality materials remains. "Where's our funding going to come from?" she asked. "We need to continue." teaching position Elijah will not continue with the program past next week, except a a consultant, because she has taken a teaching position in Ganienkeh, near Altona, N.Y. "I'll be working with beginning speakers, from the little ones up to older adults." She recalled her earlier days as a teacher and noted how far aboriginal language instruction has come. "When I was teaching," she said, "I remember being saddened by looking at the shelves" and seeing no books written in aboriginal languages. She would have to go home with the English-language works, translate them and cut and paste into Mohawk or Cayuga. "Kids were using second-rate material," she said. "Our kids deserve first-rate material." ID- 659789 © 2007 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:56:32 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:56:32 -0700 Subject: Russia: Daghestan Scholars Sound Alarm For Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Monday, August 20, 2007 Russia: Daghestan Scholars Sound Alarm For Indigenous Languages By Liz Fuller http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/08/dc81f4cf-0387-414c-9210-61a789a140ff.html [photo inset - A folk festival in Makhachkala in 2005 (TASS)] August 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Participants at a recent roundtable discussion in Makhachkala expressed concern that Russian is fast becoming the sole state language in Daghestan, even though the republic's constitution ranks Russian equal with the languages of 13 other nationalities. They called on President Mukhu Aliyev to take urgent measures to reverse the ongoing decline of smaller languages, some of which they fear may otherwise become extinct within 10-15 years. Unique among Russia's 85 federation subjects, Daghestan has no fewer than 14 titular nationalities (Avars, Aghuls, Azerbaijanis, Dargins, Kumyks, Laks, Lezgins, Nogais, Rutuls, Tabasarans, Tats, Tsakhurs, Chechens, and Russians), all of whose languages are designated in the constitution as state languages. Given that these languages are all not mutually comprehensible or even inter-related, it is Russian, which is taught even at kindergarten level, that serves as the vehicle of communication between members of different ethnic groups. The director of a school in the village of Andikh in Shamil Raion in west-central Daghestan, told RFE/RL that his school cannot buy new textbooks for students in 10th and 11th grades, and that teachers comb villages in the hope of buying old ones. True, during the Soviet period, most of the titular languages -- Avar, Azeri, Dargin, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgin, Nogai, and Tat -- were taught in schools alongside Russian. And according to the British scholar Robert Chenciner, in the 1990s it was decided to create written languages for, and begin the formal teaching in schools of Rutul, Aghul, and Tsakhur (all of which belong to the Lezgin group of languages), even though according to the 2002 Russian Federation census those three ethnic groups each accounted for less than 1 percent of the republic's population, numbering 24,298, 23,324 and 8,168 people, respectively. Soviet Legacy The Soviet Union took a dual and even contradictory approach to the teaching of minority languages, promoting the creation of literary languages for small ethnic groups, and encouraging writers who chose to use their native language, however obscure, as part of the broader ideology of Friendship of Peoples. But at the same time, the Soviet leadership relentlessly implemented a policy of requiring non-Russians to become fluent in Russian, to the point that mastery of the Russian language became the key to career advancement. For that reason, many parents opted to enroll their children in schools where Russian, rather than their native language, was the language of instruction. Yet whether as a result of the emphasis on preserving minority languages, or as a conscious statement of national identity, many non-Russians still identified the language of their nationality as their native language. Data from the 1979 Soviet census show that more than 90 percent of Daghestan's 10 largest indigenous native groups designated the language of that ethnic group as their native language. By contrast, the percentage for the native peoples of Siberia and the Far East averaged 61 percent, and for some of those small ethnic groups it was as low as 30 percent. No Money For Books The collapse of the Soviet system demolished the ideological rationale and the hothouse conditions, including generous state subsidies, that existed for encouraging the use and teaching of small languages. At the same time, a knowledge of Russian as lingua franca remained crucial, especially within a multiethnic society such as Daghestan, where, in addition, unemployment is high and competition for jobs intense. Moreover, Daghestan's government, which as of 2005 depended on subsidies from Moscow for 80 percent of its budget, was forced to revise spending priorities, with education getting short shrift. This has led to chronic shortages of school textbooks in languages other than Russian. Even the language of Daghestan's largest ethnic group, the Avars (who numbered 758,438 people in 2002, or 29.4 percent of the republic's population), is under threat, and has been for some time. In 2002, a language teacher in Kaspiisk told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service that several factors were contributing to the decline in the use of Avar: a lack of qualified teachers and up-to-date textbooks (not all schools had an adequate number of textbooks, and the limited number available were up to 20 years old); the lack of an up-to-date Avar-Russian dictionary; and, crucially, lack of interest among school students in studying their own native language. Some wealthy businesspeople sponsored the publication of language textbooks, but those textbooks were not always approved by and coordinated with the republic's Pedagogical Institute. The situation does not seem to have improved greatly over the past five years. In 2003, a new Avar-Russian dictionary was published, the first for over 50 years, but native speakers say it is not of outstanding quality, and the print run was only 3,000 copies. And the problem of school textbooks remains acute. Magomed Gazaliyev, the director of a school in the village of Andikh in Shamil Raion in west-central Daghestan, told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service in July that his school cannot buy new textbooks for students in 10th and 11th grades, and that teachers comb villages in the hope of buying old ones. "We have been without books for more than 10 years," he said. Gazaliyev said the republican Education Ministry claims it does not have sufficient funds to finance the publication of a new series of textbooks. He said the ministry is apparently hoping that a private sponsor might be found. Study Time Reduced Gazaliyev further complained that the number of hours devoted to the study of Avar in schools is being reduced, but did not specify how drastically. In rural schools, instruction in all subjects is in Avar for the first four grades. From fifth to ninth grade, instruction is in Russian, with two hours per week devoted to the Avar language and two to Avar literature. In 10th and 11th grades, two hours per week are devoted to the Avar language. "They are reducing the time spent on teaching the native language and literature and increasing the number of hours spent studying other subjects at their expense," Gazaliyev told RFE/RL. Radio and television broadcasting in languages other than Russian has also been subjected to cuts. Republican television now broadcasts exclusively in Russian, although there are still daily radio programs in the 13 other titular languages, in addition to Russian. The number of hours broadcast is directly proportional to the number of speakers of a given language, with Avar and Dargin having the most and Tsakhur the least. All these factors serve to undermine many Avars' commitment to their native language. And the decline in the use of Avar is not confined to urban areas with a multiethnic population, but extends to districts where the population is almost exclusively Avar. A correspondent for RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service recently quoted Bata Aliyev, a resident of the village of Mesterukh in Akhvakh Raion, as saying that with every year that passes, it becomes clearer that members of the local Avar population are losing respect for their native language. "The raion administration, the local education board, schools, and local television are contributing to the gradual decline of the Avar language, because the Russian language is used everywhere," Aliyev said. "Very little time is devoted to the study of the Avar language in school." The published summary of the July 12 roundtable discussion in Makhachkala did not give any indication whether participants came to the conclusion that some languages are in greater danger of becoming obsolescent than others, and if so, which. The participants said much of the blame for the decline of Daghestan's indigenous languages lies with the Education Ministry. They characterized many of the ministry's staff members as having no relevant expertise and implied they are indifferent to the issue of teaching small languages They contrasted the situation in Daghestan, where high-school students spend a maximum of four hours per week studying their native language, literature, and history, with that in Kabardino-Balkaria, where the comparable figure is 36 hours. The roundtable participants appealed to Daghestan President Aliyev to take urgent measures to reverse the decline in the use of small languages. But even if the republic's leadership could secure funds for programs to promote the study of Avar and other state languages, it could take years before such programs yielded the desired effect. (Magomedgadzhi Gasanov and Uma Isakova of RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service contributed to this report.) Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 19:15:05 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:15:05 -0700 Subject: Rescuing recorded sound from ravages of time (fwd) Message-ID: Rescuing recorded sound from ravages of time Submitted by harminka on Mon, 2007-08-20 16:03. http://www.huliq.com/31083/rescuing-recorded-sound-from-ravages-of-time While listening to National Public Radio in 2000, Carl Haber learned that the Library of Congress had a big problem. The Library's audio collection, which spans the 130-year history of recorded sound, includes the soaring tenor of Enrico Caruso, the speeches of Teddy Roosevelt, and the voices of Native Americans from now-vanished tribes. These echoes of a bygone era were recorded on media such as wax cylinders and shellac and lacquer discs. But many are now too fragile to play in their original format; the pressure of a stylus or phonograph needle could cause irreversible damage. Others are too broken, worn or scratched to yield high-quality sound. The archivists needed a means to preserve the recordings without injuring them further. A physicist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Haber was developing subatomic particle detectors to be used at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. This involved using digital cameras and robots to place each delicate detector in precisely the right place. In a flash of insight, Haber realized that an optical scanning system could solve the Library's quandary. "I had phonograph records as a kid, so I knew sound was stored in a mechanical profile. I realized that we could use images to figure out in detail what the groove actually looked like, and use a computer to calculate the sound. I thought that might be a way to get around the problem of things being delicate and damaged; you wouldn't have to touch them," Haber says. Haber already had access to a machine that could make high-resolution digital scans. Postdoctoral fellow Vitaliy Fadeyev wrote a computer program to control the turntable and translate the images into sound. Haber used a narrow beam of light to illuminate the record's surface. The flat bottoms of the grooves and the spaces between tracks appeared white; the sloped sides of the grooves, scratches and dirt looked black. The image was then analyzed by computer. The program found the edges of each groove by focusing on areas of high contrast. It could correct areas where scratches, breaks or wear made the groove wider or narrower than normal. That first test was agonizingly slow. Forty minutes of scanning was required to obtain just one second of audio. But it provided what the scientists needed-proof of principle. And the scan played far more cleanly and clearly than the worn original disc. Haber and Fadeyev wrote a paper describing the device and sent it, unsolicited, to the Library of Congress. The next thing Haber knew, he had an invitation to visit the Library to talk about the technique. By 2004, Haber and Fadeyev were developing ways to scan discs and cylinders more efficiently. The two types of media presented very different problems. On antique monaural discs, sound is recorded in horizontal wiggles of the record groove. On cylinders, sound is recorded in the vertical plane-the depth of the groove. "With discs, we used a camera to image them at high resolution in two dimensions. Once we understood how cylinders were recorded, we realized we had to measure the third dimension (3D) as well," Haber says. In 2005, LBNL engineers Earl Cornell and Robert Nordmeyer joined the project. With the Library's urging, the team concentrated on producing a dedicated disc scanner. Dubbed IRENE (after the Weavers' "Good Night, Irene," the first disc the team scanned), the device was installed at the Library last summer for evaluation and needs just four seconds to scan one second of audio. The group is now refining a device that scans in 3D. The device is based upon a type of confocal microscope. White light directed at the surface of a cylinder or disc passes through a lens. But the lens is imperfect by design; though it splits the light into its component colors, each color comes into focus at a different depth. The color of the reflected light reveals the height of the scanned point. The computer assembles these points into profiles for each groove and translates the data into sound. The current 3D scanning process takes 20 hours to record one minute of sound. But a new version of the confocal scanner, developed for the dental industry, should reduce that to about 10 minutes. A half-dozen physics and engineering undergraduates from UC Berkeley have been instrumental in speeding the project along. "Students can apply the kinds of techniques they learn in classes about statistics, mathematical analysis and signal processing to a project they can really get their arms around," Haber says. A Berkeley graduate student in linguistics is poised to join the project later this summer. UC Berkeley's Phoebe Hearst Museum and Native Americans are among those who could benefit the most from IRENE and its sister 3D scanner. In the early 1900s, UC Berkeley anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and colleagues recorded the legends, songs, customs and voices of dozens of California Indians on some 3,000 one-of-a-kind wax cylinders. Many of these tribes and languages have since died out or are on the verge of extinction. The LBNL group is now collaborating with linguist Andrew Garrett and Victoria Bradshaw of the museum to digitize the Kroeber recordings. Remastering these cylinders could help new generations of native peoples study their ancestral customs and tongues—and help carry the sounds of the past into the future. -Berkeley University From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 17:44:49 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:44:49 -0700 Subject: New life for a fading language (fwd) Message-ID: New life for a fading language By Rebecca Aldous the Chronicle Aug 21 2007 http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=18&cat=23&id=1048201&more=0 Lhxilush — stand up. This word, along is other commands, will be used as stepping stone in the fight to save the Chemainus First Nation’s language. Thirty-six teachers from the community have been busy this summer learning directives in Hul’qumi’num’. Only 10 per cent of the band’s population understands bits and pieces of the Coast Salish language. In 2000, it was estimated the number of fluent Hul’qumi’num’ speakers was less than a dozen. “I hope one day we can teach the language right from baby stage up until high school,” instructor and program organizer Pearl Harris says. The two week course teaches teachers the “total physical response” to instructing a language course. This teaching method centres around actions and directions. It will be used in the band’s Nutsumaat Lelum Child Care Centre, Stu’ate Lelum Secondary School and adult language courses. “My dream is that when I am an elder my children around me will speak the language,” Harris says. Harris sees many obstacles in the path of her goal and is ready to climb them. She believes barriers and conflict within the band need to be broken down before they can forge ahead. “The biggest battle I have is convincing everyone to come in and be a part of it,” Harris says. Buffi David, one of the instructor of the language course, understands Hul’qumi’num’. Her parents only spoke their native tongue and couldn’t speak English. David practices speaking Hul’qumi’num’ year round. “We learn lots during the winter time because of long-house season,” David says. David believes the youth of her community need to become more involved with the language. The school system’s decision to take it on is a good beginning, she says. This September, David will be among a class of adults learning Hul’qumi’num’. The course includes a 75-hour mentorship program with an elder. “We will learn to read, write and speak it,” David says. The Coast Salish language was spoken around the Fraser River and Southern end of Vancouver Island. The language is close to extinction largely due to the forced relocation of First Nation children to residential schools. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 17:50:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:50:40 -0700 Subject: Baby talk is universal (fwd) Message-ID: Baby talk is universal Public release date: 21-Aug-2007 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/afps-bti082107.php A major function of speech is the communication of intentions. In everyday conversation between adults, intentions are conveyed through multiple channels, including the syntax and semantics of the language, but also through nonverbal vocal cues such as pitch, loudness, and rate of speech. The same thing occurs when we talk to infants. Regardless of the language we speak, most adults, for example, raise their voices to elicit the infant's attention and talk at a much slower rate to communicate effectively. In the scientific community, this baby talk is termed "infant-directed speech." There are direct relationships between the way we speak and what we wish to convey. For example, when we see a child reaching for the electrical socket, we do not call out their name as we would during a game of hide-and-go-seek. Researchers Greg Bryant and Clark Barrett, at the University of California, Los Angeles, propose that the relationships between sounds and intentions are universal, and thus, should be understood by anyone regardless of the language they speak. To test their hypothesis, Bryant and Barrett recorded native English-speaking mothers as if they were talking to their own child and then as if they were speaking to an adult. The speech varied across four categories: prohibitive, approval, comfort, and attention. Then, they played the recordings to habitants of a Shuar (South American hunter-horticulturalists) village in Ecuador to see if the participants could discriminate between infant-directed (ID) and adult-directed (AD) speech, and whether they could tell the difference between the categories in both types of speech. The results, which appear in the August issue of Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science, showed that the Shuar participants were able to distinguish ID speech from AD speech with 73% accuracy. They were also able to tell which category (e.g. prohibitive, approval, etc.) the English-speaking mothers used, but they were better at this when the mothers used baby talk. This is the first study to show that adult listeners in an indigenous, nonindustrialized, and nonliterate culture can easily tell the difference between baby talk and normal adult directed speech. "These results also provide support for the notion that vocal emotional communication manifests itself in similar ways across disparate cultures," writes Bryant. Future research might focus on how infants respond behaviorally when listening to infant-directed speech in a different language. ### Author Contact: Greg Bryant gabryant at ucla.edu From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 18:23:15 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:23:15 -0700 Subject: Leaving a linguistic legacy (fwd) Message-ID: Leaving a linguistic legacy Patrick Springer, The Forum Published Monday, August 06, 2007 Twin Buttes, N.D. http://www.in-forum.com/News/articles/174106 The art of capturing words spoken in a language threatened with extinction, and putting them in writing so they can achieve immortality in print, is work best done while nibbling brain food. Or at least Edwin Benson and Sara Trechter have found that it’s nice to be able to munch on blueberries and carrot sticks while he speaks in Mandan and she jots down his words. Mandan, the language spoken by the tribe famous for hosting Lewis and Clark during the explorers’ winter encampment in North Dakota, hangs by a linguistic thread that frays a little more as each year slips by. Benson, a 75-year-old horse rancher, is the strongest strand left in that thread. Experts regard him as the only fluent speaker of Mandan still alive. [photo inset - Edwin Benson, left, and Calvin Grinnell make silent prayers before dropping cigarettes as tobacco offerings at a Mandan shrine near Twin Buttes. Similar shrines once occupied the center of each Mandan village.] So for the past three summers, working for six hours at a stretch, Trechter and Benson have camped out in a small office, where he speaks his deep, rumbling voice into a microphone on his desk, and she scribbles notes on a yellow legal pad. The two recently reached an important milestone. They finished transcribing the last of seven Mandan folk stories Benson told for posterity, recorded several years ago on digital videotape. Trechter, a linguist who specializes in Siouan American Indian languages, has made these perennial summer pilgrimages from Chico, a college town in northern California, where she teaches at a state university. Their work is strenuous but sedentary, filled with painstaking repetition to ensure accuracy. Hence the snacks, and lots of bottled water – all that talking works up a thirst. As if summoning the past, Benson often leans back in his chair, closing his eyes in concentration while he gropes for the right word, either in Mandan or to find its counterpart in English. Although Mandan was his first language, he seldom has a chance to use it in conversation. Occasionally he speaks with his 82-year-old sister, who lives more than an hour away on North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. But she never matched her brother’s fluency. Benson, alone among his siblings, was raised by a grandfather who insisted on keeping alive Mandan traditions and language. Ben Benson forbade speaking English in his home, a log cabin near the mouth of the Little Missouri River. These days, Trechter sometimes serves as Edwin Benson’s conversational partner in Mandan, a language she acquired after branching out from Lakota Sioux, a linguistic cousin of Mandan, also a Siouan tongue. Trechter’s mission to help rescue Mandan required her to master its linguistic quirks. She has learned, for example, that a bird is said to “stand” while flying but “sit” when perched on a tree. And at times, she’s had to accept that some words or phrases simply defy translation into another tongue. One instance came last week as she was about to wrap up her field work this summer. She was transcribing a recording of Benson conducting a naming ceremony, a traditional practice still carried out on the reservation, when she ran up against a word that sounds, to the untrained ear, like “ay-posh.” “That word has a long history,” she explained to a visitor. To supplement her transcription, the process of converting spoken Mandan into writing, she includes a version in English. But maybe not with ay-posh. “It has no English translation,” Trechter said. Still, because even an approximation might help, she offered her rough English equivalent, “I say.” Benson, who has been coaching Trechter as she transfers his words onto the page, took up the challenge. “Wah-ha-noh-sh,” he said in his sub-baritone, repeating the phrase in Mandan. “I am sounding it.” “I kind of give up,” the linguist replied, smiling but flustered. Benson takes another stab. “I’m echoing what I’m saying.” Then he, too, finally surrendered. “It’s untranslatable.” ‘No finishing with Mandan’ Trechter first learned about efforts to preserve the Mandan language when visiting with her doctoral thesis adviser, a Siouan language expert at the University of Kansas. He’d heard the project was looking for a linguist to join the team. She got in touch with the man who’d sent out a query over an Internet network for linguists in native languages asking whether anyone was interested. That man is Calvin Grinnell, who works in the cultural preservation office of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation at Fort Berthold. In partnership with Joseph Jasztrembski, a history professor at Minot (N.D.) State University, he directs the Mandan language preservation project. Their endeavor started seven years ago with a grant from the National Park Service, which paid to videotape Benson telling the folk stories at its Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton, N.D., which features replicas of earth lodges used at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages that once dotted the area. The project’s ultimate goal is to produce learning materials for language labs on the reservation, ideally with the videotapes of Benson telling his stories in Mandan with follow-along captions of Trechter’s transcriptions on the bottom of the screen. Work has been slow, plagued at times by technical problems, sporadic funding and busy schedules. But things have moved along more quickly since Trechter joined the team in 2004, replacing a linguist who was unable to devote as much time because he was finishing his doctoral thesis, in Hidatsa. One afternoon last week, as Benson and Trechter were winding up their work for the day, Grinnell and Jasztrembski stopped by to talk about where they should focus their future efforts. They crowded into the office Benson uses near Twin Buttes Elementary School, where he teaches Mandan. Since finishing the last of the folk stories, Trechter and Benson have turned their attention to recording and transcribing Mandan social and cultural customs, such as the naming ceremony. To find old Mandan names, Trechter went to the archives of the North Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Bismarck, and was pleasantly surprised by what she found. “There’s tons of stuff,” she said. “Boxes and boxes of it,” including a Mandan dictionary compiled in the 1970s and 1980s as well as manuscripts from the 1920s and 1930s, the work of earlier linguists now dead. Grinnell, who said he thought the project now had a solid foundation for a language-learning program, asked whether they should record more old stories. That would be fine, Trechter replied, but she said it also would be good to help people who want to speak Mandan in social and cultural occasions. “We’ve been doing things people should know how to say,” she said, giving as an example a farewell poem traditionally spoken by the senior pallbearer at a Mandan funeral, one of their current pieces. Benson said he is unaware that anyone had previously recorded or written about Mandan burial rites. Jasztrembski agreed that a proper balance must be struck in choosing what to preserve, given limited time and funding. Reviving a language takes many years, and progress is slow, much like restoring an endangered plant or animal species, he said. “I think language revitalization is something like that,” the historian said. “It takes a great deal of time to do.” At one point, as the discussion over what to tackle next continued, Trechter volunteered that she could record and transcribe dialogue with Benson. “My pronunciation isn’t great, but it’s OK,” she said. “We could talk back and forth.” Grinnell added that the tribal college archives has hours of tape recordings of elders from the 1970s that also might provide helpful material. “There is no finishing with Mandan,” Trechter said. At age 44, she’s already seen enough material to keep her busy for the rest of her career and beyond. “It’s ongoing as far as I’m concerned.” Sites, stories hold tribal importance Without coming to any firm conclusion about their next step, the group left the confines of the office in Twin Buttes and drove to two nearby sites that hold cultural significance for the Mandan. They stopped first by a grassy hillside, on top of which was a monument of seven large stones – the subjects of a legend Benson recently told Trechter, a tale they’re considering transcribing. Benson gave a brief version of the story, which involves a young boy who was left behind on a hunting trip because he overslept. Undeterred, he set out on his own and encountered a Sioux raiding party. The boy, who had the element of surprise, slayed all seven warriors. Swollen with pride, the boy returned to his village and told about his adventure – and nobody believed him. Skeptics asked him to show them the bodies. He agreed, and when they reached the site, they found seven stones, not seven bodies. >From the hillcrest, Benson and the others walked down to a woody draw, the site of a Mandan shrine, relocated years ago because of the reservoir created by Garrison Dam. It consisted of four sides of wooden posts, all roughly shoulder-high, with a slightly shorter wooden pole in the center – representing Lone Man, who created humans, lakes and trees in the Mandan creation story. A band of willow surrounded the four sides, representing the level of water in a flood from the time of creation. Benson, who seems at times like a linguistic Lone Man, made a silent prayer, then dropped a cigarette as a tobacco offering. It landed inside the shrine, where other offerings lay scattered on the ground. On the drive back to Twin Buttes, the party passed a country cemetery. Benson said his grandparents and other relatives were buried in the cemetery. “I’m not ready for that,” he added, chuckling. “You better not,” Trechter replied. “You have a lot of work to do.” Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522 [photo inset - Edwin Benson, left, the last fluent speaker of Mandan, concentrates as he helps linguist Sara Trechter transcribe a traditional Mandan naming ceremony. The pair have spent three summers working to preserve Mandan, an endangered native language.] From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 22:21:41 2007 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:21:41 -0700 Subject: Rare Chukchansi speakers record, preserve language In-Reply-To: <20070821112315.egwoowo0kg4o084g@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: COARSEGOLD, Calif.—The few remaining speakers of the Chukchansi language have begun preserving their tribal words and songs using electronic translators first developed for military use. The unwritten Chukchansi language has long been spoken by residents of the Madera County foothills, the traditional territory of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians. But like many other American Indian languages in California, it is considered nearly extinct. Just six tribal members are sufficiently fluent to teach it to others. "We're recording our language ... to save our language," said Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, who has been teaching the language at the Wassuma Round House culture center. "I learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." Tribal members gathered Friday near the tribe's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out the "Phraselator," an electronic translator developed by the Banning-based Thornton Media Inc. Seventy tribes in the United States and Canada have purchased the hand-held translation devices, which also are used by U.S. troops to translate Farsi in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the company's president Don Thornton. The tribe will use the units to start a language preservation program, said Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6670195 ___________________________________________ Garry J. Forger, MLS, MWS (Santa Cruz Watershed) Development and Grants Management Officer for Learning Technologies http://ltc.arizona.edu and Technology Manager for the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) http://cercll.arizona.edu The University of Arizona gforger at email.arizona.edu 520-626-3918 Fax 520-626-8220 "You can stand under my Umbrella ." Rihanna From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:22:10 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:22:10 -0700 Subject: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language (fwd) Message-ID: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language 22 Aug 2007 09:28 SharePoint and Access used to preserve the Awabakal indigenous dialect in digital form With some Australian Aboriginal languages facing extinction, the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) has adopted Microsoft SharePoint and Access to help its work to preserve one indigenous dialect. Based on Access, ACRA has created its own program, Miromaa — meaning "saved" in Awabakal — to store data and research into the Awabakal language, and is using SharePoint Server 2007 to share its work with other Aboriginal groups to help the spread and restoration of the language. According to ACRA, the system can help archive "all evidences of language including, text, audio, images and video" as Word documents and spreadsheets. In the future, ACRA plans to make Miromaa available using a web-based platform to enable other groups to contribute to its research as well as enabling Aboriginal communities to use ACRA's work in their own language studies. Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288696,00.htm Copyright © 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET NEtworks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CNET Networks, Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:23:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:23:40 -0700 Subject: Local language given funding for education (fwd) Message-ID: Local language given funding for education Posted August 22, 2007 09:09:00 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/22/2011551.htm?site=newengland One of northern New South Wales' local Aboriginal languages has been given a boost by the State Government. The Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Paul Lynch, has handed over $15,000 in funding to the Birrelee Childrens' Service in Tamworth to develop a DVD to teach Indigenous people the Gamilaraay language. He says its one of just 20 remnants out of 200 original Aboriginal languages that once existed in New South Wales. "It has survived to the extend that there are some elders who can speak it and what's quite impressive and exciting is they're teaching it to the younger generation in the Aboriginal community," he said. "As part of that process, this DVD will be very important as a way of keeping the language alive." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:31:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:31:55 -0700 Subject: Many will spurn residential school payout: elder (fwd) Message-ID: Many will spurn residential school payout: elder Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post Tuesday, August 21, 2007 http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/local/story.html?id=9a7380d0-ad3d-40c0-8fb2-0b550caa651c REGINA (SNN) -- The deadline for those wanting to opt out of the residential school settlement passed on Monday, but criticism of the deal has not. "If we had been thinking long term, $2 billion in language and culture programs would have lasted a lot longer than a couple of weeks of shopping," said Floyd Favel, a playwright and performer, According to official court notice of the settlement, former students had three main options. The first option was to request a claim form and agree to the terms of the settlement. The second choice was for survivors to remove themselves from the process by opting out, which meant they still retained the rights to sue the church or government on their own. The third alternative was to do nothing, which meant those people would be choosing to not receive a payment and giving up the right to sue. "I have travelled this country, I've been to the territories, the Yukon, Nunavut and all the provinces and I haven't met one person that is opting out," said Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Survivor Society. He said at last count the numbers were very low, but will get an exact number later this week. One estimate puts it under 40. The only benefit to opting out is that it allows survivors to settle their own cases in court, explained Quewezance. Favel believes the settlement isn't enough to right the wrongs the residential schools have done to First Nations people. Favel attended residential school for one year and is choosing the third option by doing nothing, because he doesn't agree with the deal. "The financial figures are too little. It works out to approximately $20,000 per person. In a way, it's not really a settlement," said Favel. First Nations people were taken from their homes and lost both their language and culture, so no amount of money can erase that devastating effect of residential schools, he said. "Home life is the central part of Cree culture and to destroy culture you destroy a home. That was a deliberate policy of the federal government through the church-run residential schools," said Favel, whose father also attended residential school. Residential school survivors then brought that dysfunction back into their own homes, Favel said. He said the more subtle effect of residential schools was assimilation. Survivors turned their backs on the traditional value system and adopted a foreign culture and religion. He believes a better deal could have been negotiated, because survivors were not given any alternatives. Favel believes aboriginal leaders who negotiated the settlement have done a great injustice for First Nations people across the country that will affect future generations. "That money effectively washes away a tragic event in Canadian history," said Favel. Mike Piney, an elder from the Peepeekisis First Nation, went through the residential school system. He said the settlement process has been confusing for some and many don't know what it meant to opt out. "They really don't understand the total process. A lot of our people are still confused, especially the older ones," said Pinay. He said there are many factors one has to think about when it comes to residential schools and although some have chosen to opt out that's not to say everyone agrees with the settlement. "Some won't apply. There's going to be a few who want nothing to do with it. They're happy in their own little world," Pinay said, adding everyone's experience was different and not all experiences were bad. He said there are many First Nations people who have strong religious beliefs and are hesitant to apply for the money. Pinay believes the settlement has been a long time in coming and it's important to acknowledge the older people because every day more survivors are dying. "It's not enough, but at the same time it's something," said Pinay. (REGINA LEADER-POST) © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:45:37 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:45:37 -0700 Subject: Learning through film (fwd) Message-ID: Learning through film Tulalip filmmaking students tell tribal stories By Jasa Santos Herald Writer http://heraldnet.com/article/20070821/NEWS01/108210038/-1/news01 There's a story in Tulalip culture about a young girl making her first cedar basket. The story tells how the cedar tree has her remake the basket four times, until finally the boughs are woven tightly enough for the basket to hold water. That story is being brought to life by participants in the Tulalip Filmmaking Institute. The film will be shown at the 2nd Annual Tulalip Film Festival on Friday. The film was shot entirely in Lushootseed, the native language, but has English subtitles. The script was created by experienced filmmakers for participants to follow as they learned the ins and outs of editing film and audio. Film and audio clips for the story were pre-recorded for participants, making the focus on arranging the material to tell the story as they envisioned it. Even still, the process of creating a film challenged the people going through the institute. "Oh, my brain hurts," Ginny Ramos said of what she'd learned in the class. Ramos works for the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club. She took the workshop to educate herself on film, something she can use with the multimedia club at the Boys & Girls Club. Having Tulalip youth involved in positive projects, such as the multimedia club, keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, Ramos said. Participants were split into two groups, each responsible for creating its own version of the story. Each group considered each idea for choosing a clip or arranging film sequences. Charles Sneatlum took time off from his job at the Tulalip Casino to attend the workshop. Sneatlum learned about the class last year, but didn't sign up in time to take it. His interest in learning about filmmaking is personal, he said. "I want to make a documentary on fishing rights," he said. Sneatlum already has DVD recordings of his father talking about the Tulalip tribes and their history. Preserving the history and the language of his people is important, Sneatlum said. Robin Carneen, coordinator for the institute, said that storytelling is second nature in the American Indian culture. Though participants weren't experienced using film editing software, they had little trouble in making their films. "We teach through storytelling," Carneen said. "If we don't preserve these stories they're going to be lost forever." There are two benefits to sharing American Indian culture with the general public, Careen said. One, it gives American Indians an opportunity to show their people through their own eyes. Two, it reeducates the public about the culture and people. "It's been too much John Wayne, and not enough 'Smoke Signals,'" Carneen said, referring to the 1998 movie written by Spokane/Coeur d'Aelene Indian author Sherman Alexie. Movies such as "Smoke Signals" really opened a door for American Indian artists, she said. Films now have bravado in telling the truth about everything from alcoholism to traditional culture, Carneen continued. Holding workshops such as Tulalip's gets Carneen excited about the future of American Indian storytellers. "We really need to light a passion inside of them," she said. "There's just not enough of us out there." Reporter Jasa Santos: 425-339-3465 or jsantos at heraldnet.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 15:09:02 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:09:02 -0700 Subject: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070822072210.cesc44kgcwgk844o@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: I am looking forward to when Miromaa becomes available.  I would be glad to give it a try for the communities with whom I work with. Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) UofA Quoting phil cash cash : > SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language > > 22 Aug 2007 09:28 > > SharePoint and Access used to preserve the Awabakal indigenous dialect in > digital form > > With some Australian Aboriginal languages facing extinction, the Arwarbukarl > Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) has adopted Microsoft SharePoint and > Access to help its work to preserve one indigenous dialect. > > Based on Access, ACRA has created its own program, Miromaa — meaning "saved" > in Awabakal — to store data and research into the Awabakal language, and is > using SharePoint Server 2007 to share its work with other Aboriginal groups > to help the spread and restoration of the language. > > According to ACRA, the system can help archive "all evidences of language > including, text, audio, images and video" as Word documents and > spreadsheets. > > In the future, ACRA plans to make Miromaa available using a web-based > platform to enable other groups to contribute to its research as well as > enabling Aboriginal communities to use ACRA's work in their own language > studies. > > Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288696,00.htm > > Copyright © 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved > ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET NEtworks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a > service mark of CNET Networks, Inc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 23 17:07:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:07:53 -0700 Subject: Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language (fwd) Message-ID: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0708/S00284.htm Thursday, 23 August 2007, 3:44 pm Press Release: Norfolk Island Tourism Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language Norfolk Island has taken a small but significant step towards achieving international recognition of the unique Norf’k language. UNESCO has agreed to include Norf’k in the next edition of its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Norfolk Island chief minister André Nobbs says the progress follows a submission by the Norfolk Island Government to UNESCO of a research paper prepared by Prof. Peter Muhlhausler. The Chief Minister paid tribute to a small group of enthusiastic community members who had initiated the approach to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. He also thanked his predecessor Hon. David Buffett for his efforts in promoting the use and recognition of the language. In 2004, the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly passed the Norfolk Island Language (“Norf’k) Act. The act recognised and affirmed “…the Norfolk Island Language (Norf’k) and the right of the people of Norfolk Island to speak and write it freely and without interference or prejudice from government or other persons”. The language was defined in the act as “…the language known as ‘Norf’k’ that is spoken by the descendents of the first free settlers of Norfolk Island who were descendents of the settlers of Pitcairn Island”. The legislation established rights to use the language within Norfolk Island in all forms of communication and for it to be taught in schools. “The advice from UNESCO is a significant step in building recognition of the unique language and culture of Norfolk Island,” Mr Nobbs says. “Other exciting cultural initiatives are underway, including progress toward establishing a cultural centre. “The Norfolk Island Government will continue to support and encourage the projects to recognise and promote our special cultural values.” Here is a taste of the ‘unique’ Norf’k language: Norfolk / English Watawieh Yorlye? / How are you? Si Yorlye Morla / See you tomorrow Kushu / Good We baut yu gwen? / Where are you going? Fut nort? / Why not? Hetieh' / Here it is Daaset / That's it Daa letl salan waili ap in aa pain / That little child is stuck in that pine About Norfolk Island: Discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, Norfolk Island was first settled as a British penal colony in 1788 through to 1856. On June 8, 1856, the island was re-inhabited by a community from Pitcairn Island, descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. Known today as Norfolk Islanders, they form a majority of the 1,800 resident population. Norfolk Island is renowned for its spectacular coastal scenery, colourful history, sporting and cultural activities, convict heritage and tax-free shopping. From harveyd at SOU.EDU Thu Aug 23 17:09:16 2007 From: harveyd at SOU.EDU (Dan Harvey) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:09:16 -0700 Subject: Acorns Language Restoration Software Message-ID: Hi All, The new release of the ACORNS software is now available. This software is freely downloaded. It's purpose is to support tribal language revitalization programs. The software can be effectively used with any language. The name ACORNS stands for [A][C]quisition [O]f [R]estored [N]ative [S]peech in honor of the indigenous tribes of Northern California and Southern Oregon. You can visit http://cs.sou.edu/~harveyd and click on the ACORNS language project for more information. The download page has instructions related to installation. The software allows language teachers, or their students, to prepare lessons to assist in language acquisition. Prepared lessons can be posted on the Web, or sent back and forth by e-mail. It is easy to use and requires little training. However, should any tribes want training, we are happy to provide it. Version 2.0 had two types of language lessons. Picture and Sound lessons allows you to attach a group of sound recordings to places on a picture. When the student clicks on those places in the pictures, one of the recorded sounds attached to that spot is heard. Multiple Choice lessons work much like those of the commercial Rosetta Stone product. This kind of lesson attaches a group of recorded sounds to a series of pictures. The student hears a sound clip and then clicks on the appropriate picture. This kind of lesson has proven successful in training our country's diplomats. Version 3.0 now adds a third lesson type. This lesson, called Hear and Respond, annotates a sound recording with translation phrases and words. The student hears the recording (which could be a story for example) and sees the transcription, either in English or in the indigenous language. The program randomly leaves words blank which the student fills in. The program gives audible feedback as to whether the student is correct, or if they are close. This kind of lesson is useful to improve comprehension and helps the student learn correct spelling. Version 3.0 also integrates our Sound Editor directly into the ACORNS application. This feature enables you to edit recordings. For example, you might want to delete the parts of the recording that have 'ahs' or other sounds that don't relate to the language. Our Sound Editor also includes the 'front end' of portion of a speech recognition system. We intend to use this as a tool for research as this project matures. Our long term plan is to create games where indigenous speakers can interact with the computer in their native tongues. Version 3.0 now supports both the Cherokee and Chinook-Wawa keyboard fonts. It is easy to add others, so let us know if you have needs for this feature. We plan to incorporate a GUI front end to this feature so users can easily add their own keyboard mappings. We are still working on the ability to import dictionaries created by linguists. With this capability, we can create an indigenous scrabble game, magnet games, flash card lessons, and other neat features. This feature will also provide user a friendly interface that allows you to update and maintain the dictionary. Please let us know if you have any problems. Universities don't have a quality support department, so we can only find out about problems if you let us know. There is now a forum at the ACORNS web site for easy posting of any problems that you come across. Thanks for your interest. My goal is for ACORNS to become a useful tool for restoring culture and language. Have a great day, Dan Harvey, Associate Professor, Southern Oregon University (541) 552-6149, harveyd at sou.edu From David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG Thu Aug 23 17:25:25 2007 From: David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG (David Lewis) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:25:25 -0700 Subject: Genealogy software Message-ID: I am interested in learning what gen software other tribes are using? David -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Fri Aug 24 01:05:27 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:05:27 +1000 Subject: Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070823100753.g5qkg4wosg8ck4ok@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of endangered languages is available? -Aidan phil cash cash wrote: > http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0708/S00284.htm > > Thursday, 23 August 2007, 3:44 pm > Press Release: Norfolk Island Tourism > > Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language > > Norfolk Island has taken a small but significant step towards achieving > international recognition of the unique Norf’k language. > > UNESCO has agreed to include Norf’k in the next edition of its Atlas of the > World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. > > Norfolk Island chief minister André Nobbs says the progress follows a > submission by the Norfolk Island Government to UNESCO of a research paper > prepared by Prof. Peter Muhlhausler. > > The Chief Minister paid tribute to a small group of enthusiastic community > members who had initiated the approach to UNESCO, the United Nations > Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. He also thanked his > predecessor Hon. David Buffett for his efforts in promoting the use and > recognition of the language. > > In 2004, the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly passed the Norfolk Island > Language (“Norf’k) Act. The act recognised and affirmed “…the Norfolk > Island Language (Norf’k) and the right of the people of Norfolk Island to > speak and write it freely and without interference or prejudice from > government or other persons”. > > The language was defined in the act as “…the language known as ‘Norf’k’ that > is spoken by the descendents of the first free settlers of Norfolk Island > who were descendents of the settlers of Pitcairn Island”. The legislation > established rights to use the language within Norfolk Island in all forms > of communication and for it to be taught in schools. > > “The advice from UNESCO is a significant step in building recognition of the > unique language and culture of Norfolk Island,” Mr Nobbs says. “Other > exciting cultural initiatives are underway, including progress toward > establishing a cultural centre. > > “The Norfolk Island Government will continue to support and encourage the > projects to recognise and promote our special cultural values.” > > Here is a taste of the ‘unique’ Norf’k language: > > Norfolk / English > > Watawieh Yorlye? / How are you? > > Si Yorlye Morla / See you tomorrow > > Kushu / Good > > We baut yu gwen? / Where are you going? > > Fut nort? / Why not? > > Hetieh' / Here it is > > Daaset / That's it > > Daa letl salan waili ap in aa pain / That little child is stuck in that pine > > About Norfolk Island: Discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, Norfolk Island was > first settled as a British penal colony in 1788 through to 1856. On June 8, > 1856, the island was re-inhabited by a community from Pitcairn Island, > descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. > > Known today as Norfolk Islanders, they form a majority of the 1,800 resident > population. Norfolk Island is renowned for its spectacular coastal scenery, > colourful history, sporting and cultural activities, convict heritage and > tax-free shopping. > > From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:33:52 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:33:52 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Here is a link to the Endangered Languages section of the UNESCO website, but I have not yet found their list of endangered languages: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11172&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Wayne Leman > Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of > endangered languages is available? > -Aidan From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:37:40 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:37:40 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Here's another UNESCO link on Endangered Languages: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7856&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Wayne Leman > Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of > endangered languages is available? > -Aidan From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:39:33 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:39:33 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages Caveat emptor! Wayne Leman > >> Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of >> endangered languages is available? >> -Aidan From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Fri Aug 24 01:47:08 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:47:08 +1000 Subject: endangered languages list In-Reply-To: <049901c7e5ef$a7d05020$6401a8c0@gatewaybztrjyk> Message-ID: That reminds me, ethnologue has an interesting page on statistics, number of language by population size, by area, etc., http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size They also have a list of 'nearly extinct languages', though many of the sources they cite go back decades: http://www.ethnologue.com/nearly_extinct.asp -A Wayne Leman wrote: > Wikipedia list: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages > > Caveat emptor! > Wayne Leman > > >> >>> Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of >>> endangered languages is available? >>> -Aidan From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 28 19:11:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:11:55 -0700 Subject: Web helping tribe to save language (fwd) Message-ID: Monday, August 27, 2007 Web helping tribe to save language Site aims to keep Dena'ina culture from extinction JESSICA CEJNAR Peninsula Clarion http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/082707/news_3586.shtml For Alan Boraas, an anthropology professor at Kenai Peninsula College, helping to revitalize a language that's nearly dead is not just an interesting project, it's the right thing to do. "It's a very emotional thing to see a language become extinct," he said. "It's the equivalent of a species becoming extinct. What we lose is not just the words, but the thought processes that are part of a language." For more than two years, Boraas and his colleague Michael Christian have taken pictures, navigated through HTML and digitized old audio recordings of Native writer Peter Kalifornsky in order to present Dena'ina vocabulary, grammar, stories and place names in an interactive Web site that went live last month. "I'd sit in front of my computer and Michael was next door sitting in front of his. I'd build a Web page there are several hundred Web pages and add certain elements," Boraas said. "(Christian's) expertise is in doing the sound work and perfecting the pages so they ran smoothly. I couldn't do that so I'd give it to him and he'd edit and fix it. "We've got a draft of it up and running now, we're just trying to get the bugs worked out." In an e-mail, Boraas said some browsers may not support his Web site, but the kinks should be worked out within the next couple of weeks. The Web site is an ongoing project with more features being added to it as time goes by. Visitors can access the Web site at http://qenaga.org/kq/index.html. "I hope people of all ages go to it and gain insights into both the language and the culture," Boraas said. This project is the latest in the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's endeavor to revitalize their Native language. Cultural Director Alexandra "Sasha" Lindgren, a tribal elder with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, said a three-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans allowed the tribe to buy Boraas out of his teaching contract with KPC, enabling him to devote more time to the Web site. But the site is only one part of what the grant was used for. "We're training people to teach the Dena'ina language," said Lindgren, the project director for the grant. "It's more than the Web site." The credit for much of the Dena'ina revitalization goes to James Kari, who spent 30 years working on a dictionary that's on sale now, as well. Boraas said Kari came to Alaska in the 1970s after studying Navajo and worked with Peter Kalifornsky to develop his dictionary. "He began recording before computers," Boraas said. "He would write the word as people said it, develop the spelling system and just build up massive amounts of information." Kari's dictionary took him to Nondalton and Tyonek, where he would seek out Native speakers in order to expand it. "What's so remarkable about it is if it wouldn't have been done over this 30-year period, it would never have been done because the youngest speaker that we know of is 60 years old and most are in their 70s or 80s," Boraas said. "This dictionary is a great achievement. In a hundred years it will be considered the most important book produced during this time period for this part of Alaska." Finding people who actively speak the Dena'ina language is one of the most difficult parts of revitalizing it. Boraas said a lot of people know the language, but because of language extinction policies in place as recent as the 1960s, some were severely punished for speaking it. "Children, if they spoke the Native language in most parts of Alaska, including the Kenai Peninsula, would have their mouths washed out with soap or be beaten," Boraas said. "Now those folks are elders." To the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, language revitalization ties into their sense of identity, Lindgren said. "Why is it important that we revitalize a Native language? It defines who we are, and it defines the relationship to where we are," she said. "Imagine how you would feel if the United States were to sell Alaska, and that company or that country that bought the land mass that's Alaska came in and said you may no longer speak English." Lindgren said the grant money allowed them to initiate a Head Start program centered on language revitalization. The Alaska Native Heritage Center also has a middle school program centered on the Dena'ina language and the Alaska Native Language Center is training teachers. "Alan's Web site falls into the middle of that," she said. The majority of the tribe's 1,200 members live in Anchorage, Soldotna and Kenai, but the Web site is an important tool for members scattered across the country. "The people who don't live here can access the language their grandmother spoke," Lindgren said. "It's a wonderful opportunity, and we'll just wait to see how far it goes." Jessica Cejnar can be reached at jessica.cejnar at peninsulaclarion.com. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 29 17:31:54 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:31:54 -0700 Subject: Reading in your own tradition (fwd) Message-ID: Reading in your own tradition SRJ Staff http://www.srj.ca/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=88&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=2180&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1957&hn=srj&he=.ca Students across the North are reading books in their traditional languages thanks to the South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC). "There are four different titles and eight different languages," said Brent Kaulback, SSDEC. "There is Dogrib, North and South Slavey, Cree, Chipewyan and three Inuit dialects." The books grew out of an Aboriginal language workshop in Feb. 2006. "We got instructors together and talking about Aboriginal language and literacy. They came up with a number of story ideas." [Photo by Lea Storry. The South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) has created four books, which were translated into eight different languages.] Originally, the teachers were only thinking of Cree, Slavey and Chipewyan families who would benefit from the books. "But when other teachers were shown the idea, they thought it was great and the project became much larger than anticipated." Reading and speaking in traditional languages is the purpose of the books whether it is with parents or grandparents or aunts or uncles. "We want students to interact in their own language. It's important because the language itself is an integral part of the culture and we want to be able to support this part of culture." According to Kaulback, the goal is to have more and more youth and parents committed to learning their own language. "By starting young, hopefully they are hooked on it and if interest [in learning the language] doesn't come from the parents, it'll come from the youth themselves." Stories were written by Fort Smith Chipewyan instructor Eileen Beaver, Fort Smith Cree instructor Liz Tuckey and Kaulback himself. "I did a story called Birch Water. It's on how to make birch syrup. I spent the whole day in Hay River and photographed the process." A campaign will be launched this September to promote the books throughout the North. "Too often students are picking up stories which have no direct meaning to them and their culture. These books celebrate who they are, what they are and the language they speak." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 29 17:49:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:49:30 -0700 Subject: Native languages taught to undo cultural damage (fwd) Message-ID: Native languages taught to undo cultural damage By AMANDA ROBINSON, SUN MEDIA http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/08/29/4454517-sun.html The N'Amerind Friendship Centre in London is turning to language to undo the damage done to aboriginals by residential schools. For the first time, Oneida and Ojibway languages will be offered to students attending Wiingashk secondary school at the centre this school year. "We've provided languages before (to the community), but not in the school. It will be the first time it will be accredited," said Chester Langille, executive director of the Colborne Street centre. "Education played a direct role in the depletion of (native) language and it should play an instrumental role in establishing them, particularly because so much of a child's life is spent in the education system," Langille said. Residential schools were schools for aboriginal children operated in the last century by churches. Native children were stripped of their language and culture at the schools and many were sexually abused. Wiingashk, an alternative school for at-risk aboriginal students, has spaces for 15 students. There is currently a waiting list. Across Canada, 50 per cent of aboriginal students drop out of high school. That's because mainstream education fails to meet and understand aboriginal students' needs, Langille said. He identified three key reasons that cause aboriginal youth to leave school: - The curriculum lacks cultural relevance. "Instead of learning about their own history they learn European history, and instead of learning their own language, they learn French," he said. - Native students move around more than other students and this affects their social environment and their academic performance. - Aboriginal students face many issues outside school, including, poverty, addiction and abuse, which take priority over academics. Also new at the centre will be a Culture Camp, which will run the first week of October. Its aim is to to help students learn life skills to connect to their culture and community. The camp itinerary includes students receiving their spirit names, clan names or clan colours, along with learning songs and building a sweat lodge, Langille said. "(The camp) will have a significant impact on the kids because they will learn what their (spirit) name is for the first time and that's something they should be learning as children," Langille said. "If students have a high sense of self-worth and self-esteem they will excel in academics." Other initiatives being introduced by the N'Amerind centre for the coming school year: - An aboriginal-focused Best Start program should be implemented by April 2008. Best Start is a government program that focuses on early learning and healthy child development. Through the program, aboriginal children up to five years old will be introduced to their culture and languages. They'll also participate in adoption and naming ceremonies and receive their colours, clan and spirit names. School-age children will be able to access before-school and after-school programs at Best Start. - Talks are ongoing with the Thames Valley District School Board about a full-fledged cultural immersion school for native students that could start in September 2009. From donaghy at HAWAII.EDU Wed Aug 29 21:17:31 2007 From: donaghy at HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:17:31 -1000 Subject: Astronomer exchanges kanji greetings with Hawaiian Language students Message-ID: http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/news/press/view/591/ Astronomer exchanges kanji greetings with Hawaiian Language students Dr. Keiichi Kodaira of the Subaru Telescope Project delivered a written greeting in Japanese kanji characters to students during an assembly today at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Hawaiian immersion laboratory school, Nawahiokalani’opu’u. But what he got in return proved that sometimes the teacher can learn a thing or two from the students. The entire school turned out to greet Dr. Kodaira and read out loud a projection of their own message. To his surprise, the language spelled out in the greeting was not Japanese, but Hawaiian -- something Kodaira had never seen. The greeting was authored by Miki Kawachi, a Japanese national who studied Hawaiian at UH Hilo. Kawachi played a key role in developing the system of writing Hawaiian in kanji and taught it to many students at the school before returning to Japan two years ago. Staff from the Hawaiian language organization, ‘Aha Punana Leo, who sailed aboard Hokule’a, joined Kodaira in a presentation of the canoe’s voyage to Japan. Kanji letters from Nawahiokalani’opu’u were among the gifts from Hokule’a’s crew to the Japanese school children. The Punana Leo Hawaiian language revitalization movement is known to many school children in Japan since it is a featured element of the government’s approved school curriculum. Hawaiian language college faculty at UH Hilo have led the way in developing schools run entirely through Hawaiian from the Punana Leo preschool age up to the doctorate. The best practices are employed at Nawahiokalani’opu’u, which has produced a 100% high school graduation rate and approximately 80% college attendance. “When we first began teaching through Hawaiian, some people said we should be teaching a more economically useful language such as Japanese or Chinese,” said Kauanoe Kamana, the director of the school. “Ironically, Nawahiokalani’opu’u today has one of the most developed elementary school Asian language programs in Hawai’i.” All first through sixth graders at the school spend an hour each week studying kanji in Hawaiian and another hour studying Japanese. As early as third grade, they can read books written in Hawaiian using kanji, including one that recounts the travels of King Kalakaua to Japan. The focus of the kanji messages carried aboard Hokule’a was aloha to the ancestral land of those in the school who are part Japanese. Nawahiokalani’opu’u teaches all subjects through Hawaiian language and values, such as honoring one’s ancestors. Students honor their Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, and Korean ancestors by learning the Chinese characters, or kanji, in which those East Asian languages are traditionally written. European ancestors are honored by studying Latin in the upper grades. The system of writing Hawaiian in kanji was developed as a project by Dr. Pila Wilson with support from Kawachi and Ms. Wen Chi. Unlike English, kanji can be written in Hawaiian due to certain structural features it shares with East Asian languages. Wilson says there are additional academic advantages to writing Hawaiian in kanji. “Kanji reinforces reading by syllables and whole words, which helps you to read in any language,” Wilson said. “The stroke order and distinctive positioning of kanji on the page also strengthens artistic and mathematical skills.” Kodaira said he was honored to deliver the Japanese school children’s response to the students. He noted that the word Subaru derived from an old Japanese word for unity and that writing Hawaiian in kanji reinforces the historical and ancestral ties that unify the people of Japan and Hawai’i. For more information on kanji and the Hawaiian language, visit www.ahapunanaleo.org. ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 30 17:06:42 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:06:42 -0700 Subject: Bilingual-intercultural education aims to keep indigenous girls and boys in school (fwd) Message-ID: Bilingual-intercultural education aims to keep indigenous girls and boys in school [UNICEF Image: Guatemala, bilingual education © UNICEF Guatemala/2007/Arteaga Guatemalan children learn in two languages, K’iche’ and Spanish, at the UNICEF-supported NEUBI school in Sacualpa, in the state of Quiche.] By Blue Chevigny http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guatemala_40728.html PANAJACHEL, Guatemala, 29 August 2007 – Here on the shores of Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlan, a group of educators, organizers and young people gathered earlier this month for the Forum on Bilingual-Intercultural Education. Organized by UNICEF and its partners, including the Ministry of Education, the forum started off with a group of about 20 girls and boys singing the Guatemalan national anthem and a song about how hard it can be to grow up as a girl. They were all dressed in traditional Mayan clothing. Proponents of bilingual-intercultural education here are calling for classrooms that teach both Spanish and the dominant Mayan language spoken in the area. “It’s been proven by several studies that a child develops better intelligence, better abilities of all kinds, if he learns in his mother tongue,” said UNICEF Guatemala Assistant Education Officer Ana Maria Sanchez. “It’s is very much related to the idea of child rights. The child has the right to use her own language to learn, and the right to develop within her own culture.” Respect for cultural diversity Ministry of Education Departmental Director Marcelino Ajcabul Ramirez – who is from an indigenous background – also participated in the forum. “First we have to recognize that we are a diverse country, and that every linguistic group, every population, has its own way of understanding life. And this way of understanding life is communicated through the language,” he told UNICEF Radio. But a total of 22 indigenous languages are actively used in Guatemala. How can respect for this level of cultural diversity be expressed in education? New Unitary Bilingual-Intercultural Education, or NEUBI, is a UNICEF-supported model that may provide an answer. “The classrooms in the NEUBI schools are made up of ‘learning corners’ in different areas,” explained Jose Miguel Medrano Rojas, an advocate of this approach. “The student can go to the different learning corners and learn something at any moment. In this way, it’s very active and participatory.” [UNICEF Image: Guatemala, bilingual education © UNICEF Guatemala/2007/Arteaga Children sing the Guatemalan national anthem at the opening of the Forum on Bilingual-Intercultural Education in Panajachel, Guatemala.] Model school in Quiche UNICEF Representative in Guatemala Manuel Manrique said everything in NEUBI schools, from classroom structure to homework, must be culturally specific. “Schools have to adapt to the conditions and circumstances of the population” and should “be much more flexible in their curriculum,” he noted. “Teachers should be facilitators who make it possible for students to acquire the abilities and capacities they need.” One example of the NEUBI model in action is a school in Sacualpa, in the state of Quiche – an area that was affected profoundly by more than 30 years of civil strife that ravaged Guatemala until the mid-1990s. Nowadays, administrators like Sacualpa’s School Director Orfaliz Giron Perez face the challenge of keeping students, especially girls, in school. “When they finish sixth grade, we try to convince them to continue studying,” she said. “It’s a shame that sometimes girls at around age 13 stop coming to school. They are taken away to work, or they get married.” Literacy in two languages UNICEF and others assert that bilingual-intercultural education, combined with the efforts of dedicated teachers, can keep both girls and boys in school longer. “We believe that if a child attends an educational programme in her own language, the child feels more comfortable, more relaxed,” said Ms. Sanchez. “We hope that with bilingual education, children invest more in the school and stay in school.” Clara Morales de Medrano teaches a second-grade class in a combination of Spanish and K’iche’, the mother tongue of her students. She believes that they will ultimately master reading, speaking and writing in both languages, which will serve them well as adults. “It’s very sad that sometimes people like us, indigenous people, feel ashamed, or we don't want to put our culture into practice,” she said. “I never had bilingual education as a student. And at my school there was a lot of discrimination. I had a teacher who I will never forget because I couldn't do the homework and she rejected me. “That's something I would never want – that my students remember me that way.” From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 30 17:19:21 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:19:21 -0700 Subject: Dust Echoes (fwd link) Message-ID: Dust Echoes Ancient Stories, New Voices http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/ The Dust Echoes series is a collection of twelve aboriginal dreamtime stories collected from the Wugularr (Beswick) Community in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 02:49:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:49:29 -0700 Subject: Giving Indigenous People a Voice (fwd) Message-ID: Giving Indigenous People a Voice [photo inset - Finding skilled and experienced indigenous staffers who can speak their own tribal languages is quite a challenge for TITV. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Publication Date：08/01/2007 Byline：CINDY SUI http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=24476&CtNode=119 Even its critics admit that Taiwan's first aboriginal TV station is performing a vital task. Being one of Taiwan's first aboriginal news reporters, Kolas Yotaka wrestles with a dilemma-how to reach out to the island's 13 recognized tribes when she cannot speak any of their languages, including that of her own tribe. "I grew up speaking Mandarin with my parents. They thought the language of our tribe, the Amis tribe, was useless, so they didn't teach it to me. They wanted me to learn English and Japanese instead," she says. The dilemma she faces as head of the news department of Taiwan Indigenous TV (TITV), the first TV station devoted to the island's original inhabitants, was just one of many facing TITV as it marked its second anniversary on July 1. Two years after it was set up, the station is celebrating its successes as well as contemplating how to overcome its obstacles. Previously, only a once-a-week, hour-long program was shown on the Public TV station about the 470,000 aborigines in Taiwan's population of 23 million people. After the Executive Yuan set up the Council of Aboriginal Affairs in 1996 (later renamed the Council of Indigenous Peoples), aborigines began pushing for government funding for their own TV station. Funding was granted and the station went on the air for the first time on July 1, 2005. "With an aboriginal TV channel, we can express ourselves from an aboriginal viewpoint. Before, there wasn't a way for us to do that. Information and portrayals of aborigines went through a third party. There were some misrepresentations," says TITV's director Masao Aki. Since TITV's inception, it has been well-received by Taiwan's indigenous population, almost all of whom claim to watch it, and gets viewers from the general population as well. Programming is offered 24 hours a day and the news department often breaks stories concerning aborigines. Programs are diverse, ranging from cooking shows featuring traditional recipes from the various tribes, rarely shown on mainstream TV, to segments educating children about their native languages and cultures, to talk shows and interviews covering serious topics including the health, economic and educational problems faced by aborigines. The station even has a dating show-one of its most popular programs-which tries to match single youngsters with each other and help elderly widows or widowers find new love. "Since our numbers are so small, it's a way to help aborigines find partners who are also aborigines," says Masao. Also, the station is filming the first situation comedy about aborigines, to air in July. Broadcast Babel But at the same time, the station is struggling with how to broadcast to people from 13 tribes, each of which speak a different language and have widely different customs. "It's very difficult to be fair," says station director Masao, himself from the Atayal tribe. "Out of 13 tribes, which tribe's language do you choose to broadcast in? So we have no choice but to use Mandarin" (the language of the majority Han Chinese population). "Some Atayal viewers complain there's too little Atayal news. Of course it would be best if every tribe had its own channel, but that's impossible." Another problem the station faces is finding skilled aboriginal staff, especially reporters and technicians, and those who can speak their own tribal language, even if not fluently. Although 87 percent of the broadcaster's staffers are indigenous people (the rest of the jobs being held by Han Chinese), it has to constantly strive to maintain that level. "Now the most important task is staff training," Masao says. The TV station's problems finding skilled aborigines is shared by other professions. With a history of being oppressed, losing their land through being cheated or seizures and forced to forsake their languages and customs to adopt the majority's ways, aborigines have become economically inferior in Taiwanese society and few end up obtaining a higher education and working in skilled professions. In recent years, more universities are devoting resources to training aborigines to go into media. Hualien County's National Dong Hwa University has a media studies program that reaches out to aborigines, many of whom live in the area. Kolas, who grew up in the city with no aboriginal friends, recalls realizing the importance of being able to speak her own language when she first switched from being a mainstream reporter to being a reporter covering aboriginal issues for TITV. "I realized that, just because I was an aborigine, it didn't mean I could get interviews with aborigines. Without speaking their language, it was very hard for me to win their trust and interview them," she says. She is now studying the Amis language. Less than 5 percent of aboriginal children can speak their own language, Masao estimates, but like many things concerning aborigines, no solid statistics are available. To encourage the learning of one's own language, the station has now made it an employment requirement. Giving Indigenous People a Voice-1 [photo inset - Elderly contestants dress in costumes and even put on wigs and mini skirts to woo the opposite sex in a dating show, one of the most popular programs aired by TITV. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Doing What It Can The desuetude of aboriginal languages is such a problem that the TV station is trying to devote more airtime to tribal language broadcasting. Throughout the day, tribal folk tales are told in tribal languages, although the programs are generally short, resembling commercial breaks. Once a week, there are news programs in a select number of tribal tongues. The main programs, however, including news and cooking shows, are mostly broadcast in Mandarin, unlike another Taiwanese minority channel, Hakka TV, which broadcasts almost entirely in the Hakka language. Hakkas are Han Chinese from certain regions of southern China who speak a language very different from the northern-derived Mandarin. Some people in the aboriginal community complain that the station is simply scratching the surface on aboriginal issues and that programming is not reaching a certain segment of the population. "There is a lot of room for improvement," says Namoh Rata, an Amis language professor at National Dong Hwa University. "Many of the elderly indigenous people do not understand Mandarin, so it's useless for them." The language instruction provided on TITV is, he says, a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done to help aborigines save their languages and cultures from dying, beset as they are by lack of recognition of their importance, insufficient government support and the trend among aborigines of assimilating into mainstream society for economic survival. "Loss of language is at a crisis stage. Aboriginal languages are in the emergency room. They need emergency life-saving procedures," he says. Funding, meanwhile, is also a problem. The Council of Indigenous Peoples provides funding, which will be NT$350 million (US$10.6 million) this year and is expected to grow in the future. But in order for the station to provide more and better programming, it will need more money. For example, the number of reporters, currently 15, is simply not enough to meet the demands of reporting about tribes spread all over the island, including the remote mountainous areas. The station only has five bureaus in outlying rural areas and these bureaus are manned by one reporter each. But despite the problems, even its critics believe the TV station is making a difference. "It can't fix all its problems in one day," says Namoh. "It has made a big impact in terms of education and getting people interested in aboriginal culture. At least when aboriginal parents sit down with their children for dinner, they flip to the TV channel and use it to encourage their kids to learn about their culture." A Starting Point "Having an indigenous TV station is not a final solution," he says. "It's just a starting point." He says he would like to see aboriginal children allowed to attend schools where subjects are taught in their own languages, as they are in China. No statistics are available on viewers and ratings. The international ratings agency ACNielsen does not rate TITV because its target population of 470,000 aboriginals is considered too small. One viewer, Yang Weixiu, says he thinks the TV programs do not have enough of an aboriginal flavor and the programs are not attractive enough. "They also don't give much information about the rights of aborigines," says Yang, a social worker and director of the Taiwan Indigenous Social Work Association. That kind of comment is not a surprise to the station, which is constantly trying to develop more programs, despite a limited budget and staffing. The TV station's staffers such as Kolas are well aware of the need to better meet the high expectations of tribespeople whose opinions have long been overshadowed and voices ignored. Staff members believe in their work and have a strong sense of mission. "When I used to work as a reporter for a mainstream TV station, all I cared about were the ratings. Now I don't think about ratings. I think about how to tell the stories of indigenous people," Kolas says. "My hope is that the news I report is accurate. There are so many stereotypes about Taiwan's indigenous people. I hope I can report about them in a correct way, and at least be fair so that I can let non-aborigines truly understand aborigines." Reaching out to mainstream viewers is a major goal for her and others at the station. "A very big reason for reaching out to the general population is to say 'I'm not the way you used to think of me,'" she says. Giving Indigenous People a Voice-2 [photo inset - TITV's 24/7 programming is diverse, ranging from news reports, cooking and dating shows, talk shows, interviews and native language teaching targeting children, to situation comedies. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)] Fighting Stereotypes Mainstream society traditionally had very negative stereotypes of aborigines. "When I first entered college, a lot of my classmates asked me if people in my tribe carried out beheadings," Masao says. While views have generally changed after aborigines have been portrayed more positively in recent years, by such as TITV and through well-known aborigines such as the famous pop singer A-mei, stereotypes still persist. "Many of our staff have trouble renting apartments in Neihu (the district where TITV is located) because Taiwanese landlords hesitate to rent to aborigines," Masao says. To change such stereotypes and educate the public as well as aboriginal communities, TITV regularly invites distinguished aborigines such as respected scholars to speak on air about matters concerning indigenous people, including unemployment, alcoholism, inadequate health care, fading customs and the sense of isolation felt by youth unable to assimilate into mainstream Taiwanese society. On a recent program, an aboriginal doctor being interviewed told the story of a young aboriginal man who went to several job interviews. Even though the young man didn't drink, all the employers asked him if he drank and didn't believe him when he said he didn't. "This has become an image Taiwanese have of aborigines, so that's why I think we must make health a priority," said the doctor, who urges the government to provide more funding to NGOs that help aborigines as well as calling on aboriginal communities to help their own youngsters who have gone astray. "Looking at Native Americans and Canadians, we can see that, like them, we need to have our elders reach out to our young people and help them," he said. To reach out to general viewers, the station does not go out of its way to distinguish itself from other broadcasters, except in program content. Kolas, for example, looks like any other news anchorwoman when she's on air-sharp, with perfect makeup and hair and an intelligent look. But she always wears a subtle decorative item with an aboriginal design on her clothing. Anchors who present the weekly news in aboriginal languages, however, wear traditional tribal garb. Although it is funded by the government, the station does not shy away from tackling sensitive issues, such as the ongoing dispute between indigenous people and the government over unclear land rights and the increasing problem of government approval of aboriginal land for development projects in recent years, station officials say. "We stand on the side of indigenous people. There's no contradiction and we're not afraid of criticizing the government," Kolas Yotaka says. The station was the first to break the story about three aboriginal men from a mountainous area in Taiwan's Hsinchu City who were arrested and convicted of stealing national forestry products last year. The men had taken some wood from trees toppled during a typhoon. They and other aborigines argued they were innocent as the land belonged to aborigines, not the government. The cases involves a much bigger issue, which is that current Taiwanese law does not clearly define which land belongs to the original inhabitants and which belongs to the government. After the government moved from China to Taiwan in 1949, land for which no clear title could be shown was claimed as government land. Aborigines often could not show title to land that they had lived, hunted and farmed on for hundreds of years. The men were sentenced by a Hsinchu local court earlier this year. TITV's coverage, including that of a protest over the sentencing, and its ongoing coverage of the men's appeal, has sparked coverage by the mainstream media. Kolas says her news department does not get pressure from the government. Sometimes legislators may call the station to express concern that the station may have misunderstood their position. But the same thing happens elsewhere. In late May the station also reported about a protest by aborigines over the attempt by the Taipei City Government to rename a street originally named after an aboriginal tribe. "We're not afraid of this kind of news. Our goal is to let viewers see the truth. Reporting balanced news is our best protection," Kolas says. ___________________________ Cindy Sui is a freelance reporter based in Taipei. Copyright (c) 2007 by Cindy Sui From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 17:50:21 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 10:50:21 -0700 Subject: Language camp keeps Ojibwe culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: Language camp keeps Ojibwe culture alive ? Indian Country Today August 01, 2007. by: The Associated Press http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415477 [AP Photo/The Daily Press, Karen Hollish -- Kathleen ''Sis'' Wiggins of Odanah, Wis., (far right) demonstrated her brain tanning technique for deer hides during the Ojibwe Language Camp on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, July 12. She was helped by her son, Mitchell Crowe Jr. of Ashland, Wis., and Lisa Brown of Eau Claire, Wis., who traveled to the Raspberry Bay Campground for four days of learning about Ojibwe language and culture.] By Karen Hollish -- The Daily Press, Ashland RED CLIFF, Wis. (AP) - To a virgin nose, the scents wafting up from buckets of brain juice are overpowering. But to Kathleen ''Sis'' Wiggins of Odanah - who has long practiced tanning deer hides with deer brains - inhaling the pungent smell represents another step in strengthening her Ojibwe culture. ''The fact that you're keeping tradition alive, you can't beat that,''' said Wiggins, demonstrating her brain tanning technique at Red Cliff's Raspberry Bay Campground. Wiggins joined others for the four-day Ojibwe Language Camp, an annual event sponsored by the Red Cliff Tribal Council and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Office of Multicultural Affairs. Campers traveled to Red Cliff from the St. Croix, Bad River and Lac Courte Oreilles reservations and beyond to pass along and absorb Ojibwe traditions. Under Raspberry Bay's lakeside canopy of reaching red pines, far removed from many of modern technology's distractions, they organized loosely into small learning groups, splintered off for impromptu one-on-one lessons and reconvened as a whole to hear elders' stories. Camp coordinator Andy Gokee, a former Red Cliff resident who now handles outreach for the UWSP Native American Center, explained why both Ojibwe language lessons and traditional hands-on skills are taught at the camp. It just doesn't work to teach the Ojibwe language in a sterile classroom, he said. ''Language and the culture - you can't separate the two; you need both,'' Gokee said. ''One kind of interprets another; the language gives you insight into how the Indian mind perceives things.'' Today's dearth of Ojibwe language speakers can be traced to past U.S. government and church-related dictums, which forbade Native people to speak their languages, Gokee said. Locally, some elders who attended the St. Mary's Catholic School in Odanah - including a relative of Gokee - still remember losing their Native tongue as children, when the nuns ordered them to speak English only. The need to revive and strengthen knowledge of the Ojibwe language is especially acute today, as the remaining fluent speakers are aging, Gokee said. ''It's a critical point in time now. ... The younger generation, are they going to be able to do it? Our ceremonies won't work in English,'' Gokee said. ''If we don't have our language, we don't have our ceremonies. And if we don't have them, we won't be Ojibwe anymore; we won't be Anishinabe anymore. We will lack that fundamental identity that defines us as Ojibwe.'' While it's a critical point in time, it's also a time of opportunity for language growth, Gokee said. Some area children have been attending an Ojibwe language-immersion charter school in Hayward, and many advanced Ojibwe learners are reaching child-bearing age and will speak Ojibwe to their children soon, he said. As for the camp, the complicated Ojibwe language ''can't be taught in a week,'' Gokee acknowledged - but a week is enough time to ignite an interest. An interest appeared to spark for 9-year-old Pearl Crowe of Ashland. When first asked about her Ojibwe language ability, she sheepishly said she only knows ''boozhoo'' and ''migwetch'' - ''hello'' and ''thank you,'' respectively. But Crowe's eyes lit up when she described how her elders had been teaching the kid campers vocabulary through song. ''They were singing; they started you off with two songs, and if you could handle it, you go to three,'' she said. The songs - which included an Ojibwe language version of ''Itsy Bitsy Spider'' and a ditty about numbers - also excited 11-year-old Angie Matrious, of Lake Lena, Minn. She was honing her introductory speaking, if not spelling, abilities at the camp. ''Ashi beshig,'' she fired back, when asked her age. But could she spell that? ''No!'' Matrious said just as quickly, though after prodding she gave it a good shot. At a feast later that night, fluent Ojibwe speaker Brian Goodwin said Matrious' answer about her age was technically correct, but still at a ''baby talk'' level. A more experienced Ojibwe speaker, Goodwin said, would've likely answered ''beboonigizyaan ashi-beshig,'' a more thorough explanation which can be roughly translated to ''I am 11 winters old.'' Building up the tribe's number of functional Ojibwe speakers is a big undertaking, Gokee said, but he thinks activities like the camp in Red Cliff are helping. Kids ran from campsite to campsite, digging up holes in the dirt, pushing each other on a tree swing and watching the adults work on moccasins and make dinner. During the course of the week, Gokee will sometimes overhear the little ones speaking to each other in limited doses of Ojibwe - a heartening sign, he said. ''You see flashes of it; not as consistently as you hope, but you see flashes of it,'' he said. ''That's a good sign.'' From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 1 18:01:43 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 11:01:43 -0700 Subject: Russia’s Babel (fwd) Message-ID: August 1, 2007 Russia?s Babel By Scott Spires Special to Russia Profile http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=International&articleid=a1185967998 Linguistic Heritage under Threat It is an interesting paradox: as the earth's population expands, the number of languages decreases. The language you are reading in now is one of the causes of this situation. English rolls over other, weaker languages like a tidal wave, obliterating the smallest ones and leaving even some of the larger tongues gasping for breath. But it is not the only such killer language--Spanish, French, Chinese, and Portuguese have been doing deadly work as well, and Russian definitely belongs in this formidable company. Languages die for any number of reasons. They die because a few languages, led by English, dominate the Internet, science and business. They die because you can't take a test, get a driver's license, book a hotel room, or watch a movie in Ladakhi, or Huron or Ainu. They die because the Beatles sang in English (not Cornish or Manx), and because Alexander Pushkin wrote in Russian (not Vepsian or Karakalpak). They die because their speakers see no use for them, or are ashamed of them. They die because their speakers do. In spite of factors like these, the Russian Federation has remained one of the world's greatest preserves of linguistic diversity. Here you will find specimens of Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Caucasian and many other families in their natural habitat. There are oddities to amuse you: The Caucasian language Ubykh, recently extinct, contained a jaw-breaking 81 consonants and only three vowels; the Chukchi language maintains different sound systems depending on whether a man or a woman is doing the talking; Izhor, with fewer than 500 speakers, is nonetheless divided into three separate dialects. Surveys indicate that over 100 languages have indigenous speech communities within Russia. Yet this "nature preserve" is under severe threat of turning effectively monoglot within a few decades. Many of these languages are, like Ubykh, already extinct; others are in the process of extinction or are barely holding on. The process of extinction has, in fact, been going on for centuries; place names attest to this. Northern Russia, for instance, is studded with toponyms from Finno-Ugric dialects that died out long ago--the most famous example being Moskva, which probably means something like "dark water." Siberia?s Loss Siberia, in particular, can be seen as the ground zero of these trends in Russia. Many of the phenomena that lead to the demise of minority languages are especially apparent there. Geography, politics, and culture all interact to create a space in which it is difficult for such languages to thrive. The lack of linguistic compactness, for example, is a problem that especially affects Siberia. "Many of the peoples of the North are non-compact peoples," says Vida Mikhalchenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics. They live sparsely scattered across a vast territory, which makes communication as sizable communities difficult. This contrasts with, for example, the situation in the Northern Caucasus. It remains, in an expression that goes back to Roman times, "the mountain of languages," a region of densely packed and clearly demarcated tongues. Linguist Irina Samarina points to Archi, a language in Dagestan, as an extreme example of compactness: It is spoken in a single village of 1,200 people, but everyone in the village speaks it. As long as this situation persists, it is likely to survive. Policy choices have contributed to the situation. The family is one of the most important forces in ensuring the survival of a language--if parents are able to hand it down to their children, it will continue for at least another generation. In the last century, however, it was common for children of minority-language speakers to be taken away from their parents and raised in boarding schools together with children of other small nationalities. The inevitable result of this situation was that everyone grew up fluent only in Russian. In many cases, only people born before approximately 1940 have preserved knowledge of a language. Once that happens, language death becomes almost inevitable--when the younger generation drops the baton, the race is over. Standardization can also present a problem. If a language has never been equipped for use in any official sphere, deciding where the standard ends and dialects begin can be problematic. The Nenets language, for example, comes in two distinct varieties--Forest and Tundra. Should one of these be chosen as the basis for the standard; should a hybrid language be created; or should each be recognized as a separate language and treated accordingly? These are the sort of questions that can keep a language out of classrooms, radio stations, and newspapers, and promote its eventual extinction. Even standardization does not guarantee a continued use, since elderly or longtime speakers rebel against using the new standard. The Stigmatizing Effect And there is the important issue of will. Much depends simply on the desire of speakers to maintain their language, a factor that is typically independent of both official support and official suppression. If the will to speak a language exists, it can survive neglect and repression; conversely, if the will isn't there, no amount of support will save it. While outsiders may perceive small languages as something romantic or exotic, speakers of small languages often view their native tongues from a very different perspective. Frequently, they associate such languages with poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. Sheer utility is a powerful argument in favor of switching to a few mega-languages, and many people who might speak indigenous languages follow that pragmatic argument to its logical end in their own lives. Linguists know that the effectiveness of outside forces is limited. "We can't stop the process of disappearance," Mikhalchenko says. "And it's not good to try to decide things from above." The important thing is to gather data, create detailed descriptions of those languages threatened with extinction, make information widely available, and support those initiatives that promise success. Laws can also play a role. According to Mikhalchenko, Russia may soon ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The charter sets out a series of measures to promote the use of minority languages in education, the media and other spheres. At this point a skeptic might ask if there is any point in trying to preserve these languages at all. Language death is a normal phenomenon of history. Linguist Andrew Dalby estimates that a language dies every two weeks. Why put so much effort into recording, teaching and preserving dialects that might be limited to a handful of villages? A novel line of reasoning, laid out in Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine's 2000 book Vanishing Voices, treats linguistic diversity as analogous to biodiversity. Languages, the argument goes, are like species in an ecosystem. Just as the extinction of species leads to the degradation of the natural environment, so the extinction of languages degrades the human environment. Thus, systems of local knowledge are somehow dependent on the languages in which they were originally developed. One can find echoes of this in Russia. Some languages have highly developed vocabularies for locally specific activities, such as reindeer-herding. People who usually speak Russian in their everyday lives will switch to the local language whenever they pursue local practices. The problem with this view is that every language is capable of expanding and changing to meet new challenges. There are no recorded instances of a language dying out because it confronted a world it couldn't describe. If it is necessary to invent reindeer-herding terminology for Russian, that will be done. A Cultural Preserve In fact there are good reasons to preserve minority languages, although those reasons are rather prosaic and may not appeal to people who perceive endangered tongues as something exotic and magical. Culture is really the key factor. Mark Abley, in his book Spoken Here, quotes an activist for the Celtic Manx language as saying: "the language is almost like a peg to hang the culture onЙThe music, the Gaelic way of storytelling, the folklore--all these things come out of the Manx language." Cultures can survive the translation to a new language, but in the process they lose something unique and essential. Poetry, folklore, songs and customs have a unique sound and shape, and possibly a unique meaning, in one language that they don't have in another. Abley also quotes the graphic words of MIT linguist Ken Hale, who says that losing a language is like "dropping a bomb on the Louvre." The outside world tends to take little notice of the small peoples of Siberia. Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa's Siberian epic Dersu Uzala featured a Goldi hunter who befriends a Russian explorer; the Tuvan throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu has enjoyed success around the globe, singing songs in their native language that simply couldn't produce the same effect in Russian--or any other language. But it is hard to think of much beyond these admittedly esoteric examples that have made it into the wider world. Linguistic homogenization is one of the factors that could blur the peoples' distinctive cultural profile. While language death, as Mikhalchenko notes, is something that is largely beyond prevention by outside forces, the disappearance of even the smallest dialect represents a loss of a cultural treasure-house. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 2 05:30:36 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 22:30:36 -0700 Subject: Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages http://linguistlist.org/callconf/browse-conf-action.cfm?ConfID=55641 Call for Papers Call Deadline: 17-Aug-2007 This will be the fourth biennial Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages hosted by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Our conference series serves to bring together those who work to maintain and reclaim the indigenous languages of Native North America. We believe that our ancestral languages can and should be spoken in our communities and we continuously seek and support efforts toward this end. The conference planning committee, in their selection of presenters strives to balance linguistic research, instructional techniques, technological innovations and most recently, indigenous languages in the context of the visual, written and performing arts. We invite you to share your work and in so doing, further efforts to reclaim, perpetuate and celebrate Native North America's unique and precious languages of heritage. Conference topics: A. Instructional Techniques, such as those that focus on producing first and second language speakers, workbooks, CDs, computer-interactive programs, videos, TPR, the Silent Way, Immersion Nests, etc. B. Artistic Application of Language, such as storytelling, performing artists, authors and playwrights for all age groups, visual artists, etc. C. Linguistics in the Context of Language Preservation and Reconstruction, such as historical linguistics of Native - North America, preferably but not limited to Algonquian languages and those of Southern New England. Papers addressing methodologies and sources used in preservation and reclamation projects as well as place-names' analyses sought. D. Technological Innovations in the areas of language documentation, databases and dictionary software, educational and instructional software, etc. Roundtable 1: Dictionary Development, participants and moderator sought for this session Roundtable 2: Language Project Policies and Protocol, participants and moderator sought for this session Session Specifics: Each presenter will be allotted a one-hour session to include a brief question and answer period. The roundtable sessions will include a moderator for which interested presenters will be considered. Presenters' expenses such as travel, lodging, most meals, and a small honorarium will be provided for. Submission Guidelines: Please submit a one-page abstract indicating which conference subject area described above, or roundtable session, best suits your presentation to LanguageConference at mptn.org or mail to Language Conference Team, PO Box 3060, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Mashantucket, CT 06338. Final decisions will be made in September (2007); please include detailed contact information so that we may notify you of your status. If your presentation is selected we will require a one page bio and/or C.V. and a photograph, if available, to be included in our program book and promotional material. Additional questions may be sent to LanguageConference at mptn.org or dgregoire at mptn.org (phone: 860-396-2052). A URL entitled ''Conference on the Reclamation of Indigenous Languages'' will be accessible by August 2007. If you are not planning to submit an abstract but would like to receive information on conference registration please send your contact information via e-mail to cseifart at mptn.org or mail to Language Conference Team, PO Box 3060, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, CT 06338. Registration forms will also be available via the conference Web page in August. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 2 17:32:08 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 10:32:08 -0700 Subject: College receives grant for Ojibwe language and culture program (fwd) Message-ID: College receives grant for Ojibwe language and culture program The College of St. Scholastica 8/1/2007 http://www.businessnorth.com/pr.asp?RID=2386 DULUTH - The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth has recently received a new five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support its Ojibwe Language and Culture Education (OLCE) program. In announcing the grant earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar called the program a ?good investment,? saying that it helps ensure ?that our teachers are ready for the challenges in today?s classrooms.? The $1.19 million grant is administered by the Department of Education?s Office of English Language Acquisition. It will support 10 students who are interested in teaching and working in the American Indian community. Students will major in elementary or secondary education and in Ojibwe language and culture education. The dual-major program takes five years to complete. The grant will provide students with tuition support as well as a monthly living stipend. The financial support is open to native and non native students. However, students must be interested in working in a school with a high native population. ?We find that there are many teachers working with the native communities who do not have an understanding of the history, culture or value systems of the students in their classrooms,? said Valerie Tanner, OLCE program director and assistant professor of education at St. Scholastica. ?Graduates of the OLCE program will not only be able to better understand and communicate with native students, they will also be able to educate non-native students about the American Indian community.? The grant will also provide ongoing training to a cohort of 12 area teachers each year, serving a total of 60 teachers over the grant period. In addition, the grant will continue to support the integration of American culture, history and language into Duluth Public Schools' K-12 curriculum. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Gigashki?ewizimin ji gikenjigeyang (We Are Powerful When We Have Knowledge) Consortium, which is dedicated to promoting American educational access, achievement and success. Consortium members will meet regularly throughout the grant period and will help with field placements, cultural components, recruitment and program evaluation. The recent grant complements another received by St. Scholastica in 2006. Funding from the U.S. Department of Education?s Office of Indian Education supports the Native Teachers for the Seventh Generation program. This program allows native students, with two years of previous college education, the opportunity to earn a bachelor of arts in education with a K-12 licensure from St. Scholastica. Applications for fall 2008 are still being accepted. For questions about the OLCE program contact Valerie Tanner at (218) 723-6014 or (800) 447-5444, ext. 6014 or vtanner at css.edu. Program information can be found at http://www.css.edu/x1598.xml. The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2007 ?America's Best Colleges? survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities. The Washington Post has rated St. Scholastica as one of the nation?s 100 ?hidden gems? among U.S. colleges and universities. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 3 21:12:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:12:39 -0700 Subject: green computing... Message-ID: Greetings, fyi, for those interested in "green" and computing-for-less, you should check out Zonbu. Zonbu rivals the Mac mini in some ways though for much less and contains all open source applications. It is all flash-driven, no hard drive components. You do need your peripherals though (e.g. keyboard, monitor, etc.). An internet connection is needed I think but am not sure. Alternatives are good, green alternatives are even better. Zonbu http://www.zonbu.com/home/ Phil UofA From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 6 18:06:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:06:41 -0700 Subject: Rancher, linguist working to preserve native language (fwd) Message-ID: Rancher, linguist working to preserve native language The Associated Press - Monday, August 06, 2007 TWIN BUTTES, N.D. http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8QRI3V00 An effort to save the Mandan language may rest on the shoulders of a 75-year-old horse rancher. Experts believe Edwin Benson is the only person living who speaks fluent Mandan, the language of the American Indian tribe that became the host of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during the explorers' winter encampment in North Dakota more than 200 years ago. For past three summers, in six-hour shifts, Benson and California linguist Sara Trechter have camped out in a small office so he can speak into a microphone while Trechter takes notes. The two recently finished transcribing seven Mandan folk stories. Benson's grandfather insisted on keeping alive Mandan traditions and language. Ben Benson forbid speaking English in his home, a log cabin near the mouth of the Little Missouri River. Trechter, who teaches at a university in Chico, Calif., learned about efforts to preserve the Mandan language from her doctoral thesis adviser, a Siouan language expert at the University of Kansas. She got in touch with Calvin Grinnell, who works in the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara cultural preservation office on North Dakota's Fort Berthold reservation. Grinnell directs the language preservation project with Joseph Jasztrembski, a history professor at Minot State University. The effort started about seven years ago with a grant from the National Park Service, which paid to videotape Benson telling folk stories at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton. The project's goal is to produce material for language labs on the reservation, ideally with the videotapes of Benson telling his stories in Mandan and follow-along captions of Trechter's transcriptions on the bottom of the screen. Work has been slow, plagued at times by technical problems, sporadic funding and busy schedules. Benson uses an office near the Twin Buttes Elementary School, where he teaches Mandan. Since finishing the folk stories, Trechter and Benson been recording and transcribing Mandan social and cultural customs. Trechter has had master some quirks of the language. She learned, for example, that a bird is said to "stand" while flying but "sit" when perched on a tree. She has found that some words or phrases simply defy translation into another tongue. In the archives of the North Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Bismarck, Trechter said she found "boxes and boxes" of material, including a Mandan dictionary compiled in the 1970s and 1980s, and manuscripts from the 1920s and 1930s. Jasztrembski compared the work to restoring an endangered plant or animal species. "I think language revitalization is something like that," he said. "It takes a great deal of time to do." Grinnell said the tribal college archives has hours of tape recordings of elders from the 1970s that might provide helpful material. Trechter, 44, said she already seen enough material to keep her busy for the rest of her career. "There is no finishing with Mandan," she said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 6 18:58:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:58:40 -0700 Subject: A whisper away from extinction (fwd) Message-ID: Published: August 06, 2007 11:34 am print this story email this story comment on this story A whisper away from extinction Local program working against the clock to save the Euchee language through their children By HEATHER SLEIGHTHOLM Herald Assistant Editor http://www.sapulpadailyherald.com/homepage/local_story_218113459.html?keyword=leadpicturestory On a hot August afternoon in Sapulpa, about a dozen children gather at a shaded table for snack time. Chattering excitedly about the game they have just finished playing, they are offered a drink and a snack by their teachers at the Euchee Language Project?s summer program. One by one the children take their snack and thank their teacher in the Euchee language. They try their best to use their new vocabulary words, but a few giggled English phrases make their way into the conversation. Watched closely by their teachers, the children ?? who range from young teenagers to toddlers ?? are encouraged to use the language of their people. On a lighthearted afternoon such as this, is easy to forget the importance of this interaction. Quite literally, these children are the only hope for the Euchee language, which is a whisper away from extinction. ?We believe that the Creator gave us this language,? said Richard Grounds, Director of the Euchee Language Project. ?It?s coming very close to being lost. And when it?s gone, its gone forever.? Currently, there is only one man left that speaks Euchee as a first language, and a handful of women native speakers. These slim numbers are not just the number of speakers left in the Sapulpa area; they are the only people left in the world that are native Euchee speakers. In an effort to combat the loss of their language ?? and a large part of their culture ?? the Euchee community has taken action to save their language by teaching it to a younger generation and preserving their stories and songs in their native tongue. ?We?re still very much in triage mode,? Grounds said. ?This is an emergency intervention, and the language is hanging in the balance.? The goal of the program is to produce new fluent speakers of Euchee and to reintroduce the language into the community as well as ceremonial gatherings. ?The problem is, 75 percent of native languages are only spoken by grandparents, with parents knowing little or none of the language,? Grounds said. Now, the program is hoping it can bring fluency in Euchee to the younger generation through activities, lessons, and interaction with the remaining elders. ?We want our learners to be young enough that they can teach their children the language,? Grounds said. ?We don?t expect them to be monolingual, but bilingual in English and Euchee.? The influence of the Euchee has been profound on the community, although this in many instances has been forgotten over time. The site of the current Sapulpa High School and junior high is located on the previous grounds of the Euchee Indian Boarding School, a boarding school for young Euchees at the turn of the century. Both boys and girls attended the school (which later became an all boys school) and later Creek, Cherokee and Seminole boys were also enrolled. At the mission school, students were punished for speaking Euchee, a lesson that many students took to heart. Ground?s grandmother was one of these students. ?She began going to the school when she was a teenager, so she was old enough by then to retain the Euchee language while learning to speak English,? Grounds said. ?And while she continued to speak Euchee within the Euchee community, she never taught my father the language. The school had ingrained in her something that made her think that her children should only speak English.? Now Grounds, like most of his colleagues at the program, is becoming fluent in the language that he was never taught as a child, although he heard it often from the elders around him. Linda Harjo, the assistant director for the language program, is also becoming fluent in the language and is focused on passing it on to the younger generation. ?It?s been a long process, and we?re a grass roots organization,? Harjo said. Currently, the program gets its funding through grants, donations and federal dollars, and is making great strides since the first language class was given in 1994. ?We just moved into our new location in October 2006 and are holding classes here four afternoons a week for the smaller children,? Harjo said. In addition to the children?s class, there are also gatherings of elders to visit and pass their knowledge on to the staff and older learners, as well as weekly community nights. Currently, children aged two to five years come to the program four days a week for two hours of immersion in the Euchee language. Through games, activities and conversations, the children are given a chance to hear the language of their people and attempt to speak it themselves. All the program asks in return is that parents attend a weekly community night and encourage the use of Euchee in their home. ?What we would really love to do is have an after school program for the older kids to come to,? Harjo said. ?At the moment, they are only able to attend during the summer.? The administrators of the program are cautiously optimistic about their endeavor, while realizing that the clock is ticking on the time they have with their aging elders. But as a people, the Euchees have overcome many obstacles, including being virtually written out of the history books when many of the Euchee were forced to register as Creeks during the government mandated removal from their homelands in the southern states to Indian territory in the 1830s. ?According to the history books, the Euchee people and their language are already extinct,? Grounds said. ?But we?re still here, and we still have our language, even after the assault on our people and our culture. That?s a testimony of strength of our people.? The Euchee Language Project is currently located on South Main Street in Sapulpa. For more information on their classes or if you would like to help maintain their language, contact The Euchee Language Project at 224-6481. Heather Sleightholm 224-5185 Ext.204 education at sapulpadailyherald.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 7 19:00:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 12:00:41 -0700 Subject: Acoma kids show off language skills (fwd) Message-ID: Acoma kids show off language skills http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2007/08/06/news/news11.txt Monday, August 6, 2007 5:09 PM MDT ACOMA - One by one they proudly stood on the stage dressed in traditional clothing. All eight of the students in the Oral History Project introduced themselves in the Keresan language to the gathering of more than 100 community members at the Acoma Auditorium last Tuesday. The eight students, along with help from their instructors, showed off their acting talents too as they performed a skit based on the Acoma Emergence Story. William Estevan, one of the instructors of the project, talked about the unique program that has tribes from all across the country seeking Acoma's help in reestablishing their own efforts to save their languages. ?The students studied oral language which included the Acoma emergence story, how the people came to their present state. Every day, excluding feast days, the students were involved with the Acoma Keres language and the oral story telling of the history of Acoma,? Estevan said. Vina Leno, Program Director for the Acoma Language Retention Program, said the program continues to improve each year as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a brand new place to call home. ?Last year the tribal council approved appropriations for a new building and the building will be arriving this month,? Leno said. With much of its focus on the Acoma youth, Leno said she is looking to expand the program to include adults and newborns. ?Then when the newborns get to the schools they can continue with the program,? Leno said. One positive aspect of the program that Leno did not foresee when it started was the security the students felt with their instructors. ?The kids usually find the language classes a safe haven. They find it easy to talk with the instructors and they are able to tell them what they want to learn about Acoma,? Leno said. For Dakota Chino, 15, a sophomore at Grants High School, the language class taught him a lot about his people and who he is. ?We learned about our history and colors and stuff like that. They taught us in a way that was fun,? Chino said. Chino said the classes encouraged him to get help from his mom and dad when he was at home. One problem Chino may face is continuing the language program while pursuing his athletic goals at Grants High School. ?I heard they were going to have an after-school program which I will probably come to, but it might be kind of hard because I run cross country,? Chino said. Despite the hurdles he will face this fall, Chino is optimistic that he will continue with the language program. ?Our language is a big part of our traditions and we have to learn our language because it is everything and I know it will help me in the future,? Chino said. By Will Kie Beacon staff writer will at cibolabeacon.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:28:12 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:28:12 -0700 Subject: Preserving the 'language of Canada' (fwd) Message-ID: Preserving the 'language of Canada' Mi'kmaq rarely spoken by younger generation BRIAN FLINN http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=52012&sc=89 Mi'kmaq has somehow survived repeated attempts to wipe it out. But despite current efforts to keep it alive, the only language to ever arise from Nova Scotia's forests, rivers and coast is in trouble. Many young people whose parents speak Mi'kmaq have switched to English and French. And that generation is the only thing keeping it from joining the 13 aboriginal languages currently listed as endangered. "It is the language of Canada itself," said Eskasoni resident Joel Denny. "There should be a law in protecting the language in Canada." Statistics Canada says Mi'kmaq is the sixth most widely spoken of Canada's 50 aboriginal languages, with almost 9,000 reporting they understood it in 2001. That's remarkable, considering the Mi'kmaq might have been the first aboriginal people in Canada to encounter Europeans. They were almost killed off by imported disease and state-sponsored murder. The government in Halifax put a bounty on the head of all Mi'kmaq men, women and children in the 1750s. In mainland Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq never recovered from the period in the mid-20th century, when aboriginal children throughout Canada were taken from their families and forced into residential schools. The language is more widely spoken in eastern New Brunswick and the Gaspe. Cape Breton is home to most of the people who speak Mi'kmaq as a first language. The biggest concentration of Mi'kmaq speakers is in Eskasoni, 40 kilometres southwest of Sydney. The largest aboriginal community in Atlantic Canada, it's built on the side of a hill that reaches deep into Cape Breton's Bras d'Or Lakes. Denny believes isolation helped the language survive in his community. But technology is making distance less of a barrier. TV, computers and video games speak English and French to children. Denny said many don't want to use Mi'kmaq, and he fears they are losing their culture. "We don't need government and non-native people to come in and kill us off now," said Denny, whose family is a noted group of Mi'kmaq dancers. "We're doing that to ourselves." Many of Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq bands are trying to reverse the trend by introducing more Mi'kmaq language instruction into reserve schools. Denny isn't convinced it's working. Increasingly, Mi'kmaq is becoming a second language. Governments have done much to eradicate native languages. Today, they fund Mi'kmaq education programs. But there is no publicly supported organization advocating for preservation of the language, like the province's new Office of Gaelic Affairs. And aboriginal languages don't enjoy official status in Canada, like English and French. Denny, 55, avoided residential school while his parents struggled to protect him from the authorities. He recalls hiding in a tree while the RCMP and an Indian agent grabbed two of his friends for forced education in English. Assimilation wasn't always so deliberate. Europeans brought disease, which killed thousands of people. They also brought technology that forever changed the province's ecology. Memories of the lost way of life are contained in the Mi'kmaq language. Caribou - kalibu - is a Mi'kmaq word. The province's last caribou was shot in 1921. Walrus lived in the inland sea around Eskasoni and along the Nova Scotia coast. They were finally hunted out in the late 1800s. Denny said the Mi'kmaq were a winter people, like the Inuit of northern Canada. Inuktitut and Mi'kmaq have an almost identical word for a boat with a skin stretched over it, which helped people travel and hunt in cold months. In Denny's language it's ka'ak - or kayak. Toboggan is a Mi'kmaq word. English is a collection of words borrowed from Latin, French, German and just about every language that encountered the British Empire. The original meaning of words is usually obscure. Anna Nibby Woods, a Mi'kmaq master's student at Mount Saint Vincent University, said people who grew up with an aboriginal language find it difficult to express themselves in English. They find English words are inadequate, because they have little relationship with other words, or with the environment. The Mi'kmaq words for headache and the cure for headache are related to the word for a plant that cures headaches, she said. In English, there is nothing in common between the words "headache" and "aspirin." Denny said he has been studying Mi'kmaq for 20 years, collecting old songs and figures of speech. He's convinced it originates from the sounds heard in the environment, and is vital to understanding the environment. The meaning of words is embedded in those sounds."When you talk Mi'kmaq, you talk feelings, you talk description, you talk what happened and what's going to happen," Denny said. "We don't name stuff. We describe stuff." The word for skunk, abigjilu, literally means "an animal that steps backward and farts." That's useful information if you ever encounter one. "When he's stepping backwards, get out of the way," Denny laughs. "You know damn well he's going to fart on you." Other words are filled with traditional values. Woman, or e'pit, means "she carries the egg within." It's a constant reminder of her reproductive role. Man, ji'nm, means "he carries the great life force." Denny said a father is one responsible for passing on that life force. The maternal grandmother, kukmijinu, is the traditionally most important figure in a child's upbringing. She "put the egg within" the child's mother. "There's no good or bad in Mi'kmaq. There's just consequences," Nibby Woods said. "Everything is interconnected and interrelated. That's why there is respect for everyone around you." Woods spoke Mi'kmaq before she went to residential school in Shubenacadie. She recalls later asking her grandmother to teach her the language. Her grandmother refused. She said it would only be a burden. As today, employment opportunities were in English. Woods got an education in English and had a career in advertising, before rediscovering her Mi'kmaq heritage in her mid 30s. Teaching Mi'kmaq as a second language has some value, she said, but it's not the same as having it as a mother tongue. "It's kind of like a novelty thing, because you're not thinking in Mi'kmaq, you're not dreaming in Mi'kmaq," she said. "You're translating for Mi'kmaq." bflinn at hfxnews.ca From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:36:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:36:30 -0700 Subject: ‘Hogan Heroes’ Bridge Native American Digital Divide (fwd) Message-ID: ?Hogan Heroes? Bridge Native American Digital Divide TsosieSeveral UNM departments are involved in the initiative http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/002113.html In a large urban center like Albuquerque, it?s easy to forget that many parts of the world ? and the state ? lack access to basic resources taken for granted in city life. Internet to the Hogans (ITTH) is a movement to bridge that gap by connecting northwest New Mexico to the Internet and digital television, expanding access to services like distance education and telehealth. [Photo: Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie (center) shows an elder and youth from ToHajiilee how to access the Internet for distance learning and telehealth.] ?It?s a movement to close the digital divide in Native American communities,? said Colleen Keane of the UNM Institute for American Indian Education. In 2005, then-Senator and current Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie decided to bring together representatives of the Navajo Nation, technology corporations, universities and national labs to address the digital divide in northwest New Mexico. Keane helped him arrange a gathering at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, where ITTH was born. The ?Hogan Heroes,? as Keane calls them, bring together complimentary resources to form a holistic information technology plan ? from communications infrastructure to the services it will deliver ? linked with the broader Navajo Nation IT plan spanning Arizona and Utah as well as New Mexico. Casting the ?Net across northwest N.M. The first step for ITTH is building a backbone of communications technology. Once in place, that backbone will spread through a wireless canopy to bring service to homes and hogans, traditional Navajo dwellings. UNM Information Technology Services is helping Navajo Technical College to get connected to LamdaRail, an ultra-high-speed network serving universities and research organizations. Navajo Technical College is erecting a tower to establish a point to point wireless connection with the Albuquerque GigaPop, New Mexico?s onramp to LambdaRail. ?They?re leapfrogging in technology,? said ITS Director Moira Gerety, pointing out that the Navajo Nation is building its own infrastructure with newer, more cost effective technology. The Center for High Performance Computing is consulting with Navajo Technical College on developing cyber-infrastructure and high performance computing projects. ?I really like the idea of having a technical school bring technology to the local community,? said UNM Chief Information Officer Barney Maccabe. ITTH is also expanding access to digital television. One goal is to produce Navajo language programming. Through a signal sent by KNME, the Ramah Navajo community is one of the first native communities in the United States to receive digital public television. One day, Council Delegate Tsosie would like to see PBS?s Big Bird speak Navajo to help Navajo children become fluent in both the Navajo and English languages. Content, the key ingredient ?It?s not about the Internet. It?s about the services you can provide on the Internet,? Gerety said. UNM can supply some of those services ? particularly telehealth and distance education. Telehealth uses communication technologies to provide health care, information and training at a distance. Center for Telehealth Medical Director Dale Alverson has been consulting with Navajo Nation telecommunications officials on how to best serve their specific health needs. One priority area is behavioral health, especially for returning veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and for suicide prevention among adolescents. Alverson said that virtual counseling through two-way video ?gives that sense of presence as if you were physically face-to-face.? Other priorities that can be addressed through telehealth include diabetes, substance abuse and Alzheimer?s. Through Extended University, UNM will make distance education available to Navajo communities, including online and interactive television courses. In addition, the Institute for American Indian Education is providing e-mentoring to New Mexico Native American teachers and pre-service teachers with the support of a grant from the New Mexico Public Education Department. Benefits for UNM With so many services ? from admissions applications to course registration ? moving online, Internet access is virtually a prerequisite for access to higher education. As ITTH plans develop, UNM will have greater opportunities to reach potential students. ?We have looked at utilizing this technology and network as a means to expose more students to health careers, and a mechanism to prepare students for those fields as well through electronic education,? said Gayle Din?-Chacon of the Center for Native American Health. Ken Van Brott of the Extended University Gallup Center said that he sees ITTH as an opportunity to build partnerships with Din? College and Navajo Technical College. The extension of wireless connections through northwest New Mexico will also directly benefit the campus by providing access to LambdaRail. Hogan Heroes come to UNM Aug. 15 The University Libraries Indigenous Nations Library Program will host the next ITTH meeting at Zimmerman Library, Willard room on Aug. 15. To participate, RSVP to Colleen Keane at (505) 379-3315 or ckeane at unm.edu. Photo credit: Colleen Keane Posted by scarr at August 8, 2007 12:16 PM From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:38:35 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:38:35 -0700 Subject: Fort Folly youth learning to embrace Mi’kmaq culture (fwd) Message-ID: Last updated at 9:07 AM on 08/08/07 Fort Folly youth learning to embrace Mi?kmaq culture KATIE TOWER The Sackville Tribune Post http://sackvilletribunepost.com/index.cfm?sid=52226&sc=129 [photo inset - Students at Fort Folly are learning more about their culture, including native drumming, through a month-long program taught by Mi?kmaq historian and storyteller Gilbert Sewell.] Fort Folly youth are gaining a greater understanding of their native heritage thanks to a renowned Mi?kmaq elder who is sharing his knowledge with the youngsters at the First Nations reserve. Gilbert Sewell, a storyteller and historian from Pabineau First Nation, has visited the small reserve near Dorchester for the past five years to pass on the legendary stories and songs and, of course, the language that is such a vital part of the Mi?kmaq heritage. During a month-long program, the young natives - ranging in age from 11 to 18 - are taught the fundamentals of their native culture, including: traditional songs and dances; how to survive in the woods, including what plants are safe to eat; the Mi?kmaq language; as well as native history in the region, including the story behind many of the place names such as Dorchester, Westcock, Parrsboro, Mactaquac, Kouchibouquac and Shediac, The youngsters say they feel fortunate to take part in Sewell?s program and are eager to learn more about their culture, particularly to become more skilled in their mother tongue. ?It?s our native language,? says 15-year-old Gerald Knockwood, who has taken part in the summer course for three years now. ?It?s our background and it?s what we stand for.? And that?s exactly what Sewell hopes to instill in the next generation ? a love and understanding of their native traditions. The native historian, who has travelled extensively and teaches others about his culture, traditions and medicines, says teaching native youth the importance of their culture is vital so that it can be passed on to future generations. With so many mixed marriages in the native communities, many of the traditions and customs are no longer followed, he adds. ?They?re rapidly losing their language and their culture,? he says of the Mi?kmaq people, noting a large percentage of them now speak only English. But that all could change, according to Sewell, who says he is pleased to see a resurgence of people becoming more interested in their backgrounds. ?There?s a new wave of appreciation for the language and the (Mi?kmaq) culture,? he says. ?There?s a lot more people digging into their past and checking out their genealogy. ?I think the stigma of being native is not as prevalent as it used to be and people are more aware of their heritage and who they are,? says Sewell, whose knowledge and appreciation of his cultural background came from his grandfather. He was quick to give praise to the Fort Folly youth for their willingness to learn new things and their dedication. Twelve-year-old Alex Knockwood returned the praise, however, and insisted she feels honoured just to have taken part in such an essential program. ?There?s not many people that can still speak the language so it?s a privilege just being a part of this.? Mike Belliveau, 18, says he couldn?t agree more. ?I am the only one now in my immediate family who knows how to speak Mi?kmaq,? he says. ? This is a way to preserve the Mi?kmaq language and I think that?s pretty darned important.? Many of the students Sewell has taught over the past five years have gone on to university, with one preparing to start on her master?s degree and another recently moving on to work with the Department of Indian Affairs. Sewell, who grew up hunting, trapping, and gathering medicines from natural vegetation, offers guided tours back at his home reserve in Papineau, including hiking, fossil hunting, and snowshoeing, and teaching awareness of the environment. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 20:40:05 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:40:05 -0700 Subject: N.B. woman recording elders speaking Maliseet for posterity (fwd) Message-ID: N.B. woman recording elders speaking Maliseet for posterity Last Updated: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 | 2:40 PM AT CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/08/08/nb-maliseetclips.html A New Brunswick woman has launched an online campaign to save a dying native language. Imelda Perley says her new project hopes to capture the voices of about 100 people in New Brunswick, most of them elders, who speak Maliseet as their first language. Perley, who has devoted her life to connecting Maliseet people to their culture as a university and high school teacher, says the fact children aren't speaking the language means Maliseet is facing a real threat. "It's been taught in schools in the community, but it's been taught as a subject and not something you can carry," she said. "I'm really worried that it's going to become extinct." She says she hopes her site will generate more interest in Maliseet. "I think there's going to be a generation who's going to embrace us and thank us for leaving it behind for them, and they'll carry it forward," Perley said. "If it isn't this generation, it will be a generation coming." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 8 23:14:00 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 16:14:00 -0700 Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Assistant Professor, Indigenous Languages http://ling.ucsd.edu/who/jobs.html The Department of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego (http://ling.ucsd.edu) invites applications for a tenure-track position in the area of indigenous languages, with preference for Native American languages. This position is part of a 3-year initiative to hire scholars doing work in the area of Indigenous and Native American Studies at UCSD. Applicants should have a strong research program on indigenous language(s), including fieldwork and establishing relationships within indigenous communities. Any subfield will be considered; candidates should contribute to the department's focus on empirically-driven experimental and theoretical research. A Ph.D. or Ph.D. candidacy is required and candidates should demonstrate research productivity, undergraduate and graduate teaching ability, and extramural funding potential. Duties include research, teaching, and departmental/university service. Please visit the online application link below for further application information and requirements. For fullest consideration, all application materials, including letters, should be received no later than December 1, 2007. Salaries are in strict accordance with UC pay scales. Non-citizens should state their immigration status. UCSD is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity. Applicants are invited to preview campus diversity resources and programs at the campus website for Diversity http://diversity.ucsd.edu. Applicants are also invited to include in their cover letters a personal statement summarizing their contributions to diversity. From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Wed Aug 8 21:21:27 2007 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 14:21:27 -0700 Subject: The impact of television on language Message-ID: It seems fair to say that the implications are the same for learning a second language. For most indigenous communities this would mean that random television is not good for children attempting to learn a heritage language (endangered or not). What are your thoughts? Phil Cash Cash UofA ~~~ Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 By ALICE PARK http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html 'Baby Einstein': a bright idea? Infants shown such educational series end up with poorer vocabularies, study finds. Researcher says 'American Idol' is better. By Amber Dance, Times Staff Writer August 7, 2007 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 17:50:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 10:50:53 -0700 Subject: Indigenous peoples’ concerns must be tackled with urgency (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous peoples? concerns must be tackled with urgency - Ban Ki-moon http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23460&Cr=indigenous&Cr1= 9 August 2007 ? The world?s 370 million indigenous people continue to suffer discrimination, marginalization, extreme poverty and conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for urgent action to deal with their pressing concerns. In a message marking the International Day of the World?s Indigenous People, observed each year on 9 August, Mr. Ban pointed out that while the occasion is a time to ?celebrate the contributions that indigenous peoples make to humanity through their rich civilizations,? it is also important to remember the critical issues they grapple with daily. Aside from discrimination, marginalization and poverty, Mr. Ban said indigenous peoples also face dispossession of their traditional lands and livelihoods, displacement, destruction of their belief systems, culture, language and way of life. ?Our fast-paced world requires us to act with urgency in addressing these issues,? he said, stressing that in doing so indigenous peoples? full and effective participation must be ensured at every step along the way. Mr. Ban noted that recently, the world has grown ?increasingly aware of the need to support indigenous people,? and has done so by establishing and promoting international standards, and by vigilantly upholding respect for their human rights. Recognition of, and respect for, indigenous knowledge on issues related to the environment and climate change has also been reinforced. The Secretary-General also highlighted the three-decade-long partnership between indigenous peoples and the United Nations, which culminated in 2000 with the establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues ? an expert body that discusses indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. ?Today, indigenous peoples have a home at the United Nations,? he stated. Echoing Mr. Ban?s comments, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour emphasized that while the Day is a ?celebration of humankind's diversity and richness, it needs also to serve as a reminder of the continuing exclusion indigenous peoples face.? In a joint statement issued with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Ms. Arbour urged Member States to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is due to be taken up by the General Assembly in the coming weeks. The Declaration, adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2006, sets out global human rights standards for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. It is drawn from the experiences of ?thousands of indigenous representatives who have shared their anguish and their hopes.? ?As we stand at the brink of this historic decision by the General Assembly, it is the time to call upon Member States of the United Nations to join as one and adopt the Declaration and thereby establish a universal framework for indigenous peoples' rights, social justice and reconciliation,? she said. The Declaration also recognizes that respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable development, including proper management of the environment. At its 2008 session, the UN Permanent Forum will focus on the particular vulnerability of indigenous communities to climate change and their important role in responding to it. ?The Saami community in Scandinavia is well-known for having brought the issue of climate change and its impact on their future livelihoods to the fora of the international community,? stated Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Also today, Mr. Ban?s Special Representative in Nepal Ian Martin welcomed a recent agreement between the Government and the Janajatis to ensure the latter?s inclusion in the electoral process and the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for November, calling it a ?major step for Nepal?s indigenous peoples.? Mr. Martin said the agreement also highlights the need for continuing dialogue to ensure electoral rights for other traditionally marginalized groups. ?This will contribute to achieving the ultimate goal of the election: to produce a Constituent Assembly that is truly representative and able to frame a constitution which responds to the aspirations of all Nepalese people,? he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 17:54:06 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 10:54:06 -0700 Subject: Colombia's indigenous people find little to celebrate on key day (fwd) Message-ID: Colombia's indigenous people find little to celebrate on key day http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-75WHP3?OpenDocument COLOMBIA, 9 August (UNHCR) ? Rising 6,000 feet above sea-level, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada tower above Colombia's Caribbean Coast in the north of the country. The Kogi Indians are the guardians of the mountain, which they believe to be a magical place, the Heart of the World, linked by invisible black lines to other sacred sites in Colombia. The Kogis call themselves the Elder Brothers of Humanity and until recently had avoided all contact with the outside world. The lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada are populated by three other groups, the Arhuaco, the Wiwa and the Kankuamo, whose role it is to protect the Guardians at the top. But in the past decade, Colombia's armed conflict has erupted into their sacred world, with irregular armed groups fighting for territory, selective killings, threats and violence. Today, as the Kogis watch from their snow-capped mountaintop, the black lines have turned into a trail of blood for many of their indigenous brothers. "As we prepare to mark World Indigenous Day, our people continue to live in the midst of violence, general impunity and lack of state protection," said Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, President of Colombia's National Indigenous Organisation (ONIC) during a news conference in Bogota on Wednesday. According to ONIC, some 17,000 indigenous people suffered from direct human rights ? or International Humanitarian Law ? violations in the first seven months of this year. This represents an average of 80 people a day, who have been victims of crimes ranging from forced displacement to targeted killings or threats against their lives. ONIC added that some 12% of the total indigenous population is currently at risk because of the conflict, suffering from violence, intimidation, and reduced access to economic resources. As a result, the malnutrition rate among children of the Embera and Wounaan groups is as high as 75% in the Pacific Coast region of Choco. On the other side of the country, in southern Putumayo, the Cofan Indians are also facing starvation, as the conflict impedes their freedom of movement and limits their possibilities to fish, hunt and grow their traditional crops. "We are not so many, there are only about 1,200 of us Cofans," Ivan Queta explained for the group. "We are trying to hang onto our culture, to teach our children to speak our language. But how can our children go to school, when they are dying of starvation and we have to move from one place to the next in search of peace?" Under Colombian and international law, the State has a duty to pay special attention to the protection of ethnic minorities and their culture in the midst of the armed conflict. Forced displacement affects indigenous people in a devastating way, not only as individual but as cultural groups with their own traditions and organizations. UNHCR works with the State to help it fulfill this duty of protection, and with indigenous organizations all over the country. It has also been campaigning to raise awareness of the magnitude of a crisis that goes on year after year. "We have to ask ourselves what we are doing to overcome this situation," said UNHCR Representative in Colombia Roberto Meier during the news conference. "Last year, we denounced the killings of five displaced Awa indigenous people on World Indigenous Day. A year on, we have the sad news that five Awa have died in a landmine accident on their own lands." He added that some 1,300 Awa are confined in their territories in Nari?o, also in southern Colombia, unable to flee combat because their lands are ridden with mines. Some 600 of them have taken refuge in five schools inside Awa territory. Hundreds more have been forced to displace again this year, some across the border to Ecuador. Other indigenous people have fled to Brazil, Venezuela and Panama in search of safety. In order to address the regional dimensions of the crisis, UNHCR is developing a joint strategy based on local resources and needs on both sides of Colombia's borders, starting with Ecuador and Venezuela. Speaking on behalf of the four tribes of the Sierra Nevada, Leonor Zabaleta, who received a Human Rights Prize this year from the Swedish government, said all the laws and humanitarian assistance in the world cannot alone stop the tragedy. "There is a law in Colombia to help the victims of forced displacement, but there is nothing concrete in place to guarantee that we do not have to displace. Yet if we have to leave our land, everything is lost," she said. And while Colombia's armed conflict goes on, fear will remain for the cultural survival of the 80 indigenous groups who together make up around 3% of the country's total population and represent one of the richest and most varied indigenous heritage in the world. By Marie-H?l?ne Verney and Gustavo Valdivieso in Bogota, Colombia From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 18:01:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 11:01:48 -0700 Subject: Indigenous peoples day (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous peoples day Russia Today August 9, 2007, 9:06 http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/12178 With the spread of globalization, native communities across the world are struggling to maintain their own unique languages and customs. And those living across Russia are no different. But efforts to prevent their various cultures from dying out are paying off. Thursday marks The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. It was established by the United Nations in 1994 as a celebration of some of the world's oldest traditions and cultures. Russia has more than 100 indigenous minorities which are trying to pass on their heritage to younger generations A standard definition of an indigenous person is one who naturally belongs to a particular region or land. This implies a close link between a person's cultural identity and his relationship with a particular area. Russia is a country replete with indigenous nationalities that are spread from the Caucasus to the Northern regions, to the country's Far East. Many of these peoples number no more than a few thousand. But most of these peoples have one and the same dilemma: maintaining their language and culture while trying to keep the ubiquitous technological age at arms length. ?The villages are dying out. Young people go away to study. Those who return here can't find a job,? said bitterly an old woman. Some of these communities, like those in the Sakhalin region, are at the mercy of energy companies whose encroachment on their land is often being carried out without their consent. The Teleut people in Southern Siberia have been pushed from their native land by giant factories, their language has been practically replaced by Russian and their population is decreasing. Other ethnic communities seem to have been able to find a way out. Rural tourism provides an indispensible mechanism of maintaining the ethnic consciousness of some of the minorities. It continues to be one of the main guarantors for the employment of the Vepsian people in the Northwestern Russian Republic of Karelia. All the indigenous peoples of Russia are devoting great attention to the teaching of their native languages. Some of these efforts are paying off: many students in various indigenous areas now anxious to learn more of their native tongue. With all the ups-and-downs the native peoples of Russia are currently facing, they continue to teach their languages, celebrate their traditional festivals, worship their deities, take care of their museums and maintain close links with their centuries-old cultural roots. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 9 18:08:58 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 11:08:58 -0700 Subject: Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO (fwd) Message-ID: Message from Mr Ko?chiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO http://portal.unesco.org/culture/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=34718&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1186682582&PHPSESSID=5d91ed3978fca68f1950d959f5720f45 On the occasion of the International Day of the World?s Indigenous People, 9 August 2007: "Indigenous knowledge systems represent an invaluable and irreplaceable resource and a critical component of sustainable development". The worldviews of most indigenous peoples, which recognize the inextricable links between culture and nature, clearly resonate with UNESCO?s efforts to protect and promote cultural as well as biological diversity. This is a matter of growing concern to many indigenous communities around the world and constitutes the essence of their recent call for "development with identity". The International Day of the World?s Indigenous People provides an excellent opportunity for the international community to reflect on indigenous peoples? perspectives and aspirations, especially on how they relate to the sustainable development of our planet. Safeguarding intangible heritage, particularly through the transmission of indigenous knowledge systems and cultural expressions, is inextricably linked to issues of land use, natural resource management and tangible heritage conservation. This has been recognized by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which devoted this year?s session in May to the theme of indigenous communities? rights to "lands, territories and natural resources" ? a contentious issue with far-reaching economic and social implications. The various activities spearheaded by UNESCO in areas of cultural landscapes, sacred sites, water, and participatory mapping of indigenous cultural resources reflect the Organization?s concern for this timely question. Moreover, to date, more than 55 "cultural landscapes" from some 35 countries are inscribed on UNESCO?s World Heritage List. However, UNESCO?s most unique contribution towards enhancing the worldwide visibility of indigenous issues lies in its standard-setting activity. The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted in 2001, specifically refers to the rights of indigenous peoples (Article 4), and the Declaration?s action plan calls for "respecting and protecting traditional knowledge, in particular that of indigenous peoples"; and "recognizing [its] contribution, particularly with regard to environmental protection and the management of natural resources, and fostering synergies between modern science and local knowledge". More (pdf) Publication Date 08 Aug 2007 Author(s) Ko?chiro Matsuura Website Director General's Website From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Thu Aug 9 22:25:24 2007 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 12:25:24 -1000 Subject: REMINDER: 2 position openings at the University of Hawaii (application deadline - September 15) Message-ID: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Second Language Studies Assistant or Associate Professors (2) The Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, seeks to fill two tenure-track vacancies, both full time 9-month positions, pending position availability and funding, to begin August 1, 2008. The Department offers a Master of Arts in Second Language Studies, and administers a PhD program in Second Language Acquisition and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Second Language Studies. A BA with an ESL specialization is available through the University's Interdisciplinary Program. Faculty have interests in a wide range of domains in second and foreign language research. For more information, visit our website: http://www.hawaii.edu/sls POSITION #82454. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Applicants should have major research interests and instructional competence in technology and language learning & teaching (e.g., computer-assisted language learning; computer-mediated communication; electronic and multimodal literacies; distance learning; emerging technologies; and language courseware design and evaluation). MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Doctorate in second language acquisition, applied linguistics or closely related field by August, 2008; demonstrated ability to carry out research; second or foreign language teaching experience; and evidence of excellent teaching ability at the university level. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: Publication in journals and books; teaching experience in a second language studies or equivalent graduate program; ability to win competitive research funding; interest in the Asia-Pacific region, including Asian and Pacific languages; and teacher education experience. POSITION #84105. ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Applicants should have major research expertise and instructional competence in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology as they relate to second language learning, processing, and instruction. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: For Assistant Professor, a doctorate in second language acquisition, applied linguistics or closely related field by August, 2008; demonstrated relevant research ability as evidenced by publications; and evidence of teaching excellence. For Associate Professor, in addition to these requirements, current appointment at that rank. DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: Evidence of research productivity commensurate with rank; prior teaching experience in a second language studies or equivalent graduate program; second or foreign language teaching experience; demonstrated ability to win competitive research funding; interest in the Asia-Pacific region, including Asian and Pacific languages. DUTIES FOR BOTH POSITIONS: Teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the area of specialization in the Department of Second Language Studies; conduct and publish research; participate fully in supporting activities for academic programs, departmental governance, and service to the University and community. ANNUAL 9-MONTH SALARY RANGE, BOTH POSITIONS: commensurate with experience E-MAIL INQUIRIES: Position #82454: Dr. Lourdes Ortega, Chair of Search Committee lortega at hawaii.edu Position #84105: Dr. Richard Schmidt, Chair of Search Committee schmidt.dick at gmail.com TO APPLY: Applicants should submit letter of application, curriculum vitae, list of courses taught, and sample publications. In addition, letters of reference should be submitted directly by three recommenders. All application materials should be sent by September 15, 2007 to: Richard R. Day, Chairman Department of Second Language Studies 570 Moore Hall 1890 East-West Road University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA CLOSING DATE FOR BOTH POSITIONS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2007. The University of Hawaii is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. ************************************************************************* N National Foreign Language Resource Center F University of Hawai'i L 1859 East-West Road, #106 R Honolulu HI 96822 C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 email: nflrc at hawaii.edu VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu ************************************************************************* From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Aug 10 13:10:19 2007 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:10:19 -0700 Subject: InField Institute on Field LInguistics and Language Documentation Message-ID: CALL FOR PROPOSALS *Workshops on Language Documentation, Maintenance, and Revitalization* to be held as part of InField: Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation University of California, Santa Barbara June 23rd ? July 3rd, 2008 The Organizing Committee of InField solicits applications for workshops in language documentation, language maintenance, and/or language revitalization to be held as part of the Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, June 23rd ? July 3rd, 2008. We particularly seek proposals from current practitioners in this area, who would like to teach a workshop of two to eight hours in length to an audience of practicing linguists, graduate students in linguistics, and/or language activists with an interest in documenting, maintaining, or revitalizing a language. For a full description of InField, including workshops currently being planned, visit the website at http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/infield. The proposal should include a statement of the topic of the proposed workshop, the rationale for including it as part of InField, the proposed length of the workshop, and a brief description of the workshop content and how it would be taught. Please keep proposals to a maximum of two-pages in length. Please include also a statement of qualifications of the instructor. Workshop instructors will receive reimbursement for travel, room and board, and a modest honorarium. Proposals should be submitted to *infield at linguistics.ucsb.edu*. *Deadline for proposals: September 15, 2007* -- ____________________________________________________________ Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Associate Director, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) Department of English (Primary) American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT) Department of Language,Reading and Culture Department of Linguistics The Southwest Center (Research) Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836 "Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities." Wade Davis...(on a Starbucks cup...) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Aug 11 18:36:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:36:30 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: Mohawk language program launched Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way to preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their mother tongue. The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, a $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software technology which will help to teach the language to children within the Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the software. "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is what makes us who we are today." Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has been lost over many generations. He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening to an audio recording. They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether or not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more information. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Aug 11 18:41:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:41:39 -0700 Subject: Tribes say No Child Left Behind leaves no room for culture (fwd) Message-ID: Tribes say No Child Left Behind leaves no room for culture By JOHN SENA | The New Mexican August 10, 2007 http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/66427.html# Native American officials make plea for change to Sen. Jeff Bingaman at hearing Native American officials and educators told U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., that the federal No Child Left Behind Act does not recognize native cultures and languages, and limits the ways schools can use them in their curriculums. Bingaman was in Santa Fe on Friday to conduct a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has jurisdiction over federal education law. The hearing was part of an effort to seek public input on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and specifically on how it affects Native American students. ?I?ve come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the act,? said James Mountain, governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo. Mountain said he?s heard from teachers in the Pojoaque school district, where many San Ildefonso pupils attend classes, that the act does not take into account cultural differences and has forced schools to focus strictly on English, leaving no room for native languages. ?Once we lose our language, we lose our culture,? Mountain said. Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance, Ariz., said her school is an example of what can happen when schools use native language as a tool. Pupils in grades K-2 there learn only in the Din? language and switch gradually to an English-language curriculum after that. The school has made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for the past three years, Benally said. ?Language and culture have a positive effect on student achievement,? she said. If lawmakers reauthorize the act, Benally said, they need to leave room for schools to incorporate language and culture. The government also should encourage and fund ways to make sure Indian schools have enough high-quality teachers, she said. State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said schools in isolated rural areas, where many tribal and pueblo schools are located, often have difficulty recruiting teachers. The government needs to support ways to encourage Native Americans to become teachers so they can return to teach in their tribes and pueblos, Garcia said. The law also disregards tribal sovereignty by forcing schools to adhere to state academic standards, said Samantha Pasena, a recent graduate of the Santa Fe Indian School. In addition to issues facing Native Americans, the panel also brought up the concern that under No Child Left Behind, special-education students are forced to take the same tests as regular students. ?A lot of specifics were brought up that I had never heard before,? Bingaman said after the hearing. He said would take concerns about maintaining culture in the face of the federal law back to Washington. No Child Left Behind requires testing of students in grades three to eight and at least one grade of high school. Proponents of changes to the law argue there should be different methods of assessment, including a growth model that follows the progress of individual students. Gov. Bill Richardson, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has said he will work to get rid of the law if he is elected. Supporters of the law say changes might weaken it and undermine the accountability it was intended to establish. Contact John Sena at 995-3812 or jsena at sfnewmexican.com. From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Sat Aug 11 19:08:34 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:08:34 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of indigenous language colors and numbers does preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or providing some supplemental assistance for children with indigenous language reinforcement. It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved as living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a medium for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social groups, such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous language again. Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to children extensively. I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native American, so English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his language extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I learning quite a bit of the language. Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native American and First Nations people. I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn a language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return home. We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all done *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. Painfully, Wayne ----- Wayne Leman Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > Mohawk language program launched > > Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder > Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 > http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= > > A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to > keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. > > The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way > to > preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their > mother tongue. > > The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, > a > $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from > the > Ontario Trillium Foundation. > > The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software > technology which will help to teach the language to children within the > Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will > also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the > software. > > "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, > executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is > what makes us who we are today." > > Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has > been > lost over many generations. > > He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. > > A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn > simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening > to an audio recording. > > They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the > word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether > or > not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it > will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. > > Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. > > The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more > information. > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: 8/10/2007 > 3:50 PM > > From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Sat Aug 11 19:25:29 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:25:29 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) Message-ID: >I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after >many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" >(traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of >indigenous language colors and numbers does Sorry, there should have been "not" after "does" > preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value > the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or providing some > supplemental assistance for children with indigenous language > reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved > as living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a > medium for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social > groups, such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous > language again. Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where > they are exposed to language the way any baby or toddler learns language, > by listening to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can > help if they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to > children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our > indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front > of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native > American, so English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his > language extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I > learning quite a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary > caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding > schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know > the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native > American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly > traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It > can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn > a language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total > immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work > today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation > language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents > and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return > home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us > preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside > money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has > to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including > commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all > done *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language From rzs at TDS.NET Sun Aug 12 01:38:19 2007 From: rzs at TDS.NET (Richard Smith) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:38:19 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched In-Reply-To: <008601c7dc4b$0c50ac60$8400a8c0@wlemandesktop> Message-ID: Kweh Wayne, Thanks for sharing...it gets a little stuffy academic here at times. Maybe linguists worry to much about using correct words! Well, I think you are right. Our native languages are not just words equivalent to words of dominant languages. There is a whole system of thinking that's learned only as the language is heard and comprehended during daily existence. Technology, as you hinted can preserve the bones of a language but its our mind that must change in order to approach any fluency. Computer programs will never have the capacity to replace the inherent expertise founded on thousands of years of indigenous thought patterns. A machine won't ever substitute that and shouldn't be programmed to try. However, sadly some of us are stuck with no surviving speakers, No elder to sit with on the porch to ask questions We are stuck depending upon "PHD expert-linguists" who are sometimes like ultra-qualified surgeons, who might be able to help us find a correct pronominal prefix but won't be able to sip lemonade on the porch with us or explain why grandfather avoided certain places, why we do certain ceremonies or why we say things the way we do. If fluency ever does return to my own Wyandot people (and i'm hoping some of my students will ignite that fire!) it will be a somewhat "different language" in that many "reasons" for things are lost.We can learn speeches,addresses, and prayers,songs, but we will never think as our ancestors once did. Once the last speaker of a language dies there is a break forever in a certain cord that binds us to our past I mentioned before I recently spoke to the last Quapaw speaker/elder and was amazed how little is done by the tribe to rebuild, strengthen and revitalize that frayed strand before its too late. I hope more and more grants will be made available to sponsor summer camps and youth immersion programs but it does seem many are excited about promoting the latest techno-gadgets.... Richard Wyandotte Oklahoma On 8/11/07 12:08 PM, "Wayne Leman" wrote: > I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. But after > many years of observation, I have concluded that the "traditional" > (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" education) teaching of > indigenous language colors and numbers does preserve a language > conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as I value the use of computers > for preserving language *data*, or providing some supplemental assistance > for children with indigenous language reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be preserved as > living languages for communication between individuals, that is, as a medium > for conversation and other kinds of communication, is for social groups, > such as family and clan units, to begin using the indigenous language again. > Children need to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to > language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening to it as > it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if they go toward > helping social units actually speak the language to children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to see our > indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language died in front of > eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, not a Native American, so > English was spoken in our home, but I heard him speak his language > extensively to his mother and siblings. And just from that I learning quite > a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their primary > caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put in boarding > schools where they are forced to speak a certain language. And we all know > the terrible things the boarding school language thing did to our Native > American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly traditional > ways of language teaching, which take place in the home. It can be > supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for children to learn a > language to be able to communicate in it in school, unless it is total > immersion, such as in a boarding school environment. Perhaps it would work > today if we had truly total immersion schools where the First Nation > language is the only language used in school by everyone, even if parents > and grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they return > home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to help us > preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If we need outside > money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But the actual teaching has > to be done by primary caregivers and it must be rich language, including > commands, questions, and everything else that we do with language. all done > *naturally*, as part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM > Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > > >> Mohawk language program launched >> >> Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder >> Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 >> http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=648 >> 925&catname=Local%20News&classif= >> >> A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a way to >> keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. >> >> The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a unique way >> to >> preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak their >> mother tongue. >> >> The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two grants, >> a >> $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant from >> the >> Ontario Trillium Foundation. >> >> The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software >> technology which will help to teach the language to children within the >> Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. It will >> also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the >> software. >> >> "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, >> executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. "It is >> what makes us who we are today." >> >> Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the language has >> been >> lost over many generations. >> >> He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in Mohawk. >> >> A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could learn >> simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by listening >> to an audio recording. >> >> They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to recite the >> word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see whether >> or >> not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding that it >> will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. >> >> Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning Centre. >> >> The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 for more >> information. >> >> >> >> -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >> Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: 8/10/2007 >> 3:50 PM >> >> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 13 06:15:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:15:40 -0700 Subject: Tongan language now in curriculum (fwd) Message-ID: Tongan language now in curriculum Monday, 13 August 2007, 11:17 am Press Release: New Zealand Government 13 August 2007 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00200.htm Ko e Lea Faka-Tonga 'i he Silapa Nu'usila Tongan language now in curriculum The inclusion of the Tongan language in the New Zealand Education Curriculum will help preserve and enhance the language for future generations, Associate Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said today. Speaking today at the launch of the curriculum at the University of Auckland, Laban said that while the 2006 Census showed there are around 50,000 people usually resident in New Zealand of Tongan ethnicity, there are less than 30,000 speakers of Tongan in New Zealand. "We want to see that number increase, and the number of all New Zealanders able to speak a foreign language ? particularly their native tongue ? increase," said Laban. The addition of Tongan to the curriculum is supported by the Labour-led government's 2006 budget announcement of a $4.5 million increase over four years for teaching Pasifika languages. "This is great news for our Pacific communities and something to be very proud of. "Losing a language is to lose diversity, culture and identity. Everyone suffers. Today we celebrate an important milestone that will help ensure Tongan will not be lost," said Laban. One research estimate suggests that nearly half of the world's 7000 languages will be extinct by the end of the century. Laban said it was not only important to preserve Tongan, but also important to preserve it in New Zealand. "New Zealand is a Pacific country. The Pacific is our home. Pacific culture and language are increasingly important in the way New Zealanders see themselves," said Laban. The inclusion of Tongan in the curriculum follows the recent launch of a new school curriculum for teaching Vagahau Niue, which joined the Samoan and Cook Island Maori language curricula. ENDS From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 14 05:48:56 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:48:56 -0700 Subject: Province tries to protect vanishing languages (fwd) Message-ID: Province tries to protect vanishing languages Aug, 13 2007 - 10:40 AM http://tinyurl.com/2hs5zg VANCOUVER - The provincial government has set up a two-million dollar fund to support first nations language initiatives in early childhood development programs. Children and Family Development Minister Tom Christensen announced the funding this morning in Victoria. He's hoping the money will ensure indigenous languages are not lost for generations to come. More than 60 per cent of canada's aboriginal languages are found in B-C and many are in danger of becoming extinct. - CKNW From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Aug 14 23:04:39 2007 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:04:39 -0700 Subject: Mohawk language program launched (fwd) In-Reply-To: <008601c7dc4b$0c50ac60$8400a8c0@wlemandesktop> Message-ID: I agree. Immersion is important but constrained in some ways. Not only has there been radical changes in the ability to speak ones heritage language(s) (fluency > language shift) but there has also been a radical shift in the forms of social interaction speakers have naturally engaged in. These changes have certainly impacted the way we talk to one another. So in some way or another we have lost some or all of our traditional or cultural oriented "ways of speaking" and have gained others or simply adapted to newer forms. One could fairly predict that those forms that do survive are to be found in more traditional contexts or in isolated speech communities. This is certainly the case for my own community. But this is not to claim that there exists a more purer or more natural form of talk rather I simply trying to point out that there are forms of speaking that are linked to a cultures perception of itself. Having the ability to engage in these forms of talk is just as valuable as learning the language itself. So herein lies part of the problem. Most communities adopt immersion as a principle but sometimes the actual practice may be antithetical to educational or institutional standards. That is, they are informal in orientation and less rigid, less componential. This is because the community style of learning is attempting to "immerse" itself in some aspect of the culture in addition to immersion in the language. An added factor in all of this is the "old school" language description and documentation tend to be grammar-centric and linguists have generated a mill of grammars and dictionaries all the while missing some of the more interesting and challenging cultural aspects of language and talk. Communities certainly value these grammars and dictionaries greatly as I do myself. We could not get along without them. However, I see some of this changing, at least for my own orientation as a linguist. I and others are greatly interested in our community's and others "ways of speaking" AND the grammar which produces it. I think endangered language communities are just as interested if not keenly more so. Just a few more thoughts today. Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) Phd Candidate in the Joint Program in Anthropology and Linguistics University of Arizona On Aug 11, 2007, at 12:08 PM, Wayne Leman wrote: > I wish this Mohawk program, and others like it, the best success. > But after many years of observation, I have concluded that the > "traditional" (traditional according to federal schools "whiteman" > education) teaching of indigenous language colors and numbers does > preserve a language conversationally. Nor do computers, as much as > I value the use of computers for preserving language *data*, or > providing some supplemental assistance for children with indigenous > language reinforcement. > > It seems to me that the *only* way indigenous languages can be > preserved as living languages for communication between > individuals, that is, as a medium for conversation and other kinds > of communication, is for social groups, such as family and clan > units, to begin using the indigenous language again. Children need > to be immersed in a rich environment where they are exposed to > language the way any baby or toddler learns language, by listening > to it as it is spoken and imitating it. Federal monies can help if > they go toward helping social units actually speak the language to > children extensively. > > I'm sorry if this comes across negatively. It pains me deeply to > see our indigeous languages dying. My father's indigenous language > died in front of eyes when I was a child. He married an Anglo lady, > not a Native American, so English was spoken in our home, but I > heard him speak his language extensively to his mother and > siblings. And just from that I learning quite a bit of the language. > > Children will learn languages if they are exposed to them by their > primary caregivers, OR if they are taken out of their homes and put > in boarding schools where they are forced to speak a certain > language. And we all know the terrible things the boarding school > language thing did to our Native American and First Nations people. > > I suggest that our First Nations people need to return to truly > traditional ways of language teaching, which take place in the > home. It can be supplemented in schools, but it is difficult for > children to learn a language to be able to communicate in it in > school, unless it is total immersion, such as in a boarding school > environment. Perhaps it would work today if we had truly total > immersion schools where the First Nation language is the only > language used in school by everyone, even if parents and > grandchildren speak English or French to the children when they > return home. > > We cannot depend on state, provincial, or federal governments to > help us preserve our languages. We have to do it for ourselves. If > we need outside money to help us do it ourselves, that's fine. But > the actual teaching has to be done by primary caregivers and it > must be rich language, including commands, questions, and > everything else that we do with language. all done *naturally*, as > part of language as life is lived each day. > > Painfully, > Wayne > ----- > Wayne Leman > Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" > > To: > Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:36 AM > Subject: [ILAT] Mohawk language program launched (fwd) > > >> Mohawk language program launched >> >> Elisabeth Johns / Standard-Freeholder >> Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 08:00 >> http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp? >> contentid=648925&catname=Local%20News&classif= >> >> A program to preserve the Mohawk language was launched Friday as a >> way to >> keep the traditional native form of communication in tact. >> >> The project, called, Let's Speak Mohawk Again, was lauded as a >> unique way to >> preserve Mohawk history and encourage current generations to speak >> their >> mother tongue. >> >> The Kanien'keha (Mohawk) Language Centre was opened thanks to two >> grants, a >> $100,000 grant from the Akwesasne Community Fund and $75,000 grant >> from the >> Ontario Trillium Foundation. >> >> The money is going towards purchasing new computers and new software >> technology which will help to teach the language to children >> within the >> Akwesasne Mohawk School Board and adults at the learning centre. >> It will >> also help to fund the staff and translators who will implement the >> software. >> >> "Our language is the very key to our survival," said Karen Mitchell, >> executive director of the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. >> "It is >> what makes us who we are today." >> >> Akwesasne Grand Chief Tim Thompson agreed, adding that the >> language has been >> lost over many generations. >> >> He even admitted many of his own family members aren't fluent in >> Mohawk. >> >> A demonstration of the technology showed beginner students could >> learn >> simple words, like colours and the names of different animals by >> listening >> to an audio recording. >> >> They then can see the how the word is pronounced and attempt to >> recite the >> word on their own. Their recitation is recorded and they can see >> whether or >> not they pronounced the word correctly, Mitchell explained, adding >> that it >> will be available for the Akwesasne school board this fall. >> >> Classes are also available through the Mohawk Language Learning >> Centre. >> >> The classes are $200 for six months. People can call 613-932-2923 >> for more >> information. >> >> >> >> -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >> Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: >> 8/10/2007 3:50 PM >> From hardman at UFL.EDU Tue Aug 14 23:12:02 2007 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (MJ Hardman) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:12:02 -0500 Subject: Jaqaru speaking community decide their own alphabet In-Reply-To: <24B54335-179C-4869-AC25-330FE0C9AC41@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: July 6, 2007 was a turning point for Tupe, for the whole town joined with the teachers and the authorities local and national to make a profound decision in favor of the preservation of the Jaqaru language. I was not present, but the event was videotaped and tape recorded and photographed. The attached are my personal appreciations of this important event together with the official document. Dr. MJ Hardman website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ A news story, in Spanish, from a national newspaper published in Lima can be found at http://www.laprimeraperu.com/edicionNota.php?IDnoticia=2000&EN=868 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: July 6, 2007 .pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 3010503 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:01:10 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:01:10 -0700 Subject: Indians criticize No Child Left Behind (fwd) Message-ID: Indians criticize No Child Left Behind Tribal College News by Associated Press Aug 13, 2007, 22:36 SANTA FE http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_9066.shtml The No Child Left Behind law fails to recognize native cultures and languages, American Indian officials and educators told a U.S. Senate committee. The law also restricts the ways schools can use native cultures and languages in their curriculums, the committee was told Friday. "I've come across nothing that would enable me to be a proponent of the act," said San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. James Mountain. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the hearing to seek public input on renewal of the law and how it affects American Indian students. The law requires annual math and reading tests in grades three through eight and once in high school. Schools that miss progress goals face consequences, such as having to offer tutoring or fire their principals. Mountain said he has heard from teachers in the Pojoaque school district that the act does not take into account cultural differences and has forced schools to focus on English, leaving no room for native languages. "Once we lose our language, we lose our culture," Mountain said. Maggie Benally, principal of the Navajo Immersion School in Fort Defiance, Ariz., said her school is an example of what can happen when schools use native language as a tool. Students in grades K-2 there learn only in the Navajo language and gradually switch to an English-language curriculum after that. The school has made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for the past three years, Benally said. "Language and culture have a positive effect on student achievement," she said. If lawmakers reauthorize the act, they need to leave room for schools to incorporate language and culture, Benally said. The government also should encourage and fund ways to ensure American Indian schools have enough high-quality teachers, she said. State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said schools in isolated rural areas, where many tribal and pueblo schools are located, often have difficulty recruiting teachers. The government needs to support ways to encourage American Indians to become teachers so they can return to teach in their tribes and pueblos, Garcia said. The law also disregards tribal sovereignty by forcing schools to adhere to state academic standards, said Samantha Pasena, a recent graduate of the Santa Fe Indian School. The legislation is a priority for President Bush, who pushed for its initial passage in 2001. The law has been widely scorned by teachers who argue it does not provide schools the money needed to meet federal standards. A majority of Americans want the law to be renewed as it is or with minor changes, according to a poll released July 30 by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com - Associated Press ? Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:03:35 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:03:35 -0700 Subject: No Child Left Behind Act: Impacts on Indian Country (fwd link) Message-ID: No Child Left Behind Act: Impacts on Indian Country Byline/Source: NIEA Tuesday, 14 August 2007 Field Hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the Impacts of the No Child Left Behind Act in Indian Country at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico on August 10, 2007 http://www.tanasijournal.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468&Itemid=1&ed=62 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 15 19:21:41 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:21:41 -0700 Subject: Desert sweep (fwd) Message-ID: Desert sweep Nicolas Rothwell | August 11, 2007 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22223488-28737,00.html?from=public_rss ABORIGINES across the Northern Territory can feel it like a hot, fierce wind from the southeast, blowing through their communities and pulverising the old established order and its familiar routines. sweep [photo inset - One of the most significant changes advocated by the reforms is a strong police presence in the Northern Territory. Picture: Renee Nowytarger] The 500-page NT National Emergency Response legislation - passed by the House of Representatives in Canberra on Tuesday, examined by a high-speed Senate inquiry yesterday and due to become law early next week - aims at nothing less than the refashioning of indigenous northern Australia. Constraint and education, health checks and modernisation, surveillance and opportunity: it holds out the prospect of all these things. It begins from one key, all-justifying assumption: the federal Government sees a social breakdown in the bush so deep that the life and wellbeing of young indigenous children are at risk. The plan comes with a large price tag. Its implementation will cost more than $500 million in its first year, a sum that equates to $8 million in additional funding for each of the 73 main target communities. These new laws, which give Canberra wide control over remote Aboriginal lands and confer a heavy responsibility on the nation, rescind a range of basic rights granted to indigenous bush communities only a generation ago, or restrict those rights drastically, to guarantee a future of promise. The legislation is unapologetic about this and quite clear about the reasons: "In the case of indigenous people in the NT, there are significant social and economic barriers to the enjoyment of their rights to health, development, education, property, social security and culture. The emergency measures are part of the action to improve the ability of indigenous peoples to enjoy these rights and freedoms." But few observers have yet grasped just how coercive the new regime will be and how much it will change life in the remote world. Family heads who repeatedly fail to send their children to school will not only have the cash part of their welfare or community work payments cut back; the remainder will be supplied in vouchers that can be spent in the local community store only, essentially producing a kind of movement control. Until now, bush Aborigines could collect their payments in town. With that system drastically changed, a lifestyle of subsidised nomadism will be much more difficult to sustain. The Community Development Employment Program that provided most of the wages in remote settlements and served as the low-grade fuel of their economies is being scrapped across the NT. In its place comes training and work for the dole. The same principles will apply to the new labour programs as in mainstream society. If remote community members regularly fail to discharge their appointed tasks, they will be held to be in breach and lose their work slots, and money, for several weeks. This is a big change from the CDEP system, which had an opt-in, opt-out flavour: people often worked only when convenient. Remote community members also will need to prove they are job-seekers, in training or looking for employment through their registered local work provider, or they will lose their weekly payments: a sharp departure from the days of unconditional money and yet another mechanism for keeping people close to their communities. Power in remote Aboriginal societies comes from organisations and their funds. Almost unnoticed until now, the new laws have changed this power game, giving Canberra full override. Federal Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough gains complete control over NT indigenous community governance. He can suspend and take over Aboriginal local councils and any of their associations, including art or resource centres, and transfer their assets to the new local government shires being designed. An axe thus hangs over any bush indigenous grouping that fails to perform. This all adds up to a new regime with bite. It spells the end to the hazy days of many remote communities, of all-day television watching and card playing, watched over by a clutch of harassed mainstream advisers. It is intervention that brooks no appeal and is designed to change behaviour fast. "In a crisis such as this," declares the commonwealth's background memo, "the measures are necessary to ensure that there is real improvement before it is too late for many of the children. The bill will provide the foundation for rebuilding social and economic structures, and give meaningful content to indigenous rights and freedoms." So runs the extraordinary argument behind this policy revolution. Not since wartime has language of this kind been presented to federal parliament, and the index of the crisis lies in federal Labor's broad acceptance of these startling measures. Yet the emergency response, for all its high seriousness and deep pockets, faces an uncertain evolution as it moves from blueprint to reality in the field. There are two fundamental challenges ahead of its architects and the teams of experts charged with making a difference on the ground. The first, and most perplexing, is the sheer resistance of remote Aboriginal societies to improvements mandated and delivered from outside. Many of the observers of this other Australia have come to the conclusion that its problems lie much deeper than economics and education, and relate more to loss of hope and purpose, to an almost subterranean ailment of the spirit that besets many small cultures overwhelmed by the outside world; an affliction that may require as much care and compassion as administrative guidance and financial transfusion. The second, more immediate, challenge is political: the commonwealth's intervention has a degree of soft popular support but is opposed, in part or whole, on practical and moral grounds by a range of interest groups, including Labor politicians of radical stripe, the NT Labor Government, the established Aboriginal intelligentsia and organisational leadership, a variety of academic experts in indigenous affairs and legal voices. These voices were raised high in yesterday's emotive Senate inquiry hearings. Some of them warn of cultural genocide, while some bitterly condemn the lack of consultation with the affected communities. Some argue that the limited lifting of the access permit system for the larger communities, a change designed to promote economic and social connection with the outside world, will in fact gravely harm their interests and erode their cultural timbre. Much of this criticism is a form of mourning for an old paradigm that is now dismantled: the model that advanced the three-fold agenda of land rights, self-determination and reconciliation. But the reaction has been intense for, like all the most profound reform projects embarked on by the Prime Minister, the intervention has a strong ideological component. The Aborigines occupy a hallowed symbolic role in the pantheon of the intelligentsia and the cultural establishment. This social class has a deep influence over national opinion and much of its membership is inclined by instinct to oppose the Coalition Government and to resist measures that infringe on indigenous rights. Neither John Howard nor his various Aboriginal affairs ministers have prepared the case for indigenous reforms during the past decade. That task has been left to one man: Cape York leader Noel Pearson who, step by step, has argued his way towards a new understanding of the plight of remote Aboriginal societies, finding few supportive echoes beyond the editorial columns of this newspaper. It is the Pearson analysis that stands, like a shaping shadow, behind the chief measures in the new legislation. One of his core arguments is that alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling should be viewed as illnesses, subject to treatment, rather than just afflictions caused by indigenous social deprivation. He also contends that passive welfare rots away post-traditional societies. On to these Pearsonian ideas another current of thought has been patched: the view that collective land tenure stunts economic activity and that private leases are essential to bringing security, growth and commerce to bush economies. This view, developed by Aboriginal affairs veteran Neil Westbury when he ran the NT's office of indigenous policy, lies behind the federal Government's backing for the introduction of 99-year leases on Aboriginal land in the NT. Westbury, significantly, is also the chief proponent, together with another former senior NT public servant, Mike Dillon, of the argument that Aboriginal Australia is a failed state within the nation: a view that almost invites the emergency-response model developed by Australia in Solomon Islands. This, then, is a theory-driven legislative package, and its creators and proponents will be looking for swift signs of success to back up their prescriptions for remote Australia. The deeper problems confronting the indigenous world, though, may take decades to address. Housing shortages can be remedied with money, which is beginning to flow, but the behavioural problems that doom houses to short lifespans are more difficult. Educational failure and illiteracy can be stemmed by systematic improvements in the quality and permanence of teaching staff, and by the availability of boarding school places or dedicated regional colleges, but the two generations of ill-educated, quasi-illiterate bush Aborigines now in their maturity present a more disquieting problem. Healthcare and nutrition for the young children who are the chief focus of the intervention can be quickly boosted, but what of the middle-aged desert and Top End Aborigines whose kidneys are failing and who will need lifelong dialysis? Alcohol and drugs can be banned in communities, and their smuggling by grog-runners more thoroughly policed, but who will stop the drift of bush drinkers into towns, where they are already prone to congregate, or fill the void in their lives that drink and drugs once occupied? The blanket alcohol prohibition and the quarantining of welfare payments, two of the most urgent measures in the Brough plan, are at best a stop-gap solution rather than a step towards a cure. If the emergency response does succeed in creating calm and order in bush communities, it is clear - though not yet conceded by the Prime Minister - that a further, generational commitment to educating and developing indigenous remote Australia will be needed. And in this natural progression, the Howard Government's thinking, and multi-billion-dollar spending package, inevitably converges on the most expansive blueprint for Aboriginal progress advanced by the idealistic Left. It is also clear that a transition time lies ahead. As soon as next week, the new regime will be imposed on some central Australian communities. Hard choices loom: Brough made it plain late in the week that the continuation of full-scale funding for the NT's remotest outposts, many of them mere shells in the deep bush, was not guaranteed. This warning came on the same day as the leak of a report from his department suggesting remote outstations may be economically viable. The divergence of views illustrates how much depends on the framing of initial assumptions. The truth is that a particular vision of remote Aboriginal society is under threat. Until now, development experts and anthropologists have favoured the idea of far-flung outstations or homelands, sometimes occupied by only a single family group, and developing a "cultural economy" based on pillars such as art, ranger patrols and land care. But the federal intervention will concentrate services in regional core communities. These will be offered 99-year leases and will become, so the plan goes, economic and educational centres. If there are 70-odd communities in the NT today, that number will shrink, perhaps to as few as 50, while bureaucratic streamlining will follow the establishment of the new, shire-based local government system. The soft, introductory phase of the emergency response is over. Already, the new government business managers, all drawn from the senior ranks of the public service, have been appointed to the communities they will run. An atmosphere of cautious, expectant waiting fills some of these small societies. Among older women of the central desert, in particular, there is a palpable hope that the new measures will have positive effects and reduce the crushing poverty. In the NT's political domain, though, the perfunctory support of the Darwin Government for the emergency response has been continually undermined by the furious criticisms levelled by ministers against key parts of the program. Meanwhile, regional Aboriginal spokesmen, ranging from veteran Yolngu leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu to Central Land Council director David Ross, have condemned the sweep and effects of the plan. Such attacks, of course, form part of the environment in which the commonwealth reforms will unfold and help to cue the popular reaction. But Brough is not courting love or popularity with his scheme, and a degree of sharpness seems built in with his measures of constraint and control. The first striking signs that some Aboriginal communities see the logic behind the broader lines of the Brough philosophy and its aim to set up long-term futures for the bush, even at a high cost, began to emerge this week. The tiny, well-managed Anindilyakwa Land Council, on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, announced on Monday the completion, after a year's talks, of a regional partnership agreement with the federal Government: a landmark deal that, in return for the grant of 99-year leases to three communities, secures Groote a tightly targeted $20million first package of extra federal investment, designed to craft a viable remote economy, with substantial further funding to be agreed later. By no great coincidence, the conceptual architect of the 99-year leasing scheme is Westbury, an adviser to the Anindilyakwa, an Aboriginal group of impeccably traditional slant. Transformation, rather than continuity. Constraint, rather than license. Imposition, rather than consultation. Obligations, rather than rights. Such is the novel language of Aboriginal north Australia. These are new tones for the remote world and for the whole nation: the future of a distinct domain hangs in the balance. From jordanlachler at GMAIL.COM Wed Aug 15 20:10:50 2007 From: jordanlachler at GMAIL.COM (Jordan Lachler) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:10:50 -0800 Subject: Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Message-ID: Sunday, August 12, 2007 (SF Chronicle) Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Jen Ross, Chronicle Foreign Service (08-12) 04:00 PDT Santiago, Chile -- While most 16-year-old boys are busy playing video games or worrying about girls, Joubert Yanten spends most of his spare time reading dictionaries and singing tribal songs. In the heart of Chile's bustling capital, this teen finds a place to meditate amid the plants on the patio of his family's modest home. He hums to himself, in the high-pitched tone of a pubescent boy. Minutes later, his voice deepens, and he seems to enter a sort of trance. Guttural sounds escape his mouth, as he pronounces the inflections of this native tongue with obvious ease. Yanten is speaking Selk'nam, the language of an extinct aboriginal group that lived in the Tierra del Fuego islands off southern Chile and Argentina. They were among the last native communities in South America to be settled, in the late 19th century. When the Spaniards arrived in Chile, 11 languages were in widespread use: Quechua, Aymara, Rapanui, Chango, Kunza, Diaguita, Mapudungun, Chono, Kawesqar, Yagan and Selk'nam. Today, only the first three remain. Experts now consider Yanten to be the only living speaker of a language that died with the last ethnic Selk'nam in the 1970s. His obsession began at age 8, when he wrote an elementary school project on Chile's native groups. "It frustrated me that no one really saw the magnitude of the extinction of an entire race in the south," he said. "Now you'll only find a couple of indigenous faces; it's really sad." But learning a language when there is no one to speak it with is no small task. Yanten used dictionaries and audiocassettes of interviews and shamanic chants, recorded by Jesuit missionaries. The teen leafs through the photocopied pages of a Selk'nam dictionary he borrowed from the library, which includes special sections on grammar and sentence structure. He explains that Selk'nam differs from Spanish in that the object comes at the beginning of a sentence, followed by the subject and the verb. He then pulls out a worn CD and plops it into his player. The low-pitched chant of a medicine woman fills the room, while Yanten sings along in perfect harmony. Experts say there are precedents for reviving extinct languages, and the use of songs is key to the process of learning pitch and intonation. "Through recordings, people can understand the mechanics and grammar of a language," said Arturo Hernandez, a language professor with the Catholic University of Temuco, in southern Chile. "Listeners can imitate sounds and learn to speak in a less technical way, just like someone who learns a language using a CD or DVD. ... What's surprising in this case is that this is not a professional, but a boy who began learning at the age of 8." In an age when more than half of the world's 6,000 languages are nearing extinction, Hernandez says Yanten's quest to revive Selk'nam won't be easy, but could make waves with the right media coverage. A straight-A student, Yanten is something of a child prodigy. Besides Selk'nam and Spanish, he also speaks fluent Mapudungun - the language of Chile's largest indigenous group - the Mapuche. He considers himself only semi-versed in the native languages of Onikenk, Haush, Kawesqar, and Quechua - not to mention English. He's also learning Yagan - a nearly extinct language from Chile's far south. He's been learning from its last living speaker, Christina Calderon, for three years, on the phone and by Internet messages. She has sent him recordings of songs and tribal stories. Yanten has also traveled to visit her in remote Tierra del Fuego, most recently on a trip financed by a Chilean television station. But Yanten's love affair with language doesn't end with words; he is also composing songs in Selk'nam. In an effort to popularize traditional native music, he is fusing it with modern electronic beats, and working on a demo CD with friends. "Music uses language to connect people in a communication community," said Rodrigo Torres, an ethno-musicologist from the Universidad de Chile. "Music has the power to penetrate where logic and reason don't, creating a type of emotional connection, which is very positive." Yanten's mother, Ivonne Gomez, a housewife, believes there may be a mystical element to his exceptional linguistic abilities. "I've always believed that the spirits of his ancestors are with him," she said. "He goes through many changes of voice and of mental state." Her great-grandfather was Selk'nam, something she hid from her son when he was younger. "I never wanted to say anything because when I was in school, kids used to tease me and call me 'Indian,' " she explained. "That made me sad, so I said to myself, 'Why should I tell that to my son?' " But by the time Yanten was 12, his linguistic abilities were confirmed by a university professor. So his mother told him about his ancestry, and started recording his singing and encouraging him to perform. He now gives performances every two or three months at universities and museums in Santiago. Yanten has recorded two CDs of Selk'nam music, using his own savings from part-time work at a grocery store. His father is an artisan, and his lower-middle-class family had to take out loans to finance his unusual passion. Yanten applied for cultural grants from the government, but was rejected because he's younger than the minimum age of 18. So Yanten has teamed up with a cultural group called Fuego Ancestral (Ancestral Fire), which promotes the culture of Tierra del Fuego indigenous, through documentaries, musical presentations, talks, and workshops on traditional medicine. "People can identify with the spirituality of indigenous cultures, and their knowledge, culture and language are all an important part of connecting ourselves with nature and with our past," said Oscar Galleguillos, director of Fuego Ancestral. "And I don't think you have to be of native ancestry. We're all members of a tribe. There's the French tribe. The North American tribe. The Chilean." Yet lack of financial support has frustrated Yanten and those who work to preserve Chile's indigenous heritage. "It's unfortunate that in our country, culture gets no support," said Juan Carlos Avilez, an anthropologist from the rural town of Curacavi, who recently came to see Yanten perform at a Santiago museum. "Not only should the state be helping this special boy, but a university should study and work with him." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Aug 16 05:21:17 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:21:17 -0400 Subject: Young Chilean keeps nearly extinct languages alive Message-ID: I first heard the audio version of this online a couple of weeks ago, and wrote to the student's mentor at Temuco. Never heard back, but then its winter down there. Just tried again, now that this has hit the electronic shores. Hopefully something will happen. One linguist familiar with the situation suggested forgetting about it, that it was probably some sort of hoax. Better safe than sorry, though. Right now linguists aren't too popular with the powers that be in Ukika. People who should know better have decided they DO know better, unfortunately. I have all sorts of materials that would be useful. Just have to make that connection. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 16 08:02:44 2007 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:02:44 -0700 Subject: Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Wayne is right in stating that the *only* way for a community to keep its language alive is to ensure that children learn the language from elders when they are still young enough to absorb the language naturally. Because those who have gone through standard Euro-american schooling have a model and image of how a "foreign" language should be taught (which almost never works in the first place), they tend to assume that this is how the native language should be taught -- i.e., formally, following a curriculum, memorizing words or expressions, etc. For numerous reasons, this approach is doomed to failure as a way of perpetuating the living language, just as it fails to succeed as a way of developing fluency in foreign languages in school. The optimum age for language learning is before the age of formal schooling, but the built-in biological ability to acquire language naturally begins to decline rapidly as puberty approaches. We know from the experience of the Navajo and Cherokee code-talkers that native languages can be adapted to the most modern of cultural contexts. It is only a matter if speakers choose to do this, or replace their use of native linguistic resources with the dominant national language. By replacing native resources, I am referring to the grammatical structure, not lexical items. All languages, English included, become enriched through incorporation of vocabulary from other sources for referring to novel elements of experience. It is not necessary, in order to maintain the integrity of a language, to invent native terms for every new thing. An instructive example comes from Korean -- one day I asked some of my Korean students how to say in Korean, "I want a pen". They laughed, and said, "I want a [in Korean]" "pen [in English]". When I protested, and asked what they would call a pen in Korean, they laughed again and said, "We would say 'pen'". But the grammatical frame for the use of the word remains entirely in Korean. Aymara and Quechua are examples of native languages which have incorporated numerous Spanish lexemes as verb and noun bases, while retaining the complex and subtle grammatical structure and semantic system, so that it is possible to talk or write about even the most current technological and political developments in the native language. Being able to talk about the complexities of modern life emphatically does not mean having to give up the native language. Unfortunately the issue is too often framed in this way as a choice, putting the language in a museum mode as being of value only for expressing traditional cultural matters but otherwise of no use. Community psychology must change to embrace the use of the language for all aspects of life, adopting terms and adapting usage as needed to maintain relevance. And language learning must begin in the home and family in the natural way. Any other way is the way to language death. Rudy Troike From maiaponsonnet at HOTMAIL.COM Thu Aug 16 10:18:55 2007 From: maiaponsonnet at HOTMAIL.COM (Ponsonnet Maia) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:18:55 +0000 Subject: Desert sweep (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070815122141.wz7gug4ks8080oks@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Thank you very much for this article. I work with Aboriginal communities of Northern Australia myself, and I am really glad that this piece of news is eventually coming up on this list. May I emphasize an aspect of the Australian government emergency plan that is not that clear in the article from the Australian? The plan is many fold and most of its points can plausibly impact the welfare of NT Aboriginal community members, children in particular. But the land rights aspect of the plan, consisting in scrapping the permit system and taking hold of some territories that were previously the property of indigenous inhabitants for 5 years, is more pernicious. The government has never explained the link between scrapping the permit system and the welfare of children. To all those who know the context, this scrapping can only make things worse. And there are many reasons to think that the 5 year confiscation of territories is part of a more general agenda targeting to scrap indigenous Land Right more generally. The underlying motivations for this agenda are economical, ideological, political, etc. So yes, the law, that the government wants passed today despite vigorous protests, is the beginning of a new era, for better and worse. But, if nothing comes to stop the current government, today may also be remembered as the day when the indigenous people of Northern Australia will enter the process of loosing the legal Land Rights they have gained 30 years ago. That is, they are loosing their own land; and this could kill many of them. With many thanks for reading this. Ma?a Ponsonnet >From: phil cash cash >Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology >To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU >Subject: [ILAT] Desert sweep (fwd) >Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:21:41 -0700 > >Desert sweep > >Nicolas Rothwell | August 11, 2007 >http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22223488-28737,00.html?from=public_rss > >ABORIGINES across the Northern Territory can feel it like a hot, fierce >wind >from the southeast, blowing through their communities and pulverising the >old established order and its familiar routines. >sweep > >[photo inset - One of the most significant changes advocated by the reforms >is a strong police presence in the Northern Territory. Picture: Renee >Nowytarger] > >The 500-page NT National Emergency Response legislation - passed by the >House of Representatives in Canberra on Tuesday, examined by a high-speed >Senate inquiry yesterday and due to become law early next week - aims at >nothing less than the refashioning of indigenous northern Australia. > >Constraint and education, health checks and modernisation, surveillance and >opportunity: it holds out the prospect of all these things. It begins from >one key, all-justifying assumption: the federal Government sees a social >breakdown in the bush so deep that the life and wellbeing of young >indigenous children are at risk. > >The plan comes with a large price tag. Its implementation will cost more >than $500 million in its first year, a sum that equates to $8 million in >additional funding for each of the 73 main target communities. > >These new laws, which give Canberra wide control over remote Aboriginal >lands and confer a heavy responsibility on the nation, rescind a range of >basic rights granted to indigenous bush communities only a generation ago, >or restrict those rights drastically, to guarantee a future of promise. > >The legislation is unapologetic about this and quite clear about the >reasons: "In the case of indigenous people in the NT, there are significant >social and economic barriers to the enjoyment of their rights to health, >development, education, property, social security and culture. The >emergency measures are part of the action to improve the ability of >indigenous peoples to enjoy these rights and freedoms." > >But few observers have yet grasped just how coercive the new regime will be >and how much it will change life in the remote world. > >Family heads who repeatedly fail to send their children to school will not >only have the cash part of their welfare or community work payments cut >back; the remainder will be supplied in vouchers that can be spent in the >local community store only, essentially producing a kind of movement >control. Until now, bush Aborigines could collect their payments in town. >With that system drastically changed, a lifestyle of subsidised nomadism >will be much more difficult to sustain. > >The Community Development Employment Program that provided most of the >wages >in remote settlements and served as the low-grade fuel of their economies >is >being scrapped across the NT. In its place comes training and work for the >dole. The same principles will apply to the new labour programs as in >mainstream society. If remote community members regularly fail to discharge >their appointed tasks, they will be held to be in breach and lose their >work >slots, and money, for several weeks. This is a big change from the CDEP >system, which had an opt-in, opt-out flavour: people often worked only when >convenient. > >Remote community members also will need to prove they are job-seekers, in >training or looking for employment through their registered local work >provider, or they will lose their weekly payments: a sharp departure from >the days of unconditional money and yet another mechanism for keeping >people close to their communities. > >Power in remote Aboriginal societies comes from organisations and their >funds. Almost unnoticed until now, the new laws have changed this power >game, giving Canberra full override. > >Federal Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal >Brough gains complete control over NT indigenous community governance. He >can suspend and take over Aboriginal local councils and any of their >associations, including art or resource centres, and transfer their assets >to the new local government shires being designed. An axe thus hangs over >any bush indigenous grouping that fails to perform. > >This all adds up to a new regime with bite. It spells the end to the hazy >days of many remote communities, of all-day television watching and card >playing, watched over by a clutch of harassed mainstream advisers. It is >intervention that brooks no appeal and is designed to change behaviour >fast. > >"In a crisis such as this," declares the commonwealth's background memo, >"the measures are necessary to ensure that there is real improvement before >it is too late for many of the children. The bill will provide the >foundation for rebuilding social and economic structures, and give >meaningful content to indigenous rights and freedoms." > >So runs the extraordinary argument behind this policy revolution. Not since >wartime has language of this kind been presented to federal parliament, and >the index of the crisis lies in federal Labor's broad acceptance of these >startling measures. > >Yet the emergency response, for all its high seriousness and deep pockets, >faces an uncertain evolution as it moves from blueprint to reality in the >field. There are two fundamental challenges ahead of its architects and the >teams of experts charged with making a difference on the ground. > >The first, and most perplexing, is the sheer resistance of remote >Aboriginal >societies to improvements mandated and delivered from outside. > >Many of the observers of this other Australia have come to the conclusion >that its problems lie much deeper than economics and education, and relate >more to loss of hope and purpose, to an almost subterranean ailment of the >spirit that besets many small cultures overwhelmed by the outside world; an >affliction that may require as much care and compassion as administrative >guidance and financial transfusion. > >The second, more immediate, challenge is political: the commonwealth's >intervention has a degree of soft popular support but is opposed, in part >or whole, on practical and moral grounds by a range of interest groups, >including Labor politicians of radical stripe, the NT Labor Government, the >established Aboriginal intelligentsia and organisational leadership, a >variety of academic experts in indigenous affairs and legal voices. > >These voices were raised high in yesterday's emotive Senate inquiry >hearings. Some of them warn of cultural genocide, while some bitterly >condemn the lack of consultation with the affected communities. Some argue >that the limited lifting of the access permit system for the larger >communities, a change designed to promote economic and social connection >with the outside world, will in fact gravely harm their interests and erode >their cultural timbre. > >Much of this criticism is a form of mourning for an old paradigm that is >now >dismantled: the model that advanced the three-fold agenda of land rights, >self-determination and reconciliation. > >But the reaction has been intense for, like all the most profound reform >projects embarked on by the Prime Minister, the intervention has a strong >ideological component. The Aborigines occupy a hallowed symbolic role in >the pantheon of the intelligentsia and the cultural establishment. This >social class has a deep influence over national opinion and much of its >membership is inclined by instinct to oppose the Coalition Government and >to resist measures that infringe on indigenous rights. > >Neither John Howard nor his various Aboriginal affairs ministers have >prepared the case for indigenous reforms during the past decade. > >That task has been left to one man: Cape York leader Noel Pearson who, step >by step, has argued his way towards a new understanding of the plight of >remote Aboriginal societies, finding few supportive echoes beyond the >editorial columns of this newspaper. > >It is the Pearson analysis that stands, like a shaping shadow, behind the >chief measures in the new legislation. One of his core arguments is that >alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling should be viewed as illnesses, subject >to treatment, rather than just afflictions caused by indigenous social >deprivation. > >He also contends that passive welfare rots away post-traditional societies. >On to these Pearsonian ideas another current of thought has been patched: >the view that collective land tenure stunts economic activity and that >private leases are essential to bringing security, growth and commerce to >bush economies. > >This view, developed by Aboriginal affairs veteran Neil Westbury when he >ran >the NT's office of indigenous policy, lies behind the federal Government's >backing for the introduction of 99-year leases on Aboriginal land in the >NT. > >Westbury, significantly, is also the chief proponent, together with another >former senior NT public servant, Mike Dillon, of the argument that >Aboriginal Australia is a failed state within the nation: a view that >almost invites the emergency-response model developed by Australia in >Solomon Islands. > >This, then, is a theory-driven legislative package, and its creators and >proponents will be looking for swift signs of success to back up their >prescriptions for remote Australia. The deeper problems confronting the >indigenous world, though, may take decades to address. > >Housing shortages can be remedied with money, which is beginning to flow, >but the behavioural problems that doom houses to short lifespans are more >difficult. Educational failure and illiteracy can be stemmed by systematic >improvements in the quality and permanence of teaching staff, and by the >availability of boarding school places or dedicated regional colleges, but >the two generations of ill-educated, quasi-illiterate bush Aborigines now >in their maturity present a more disquieting problem. > >Healthcare and nutrition for the young children who are the chief focus of >the intervention can be quickly boosted, but what of the middle-aged desert >and Top End Aborigines whose kidneys are failing and who will need lifelong >dialysis? > >Alcohol and drugs can be banned in communities, and their smuggling by >grog-runners more thoroughly policed, but who will stop the drift of bush >drinkers into towns, where they are already prone to congregate, or fill >the void in their lives that drink and drugs once occupied? The blanket >alcohol prohibition and the quarantining of welfare payments, two of the >most urgent measures in the Brough plan, are at best a stop-gap solution >rather than a step towards a cure. > >If the emergency response does succeed in creating calm and order in bush >communities, it is clear - though not yet conceded by the Prime Minister - >that a further, generational commitment to educating and developing >indigenous remote Australia will be needed. > >And in this natural progression, the Howard Government's thinking, and >multi-billion-dollar spending package, inevitably converges on the most >expansive blueprint for Aboriginal progress advanced by the idealistic >Left. > >It is also clear that a transition time lies ahead. As soon as next week, >the new regime will be imposed on some central Australian communities. > >Hard choices loom: Brough made it plain late in the week that the >continuation of full-scale funding for the NT's remotest outposts, many of >them mere shells in the deep bush, was not guaranteed. > >This warning came on the same day as the leak of a report from his >department suggesting remote outstations may be economically viable. The >divergence of views illustrates how much depends on the framing of initial >assumptions. > >The truth is that a particular vision of remote Aboriginal society is under >threat. Until now, development experts and anthropologists have favoured >the idea of far-flung outstations or homelands, sometimes occupied by only >a single family group, and developing a "cultural economy" based on pillars >such as art, ranger patrols and land care. > >But the federal intervention will concentrate services in regional core >communities. These will be offered 99-year leases and will become, so the >plan goes, economic and educational centres. > >If there are 70-odd communities in the NT today, that number will shrink, >perhaps to as few as 50, while bureaucratic streamlining will follow the >establishment of the new, shire-based local government system. > >The soft, introductory phase of the emergency response is over. Already, >the >new government business managers, all drawn from the senior ranks of the >public service, have been appointed to the communities they will run. > >An atmosphere of cautious, expectant waiting fills some of these small >societies. Among older women of the central desert, in particular, there is >a palpable hope that the new measures will have positive effects and reduce >the crushing poverty. > >In the NT's political domain, though, the perfunctory support of the Darwin >Government for the emergency response has been continually undermined by >the furious criticisms levelled by ministers against key parts of the >program. > >Meanwhile, regional Aboriginal spokesmen, ranging from veteran Yolngu >leader >Galarrwuy Yunupingu to Central Land Council director David Ross, have >condemned the sweep and effects of the plan. > >Such attacks, of course, form part of the environment in which the >commonwealth reforms will unfold and help to cue the popular reaction. > >But Brough is not courting love or popularity with his scheme, and a degree >of sharpness seems built in with his measures of constraint and control. >The first striking signs that some Aboriginal communities see the logic >behind the broader lines of the Brough philosophy and its aim to set up >long-term futures for the bush, even at a high cost, began to emerge this >week. > >The tiny, well-managed Anindilyakwa Land Council, on Groote Eylandt in the >Gulf of Carpentaria, announced on Monday the completion, after a year's >talks, of a regional partnership agreement with the federal Government: a >landmark deal that, in return for the grant of 99-year leases to three >communities, secures Groote a tightly targeted $20million first package of >extra federal investment, designed to craft a viable remote economy, with >substantial further funding to be agreed later. By no great coincidence, >the conceptual architect of the 99-year leasing scheme is Westbury, an >adviser to the Anindilyakwa, an Aboriginal group of impeccably traditional >slant. > >Transformation, rather than continuity. Constraint, rather than license. >Imposition, rather than consultation. Obligations, rather than rights. Such >is the novel language of Aboriginal north Australia. These are new tones >for >the remote world and for the whole nation: the future of a distinct domain >hangs in the balance. _________________________________________________________________ Advertisement: 1000s of Sexy Singles online now at Lavalife http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Flavalife9%2Eninemsn%2Ecom%2Eau%2Fclickthru%2Fclickthru%2Eact%3Fid%3Dninemsn%26context%3Dan99%26locale%3Den%5FAU%26a%3D29891&_t=764581033&_r=email_taglines_1000s&_m=EXT From rrlapier at AOL.COM Thu Aug 16 14:03:43 2007 From: rrlapier at AOL.COM (rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:03:43 -0400 Subject: Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival In-Reply-To: <20070816010244.l91z8kcgokcs0sg8@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: When Native language use is challenged -- every method should be embraced and all stakeholders (tribe, schools, families) should be encouraged. Making statements that only one way works is discouraging to communities who are attempting to make positive changes within thier communities. I wish there were more methods and not less within our community. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute -----Original Message----- From: Rudy Troike To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Sent: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 2:02 am Subject: [ILAT] Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival Wayne is right in stating that the *only* way for a community to keep its? language alive is to ensure that children learn the language from elders? when they are still young enough to absorb the language naturally. Because? those who have gone through standard Euro-american schooling have a model? and image of how a "foreign" language should be taught (which almost never? works in the first place), they tend to assume that this is how the native? language should be taught -- i.e., formally, following a curriculum,? memorizing words or expressions, etc. For numerous reasons, this approach? is doomed to failure as a way of perpetuating the living language, just as? it fails to succeed as a way of developing fluency in foreign languages in? school. The optimum age for language learning is before the age of formal? schooling, but the built-in biological ability to acquire language naturally? begins to decline rapidly as puberty approaches. We know from the experience? of the Navajo and Cherokee code-talkers that native languages can be adapted? to the most modern of cultural contexts. It is only a matter if speakers? choose to do this, or replace their use of native linguistic resources with? the dominant national language. By replacing native resources, I am referring? to the grammatical structure, not lexical items. All languages, English? included, become enriched through incorporation of vocabulary from other? sources for referring to novel elements of experience. It is not necessary,? in order to maintain the integrity of a language, to invent native terms? for every new thing. An instructive example comes from Korean -- one day? I asked some of my Korean students how to say in Korean, "I want a pen".? They laughed, and said, "I want a [in Korean]" "pen [in English]". When I? protested, and asked what they would call a pen in Korean, they laughed? again and said, "We would say 'pen'". But the grammatical frame for the? use of the word remains entirely in Korean. Aymara and Quechua are examples? of native languages which have incorporated numerous Spanish lexemes as? verb and noun bases, while retaining the complex and subtle grammatical? structure and semantic system, so that it is possible to talk or write? about even the most current technological and political developments in? the native language. Being able to talk about the complexities of modern? life emphatically does not mean having to give up the native language.? Unfortunately the issue is too often framed in this way as a choice,? putting the language in a museum mode as being of value only for expressing? traditional cultural matters but otherwise of no use. Community psychology? must change to embrace the use of the language for all aspects of life,? adopting terms and adapting usage as needed to maintain relevance. And? language learning must begin in the home and family in the natural way.? Any other way is the way to language death.? ? ? Rudy Troike? ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From charles.riley at YALE.EDU Thu Aug 16 16:08:30 2007 From: charles.riley at YALE.EDU (Charles Riley) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:08:30 -0400 Subject: FCC opening for community radio In-Reply-To: <8C9AE25642D421F-348-8D4@FWM-M31.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: In October, the FCC will have a one-week window for accepting applications from non-profits for full-power radio frequency, up to 100,000 watts, depending on availability of the spectrum in the community's area. The application process will require some planning ahead before then, but it looks like a good opportunity. The applying organizations would have to be non-commercial with an educational mission, but would not need to have 501(c)3 status in hand. More details here: http://www.getradio.org/secure_a_station From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 17 16:48:28 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:48:28 -0700 Subject: New Indigenous TV station turns on (fwd) Message-ID: New Indigenous TV station turns on Posted Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:02am AEST http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/13/1977687.htm Australia's first 24-hour Indigenous television service was switched on in Sydney today. Aboriginal leaders, actors, singers, and sports stars attended the launch by the Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The Government-funded National Indigenous TV (NITV) will broadcast to more than 200,000 people across Northern Australia, Queensland, and South Australia on the Optus Aurora satellite and Imparja's second satellite channel. But remote Aboriginal communities say they are worried they could be excluded from the new channel. The general manager of Warlpiri media in Yuendumu Northern Territory, Rita Catoni, says many cultural videos might not be picked up by NITV because they are not up to industry standard. "What's not going to be around is ... a platform for a whole lot of people in remote communities to view their own grassroots content and to see people in other remote communities," she said. "It's going to be a very different type of content on television, which is a shame really, because they're not mutually exclusive, they could have coexisted." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Aug 17 17:32:20 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:32:20 -0700 Subject: UN adds Norfolk language to endangered list (fwd) Message-ID: Friday, 17 August 2007, 16:15:04 AEST UN adds Norfolk language to endangered list http://www.abc.net.au/message/news/stories/ms_news_2008195.htm The United Nations has included the language spoken by Norfolk Islanders on its list of the world's languages in danger of disappearing. The language, known locally as 'talking Norfolk', is a mixture of Olde English and Tahitian and can be traced back to the Bounty mutineers. Norfolk Island Chief Minister Andre Nobbs says inhabitants of the Island have been seeking greater recognition of the language for many years. "Establishing it in this way - especially as it is one of the rarest languages in the world - gives us a great deal of pride and at the moment we're looking at as many ways as possible to, as many other islands are doing, to reinvigorate our culture," he said. From gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV Sun Aug 19 18:48:13 2007 From: gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV (McCone, Gary) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:48:13 -0400 Subject: Endangered Native American Languages Message-ID: Cult ural Survival Quarterly of Cambridge, Massachusetts dedicated their summer 2007 issue, Volume 31, to Endangered Native American languages. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/csq/index.cfm Gary K. McCone Associate Director, Information Systems National Agricultural Library 10301 Baltimore Avenue Beltsville, Maryland 20705-2351 (301) 504-5018 Fax. (301) 504-6968 "We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." -- R. D. Laing -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:13:56 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:13:56 -0700 Subject: Speak now...or forever hold your peace (fwd) Message-ID: [photo inset - Joe Ayala, center, works with his mother, Holly Wyatt, left, one of the few Chukchansi tribal members left to speak the native language, in recording phrases that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator."] Speak now...or forever hold your peace Rare Chukchansi speakers gather to record and preserve their language. By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee 08/19/07 04:33:04 http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/116195.html COARSEGOLD -- A few Native Americans who still speak the ancient Chukchansi language are preserving tribal words and songs with state-of-the-art electronic translators inspired by military technology. Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, and her sister, Holly, 65, were among six tribal members who gathered Friday across the street from the Picayune Rancheria's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out a newly acquired "Phraselator." The electronic translator was developed just a few years ago from technology used for military translators, said Don Thornton of Thornton Media Inc., based in Banning. Thornton Media is working with 70 tribes in the United States and Canada to preserve native languages, he said. "What's my name?" he asked the box in his hand. He pressed another button and it replied in what Thornton said was Chukchansi. The Wyatt sisters learned the unwritten Chukchansi language at home while they were growing up in the Madera County foothills. Chukchansi is one of many native California dialects considered to be nearly extinct. "We're recording our language ... to save our language," Jane Wyatt said. "I learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." She estimated that of about 500 Chukchansi scattered throughout the United States, the six tribal members using laptop computers and a hand-held military black-box recorder Friday at Picayune tribal headquarters were probably among the few fluent enough in the language to teach others. Jane Wyatt said she and her sister have been teaching the Chukchansi language at the Wassuma Round House culture center in Ahwahnee. Not all those recording Chukchansi for the electronic translator were tribal elders. Dustin Johnson, 19, of Coarsegold said his grandmother taught him the language. The Wyatt sisters agreed that their tribe has lived "forever" in the California foothills. But even communication with their Mono neighbors was limited by language difficulties. Contacts with Spanish- and English-speaking invaders influenced native languages. For instance, the Chukchansi word for apple is pronounced "abbule" and the word for mattress is the same as the Spanish word. Of course until the tribe encountered outsiders, it had no mattresses. Juanita Lahon, 37, of Coarsegold expected to record some songs from tribal culture, such as one in which a coyote asks the creator's permission to howl at the moon. "There's a song for everything," she said. "Everybody has to ask permission to do something." Preserving language is important because it's intertwined with tribal culture, artifacts and family life, Lahon said. "That's the way we say what's what and what goes where," she said. Until the white settlers arrived, there were no "cursing words" in the tribe's language, Lahon said. Even the name Chukchansi was bestowed by white settlers little more than a century ago. Before that, the tribe was Yokut, meaning "the people," Holly Wyatt said. Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy said the tribe has purchased three Phraselators. They arrived Friday with Thornton. The list price is about $3,000 apiece, he said. The three devices will be kept to begin a language program, supported by tribal funds, to preserve the language that has no books. "The culture and language are hand in hand," Pewewardy said. Without written records, it's hard to estimate the tribe's former population or map exactly where they ranged. The Chukchansi homeland roughly centered on the present casino location, but tribes didn't observe strict cultural land boundaries. Those arrived with the whites, Pewewardy said. The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy at fresnobee.com or (559) 675-6804. [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee The electronic "Phraselator" was developed just a few years ago from technology used for military translators. The Chukchansi tribe bought three of the translators to record and help teach the native language.] [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee Jane Wyatt, right, one of the few Chukchansi Indian tribal members left to speak the native Chukchansi language, records phrases, that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator." Tribal member Juanita Lahon, left, also speaks the native language.] [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee Kara Thornton, vice president of Thornton Media Inc., demonstrates the "Phraselator" during a session Friday morning.] From greg.dickson at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU Mon Aug 20 06:25:16 2007 From: greg.dickson at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU (Greg Dickson) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:55:16 +0930 Subject: New Indigenous TV station turns on (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070817094828.skksc0ggo4okcgso@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Yes, there is more to this story. The creation of NITV also meant the scrapping of ICTV, a channel with less distribution but more language content and more content produced by bush communities. Read this blogpost for more info: http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2007/07/ the_closure_of_the_remote_area_1.html By the way, that blog is an excellent read, especially for some excellent insights into what the Australian Federal Government is doing to Aboriginal communities in the NT with their 'intervention'. Cheers from an 'intervened' community... Greg Dickson Linguist Ngukurr Language Centre Email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au On 18/08/2007, at 2:18 AM, phil cash cash wrote: New Indigenous TV station turns on Posted Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:02am AEST http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/13/1977687.htm Australia's first 24-hour Indigenous television service was switched on in Sydney today. Aboriginal leaders, actors, singers, and sports stars attended the launch by the Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The Government-funded National Indigenous TV (NITV) will broadcast to more than 200,000 people across Northern Australia, Queensland, and South Australia on the Optus Aurora satellite and Imparja's second satellite channel. But remote Aboriginal communities say they are worried they could be excluded from the new channel. The general manager of Warlpiri media in Yuendumu Northern Territory, Rita Catoni, says many cultural videos might not be picked up by NITV because they are not up to industry standard. "What's not going to be around is ... a platform for a whole lot of people in remote communities to view their own grassroots content and to see people in other remote communities," she said. "It's going to be a very different type of content on television, which is a shame really, because they're not mutually exclusive, they could have coexisted." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:25:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:25:48 -0700 Subject: Following the songlines (fwd) Message-ID: Following the songlines Researchers are working with Warlpiri elders to record, transcribe and interpret disappearing dreaming songs that are the basis of Warlpiri culture. http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Newsletters_and_Journals/ANU_Reporter/096PP_2007/_03PP_Winter/_songlines.asp [photo inset - This design representing the Milky Way was painted as part of a Warlpiri winter solstice ceremony to shorten the long cold nights. Photo: Nic Peterson] As two Warlpiri elders sing a water song, it rains. Thomas Rice Jangala and Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi, Warlpiri people from Yuendumu, sit with anthropology PhD student Georgia Curran in a small office at ANU working on a project to record the fading song cycles of the Warlpiri. They interpret and transcribe in Warlpiri and English a water song during a visit to Canberra, in tune with a rare day of rain that moistens the dust and hydrates the lawns of the Ngunawal lands. As they stop to explain the songlines project, a CD recording of Jangala plays on a computer. It is a Warlpiri song to shorten the long, cold winter nights. ?He sings about the Milky Way,? Nungarrayi says. ?That it will go quickly across the sky to bring the dawn.? The water song and night song are just two of the ancient songlines being recorded to preserve Warlpiri songs as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project coordinated by the School of Anthropology and Archaeology at ANU and the University of Queensland, with partner funding from the Warlpiri Janganpa Association and the Central Land Council. Warlpiri songlines link ancestral power with the landscape, emotions and aesthetics and are central to their religious life, but because the songs are known by fewer and fewer Warlpiri people and the ceremonies are being performed less and less often, this spiritual core of Warlpiri culture is disappearing. Curran spent 15 months from November 2005 in Yuendumu ? 300 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs ? working with Jangala, who remembers and still sings the ancient songs, and Nungarrayi, who helps to interpret the ?old words? in the songs and assists Curran to transcribe and translate the songs into Warlpiri and English. They already have over 80 hours of songs transcribed and translated. While in Canberra, they are transcribing more recordings, including some recorded on tape by anthropology professor Nicolas Peterson, at Yuendumu in 1972 (and since kept in a box in his office). ?Jangala tells me those I?ve recorded are men?s love songs,? Peterson says. ?Like all of the old songs, the language is different. It?s old and some of the words are pronounced differently when sung or are contracted so it?s not always obvious what they mean.? According to Nungarrayi, ?The young people talk in modern talk, they don?t know the old language ? it?s like there is old English and what there is now. What the old people use is changing, dying; the young people mix it with English. ?Sitting with the old people, I?m learning the old language. This project will bring it alive again, make it strong again. It?s important for us to write it down before it goes.? Jangala says many of the young Yuendumu people know the tunes used in ceremonies, but because they don?t have the authority to sing, they don?t have the confidence to sing or they don?t know the words, many just hum. Song cycles are intricately and integrally connected with dance and ceremony, such as the ceremony for boys? initiation. These ceremonies are still conducted over summer, but in contrast to the past when a ceremony was held for just two or three boys together with several separate ceremonies being held if there were six or seven boys of the right age, today as many as seventeen boys may be initiated at one ceremony. This is because there are now only a handful of elders, including Jangala, who have the knowledge to follow the songline all night. The Warlpiri ceremony takes much energy from the elders who have to sing from around 10pm to sunrise on two occasions for each ceremony. ?I spent 13 months at Yuendumu in 1972-1973, and at that time they were holding a wide range of ceremonies,? Peterson says. ?It is different now, because there are less than half a dozen people who remember the songs for many of the ceremonies, and all the energy today goes into boys? initiation and women?s yawulyu ceremonies, versions of which are seen at many art exhibition openings in southern Australia. ?To me, it seems we?re right on cusp of time where most of this knowledge will be gone.? The songlines project is designed to maintain young people?s familiarity with the songs and their ongoing connection with ceremony and spirituality, as well as to write down and explain the esoteric language of the songs. The academic project leaders, as the recorders of the songs, have signed over their copyright to the community via PAW (Pintubi, Anmatjere and Warlpiri) Media, the Warlpiri community broadcaster. This means that anyone wanting to use the recordings needs permission from PAW, as well as the elders. The royalties flow back to the community (with an archival copy of the songs eventually being placed with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies). According to Peterson, although the project has ?more than scratched the surface? of recording the full range of Warlpiri songlines, there is still much to be done in the latter half of the project. The songs that have been recorded and transcribed are mainly women?s songs ? related to health, attracting husbands, or providing strength to boys before initiation ? as well as community songs, such as most of the initiation songs, that are performed publicly. What is lacking are recordings of men?s songs, performed in secret in association with rituals at sacred sites. To remedy this gap, Stephen Wild of the School of Music, who wrote his PhD thesis on Warlpiri song and dance, will travel to the Northern Territory in September to work with Warlpiri men to record secret songs. These recordings will go further towards not only preserving the songs, but also towards providing insights into a culture much of which has been handed down through songs, such as the initiation songs which tell about the journey of a group of ancestral women and boys to a initiation ceremony held in the dreamtime. Today, as in the past, one of the boys to be initiated is often taken on a journey ? Jilkaja - to inform other groups that the initiation is about to be held. ?Today, with cars and planes, these journeys can cover huge distances, sometimes of a thousand kilometres or more one way and involve large groups numbering five hundred or more people returning for the ceremony,? Peterson says. The Warlpiri initiation ceremony is extraordinarily complex and of central importance to both Warlpiri culture and for both men and women. It does not just make boys into men, but it enhances the standing of the boys? mothers, turns other women into mothers-in-law, their daughters into promised wives, and gives prominence to the boys? sisters who have to dance for their brothers all night. ?It?s against this background that there?s a convergence of interest between ethnographers of Warlpiri life and senior Warlpiri people, both groups of whom are concerned by the impending loss of the songlines. ?For Warlpiri people the significance of the loss is deeply complex as it brings with it and reflects the transformations that are going on in their religion, in their society more generally and in the conflict between generations with its threats to Warlpiri identity,? Peterson says. The visit of Jangala and Nungarrayi was made possible by a grant from the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at ANU. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 06:32:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:32:13 -0700 Subject: Languages to live longer (fwd) Message-ID: Languages to live longer August 20, 2007 Aboriginal culture is turning to technology, writes Lia Timson. http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/aboriginal-culture-turns-to-technology/2007/08/18/1186857828354.html# In a true marriage of old and new, the internet is set to perpetuate, if not, revive dozens of Aboriginal languages facing extinction. The Miromaa software project - miromaa means "saved" in Arwarbukarl language - was developed by two Aboriginal men in Newcastle despite assurances from linguists that lay community members were ill-equipped to save languages. Daryn McKenny, general manager of the not-for-profit Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (www.arwarbukarl.com.au) led the development of the program. It will be used in a yet-to-be-launched website that aims to take the linguistic salvaging effort worldwide. It is estimated that from the 250 known Australian Aboriginal languages, only 15 to 20 are fluently spoken today. The top five indigenous languages are spoken at home by between 2500 and 5800 people only, according to the 2006 census. "What culture is left is disappearing every day with each elder who passes away," McKenny says. "We need not just linguists but an army of people and technology to slow down the loss." Arwarbukarl, originally spoken by the people of what is now Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the lower Hunter Valley, is among those languages in danger of disappearing. "We were doing song and dance to educate the community and our own kids, we wanted to teach them the culture, but without the language there was something missing. Here we are teaching and talking about our language but in English. It's not the same," McKenny says. The project was almost killed four years ago when the now-defunct ATSIC conducted a review that recommended funding be cut because "two fellas without a linguist could not revive a language", he says. "It was a big kick up the butt but it meant we had to change our ways and work smarter." With a background in computing, he started a search for language software around the world but settled for developing one from scratch when he realised existing programs were aimed at professionals studying threatened languages, not those practising them. Miromaa allows community users of different language groups to post text, images, sound and video of words and phrases in a sort of communal multimedia dictionary effort and in the process create a resource others can use. It has a separate section for linguists. It has been licensed to cultural centres in Victoria, Western Australia and north Queensland. But it is the Our Languages website that will allow the wider community to learn indigenous languages when it launches later this year. It will cater for multiple dialects, so that an online search for the word "emu", for example, will elicit several regional results, including audio of the correct pronunciations. The site (www.ourlanguages.com.au) is still under development and inaccessible but will be open to all when finished. "Everyone in Australia talks Aboriginal and they don't even know it - it's in the street names, the places, everywhere," McKenny says. Our Languages will be launched with significant pro-bono help from Microsoft under its Unlimited Potential program and technology-enabling company, Dimension Data. It received partial funding from the Federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) but additional funds will be needed to add more languages. The first dedicated national Aboriginal TV channel was launched last month. National Indigenous Television (nitv.org.au) carries 24-hour programming and can be seen by Optus Aurora satellite subscribers and Imparja's Channel 31 viewers in remote Australia. The $50 million venture, backed by the federal department, will be available nationally via Foxtel and Austar from October. The channel is calling for program submissions from the community, including language-preservation ideas From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:29:08 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:29:08 -0700 Subject: Speak now...or forever hold your peace (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070819231356.sx8hgc88ws4oco0w@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: The general observation made by the folks/company who promote and sell the phraselator is that the majority of communities who buy the phraselator are those with only a few fluent speakers left.? The story below is a good example of this.? Phil UofA Quoting phil cash cash : > [photo inset - Joe Ayala, center, works with his mother, Holly Wyatt, left, > one of the few Chukchansi tribal members left to speak the native language, > in recording phrases that will be downloaded later to a "Phraselator."] > > Speak now...or forever hold your peace > Rare Chukchansi speakers gather to record and preserve their language. > > By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee > 08/19/07 04:33:04 > http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/116195.html > > COARSEGOLD -- A few Native Americans who still speak the ancient Chukchansi > language are preserving tribal words and songs with state-of-the-art > electronic translators inspired by military technology. > > Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, and her sister, Holly, 65, were among six > tribal members who gathered Friday across the street from the Picayune > Rancheria's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out a > newly acquired "Phraselator." > > The electronic translator was developed just a few years ago from technology > used for military translators, said Don Thornton of Thornton Media Inc., > based in Banning. Thornton Media is working with 70 tribes in the United > States and Canada to preserve native languages, he said. > > "What's my name?" he asked the box in his hand. He pressed another button > and it replied in what Thornton said was Chukchansi. > > The Wyatt sisters learned the unwritten Chukchansi language at home while > they were growing up in the Madera County foothills. Chukchansi is one of > many native California dialects considered to be nearly extinct. > > "We're recording our language ... to save our language," Jane Wyatt said. "I > learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." > > She estimated that of about 500 Chukchansi scattered throughout the United > States, the six tribal members using laptop computers and a hand-held > military black-box recorder Friday at Picayune tribal headquarters were > probably among the few fluent enough in the language to teach others. > > Jane Wyatt said she and her sister have been teaching the Chukchansi > language at the Wassuma Round House culture center in Ahwahnee. > > Not all those recording Chukchansi for the electronic translator were tribal > elders. Dustin Johnson, 19, of Coarsegold said his grandmother taught him > the language. > > The Wyatt sisters agreed that their tribe has lived "forever" in the > California foothills. But even communication with their Mono neighbors was > limited by language difficulties. Contacts with Spanish- and > English-speaking invaders influenced native languages. > > For instance, the Chukchansi word for apple is pronounced "abbule" and the > word for mattress is the same as the Spanish word. Of course until the > tribe encountered outsiders, it had no mattresses. > > Juanita Lahon, 37, of Coarsegold expected to record some songs from tribal > culture, such as one in which a coyote asks the creator's permission to > howl at the moon. > > "There's a song for everything," she said. "Everybody has to ask permission > to do something." > > Preserving language is important because it's intertwined with tribal > culture, artifacts and family life, Lahon said. > > "That's the way we say what's what and what goes where," she said. > > Until the white settlers arrived, there were no "cursing words" in the > tribe's language, Lahon said. > > Even the name Chukchansi was bestowed by white settlers little more than a > century ago. Before that, the tribe was Yokut, meaning "the people," Holly > Wyatt said. > > Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy said the tribe has > purchased three Phraselators. > > They arrived Friday with Thornton. > > The list price is about $3,000 apiece, he said. The three devices will be > kept to begin a language program, supported by tribal funds, to preserve > the language that has no books. > > "The culture and language are hand in hand," Pewewardy said. > > Without written records, it's hard to estimate the tribe's former population > or map exactly where they ranged. The Chukchansi homeland roughly centered > on the present casino location, but tribes didn't observe strict cultural > land boundaries. > > Those arrived with the whites, Pewewardy said. > > The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy at fresnobee.com or (559) 675-6804. > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > The electronic "Phraselator" was developed just a few years ago from > technology used for military translators. The Chukchansi tribe bought three > of the translators to record and help teach the native language.] > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > Jane Wyatt, right, one of the few Chukchansi Indian tribal members left to > speak the native Chukchansi language, records phrases, that will be > downloaded later to a "Phraselator." Tribal member Juanita Lahon, left, > also speaks the native language.] > > [photo inset - John Walker / The Fresno Bee > Kara Thornton, vice president of Thornton Media Inc., demonstrates the > "Phraselator" during a session Friday morning.] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:50:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:50:48 -0700 Subject: Speaking up for culture; Fundraiser supports native languages (fwd) Message-ID: Speaking up for culture; Fundraiser supports native languages Richard Beales Monday, August 20, 2007 - 07:00 http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=659789&catname=Local%20News&classif= Local News - A glint came to Art Martin's eye as he spoke about fighting to save the Mohawk and Cayuga languages. "See this?" he said, pointing to his T-shirt. "It says 'Hanyoh!' That means 'Come on!' with urgency; it means 'Let's go!' "Our languages are in a state of crisis, bottom line." Martin, 28, of Chiefswood Road, was among a small but spirited group Sunday at the Six Nations Community Hall to help stage an all-day fundraising event called "Hanyoh! Language for tomorrow!" Organizers hoped to raise as much as $15,000 through a sponsored plastic turtle race down the Grand River, a silent auction, concessions, entertainment, smoke dancing and traditional games. educational materials The event was put on by the Kawenni:io/Gaweni:yo Language Preservation Project, a group dedicated to producing educational materials in Mohawk and Cayuga for use primarily in Six Nations schools, but available to anyone with an interest. Martin acknowledged he could have used the project's books, videos and other teaching aids as a youngster. "I grew up without my language (Mohawk)," he said. "But I always knew it was there." As a graphic artist, he has been helping promote the project, but has been too busy to benefit from its most basic advantage - learning the Mohawk language. "It's unfortunate, but true." Sitting near Martin at a table selling commemorative ribbons was Margaret Green, 16, of Stoneridge Circle. Though just a dozen years younger than Martin, she has benefited from a different attitude toward languages. "I've pretty well been learning (Cayuga) all my life," said Margaret, a student at Kawenni:io high school. A third language of the Six Nations, Onondaga, is also in peril, said project co-ordinator Angela Elijah. Efforts are ongoing to preserve Oneida in the London area, while Seneca is being taught in a school at Allegheny, N.Y. The sixth tongue, Tuscarora, is most vulnerable. Elijah said there are few speakers of that language still alive. brainstorming session Sunday's fundraiser responsed to the provincial education ministry's refusal to extend funding to the project. Elijah said a brainstorming session led to the idea, which was as much about awareness as raising money. Funding remains crucial, however. The project's annual $290,000 operating budget, provided by the Department of Indian Affairs, ends this year. But the need to produce quality materials remains. "Where's our funding going to come from?" she asked. "We need to continue." teaching position Elijah will not continue with the program past next week, except a a consultant, because she has taken a teaching position in Ganienkeh, near Altona, N.Y. "I'll be working with beginning speakers, from the little ones up to older adults." She recalled her earlier days as a teacher and noted how far aboriginal language instruction has come. "When I was teaching," she said, "I remember being saddened by looking at the shelves" and seeing no books written in aboriginal languages. She would have to go home with the English-language works, translate them and cut and paste into Mohawk or Cayuga. "Kids were using second-rate material," she said. "Our kids deserve first-rate material." ID- 659789 ? 2007 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 16:56:32 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:56:32 -0700 Subject: Russia: Daghestan Scholars Sound Alarm For Indigenous Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Monday, August 20, 2007 Russia: Daghestan Scholars Sound Alarm For Indigenous Languages By Liz Fuller http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/08/dc81f4cf-0387-414c-9210-61a789a140ff.html [photo inset - A folk festival in Makhachkala in 2005 (TASS)] August 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Participants at a recent roundtable discussion in Makhachkala expressed concern that Russian is fast becoming the sole state language in Daghestan, even though the republic's constitution ranks Russian equal with the languages of 13 other nationalities. They called on President Mukhu Aliyev to take urgent measures to reverse the ongoing decline of smaller languages, some of which they fear may otherwise become extinct within 10-15 years. Unique among Russia's 85 federation subjects, Daghestan has no fewer than 14 titular nationalities (Avars, Aghuls, Azerbaijanis, Dargins, Kumyks, Laks, Lezgins, Nogais, Rutuls, Tabasarans, Tats, Tsakhurs, Chechens, and Russians), all of whose languages are designated in the constitution as state languages. Given that these languages are all not mutually comprehensible or even inter-related, it is Russian, which is taught even at kindergarten level, that serves as the vehicle of communication between members of different ethnic groups. The director of a school in the village of Andikh in Shamil Raion in west-central Daghestan, told RFE/RL that his school cannot buy new textbooks for students in 10th and 11th grades, and that teachers comb villages in the hope of buying old ones. True, during the Soviet period, most of the titular languages -- Avar, Azeri, Dargin, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgin, Nogai, and Tat -- were taught in schools alongside Russian. And according to the British scholar Robert Chenciner, in the 1990s it was decided to create written languages for, and begin the formal teaching in schools of Rutul, Aghul, and Tsakhur (all of which belong to the Lezgin group of languages), even though according to the 2002 Russian Federation census those three ethnic groups each accounted for less than 1 percent of the republic's population, numbering 24,298, 23,324 and 8,168 people, respectively. Soviet Legacy The Soviet Union took a dual and even contradictory approach to the teaching of minority languages, promoting the creation of literary languages for small ethnic groups, and encouraging writers who chose to use their native language, however obscure, as part of the broader ideology of Friendship of Peoples. But at the same time, the Soviet leadership relentlessly implemented a policy of requiring non-Russians to become fluent in Russian, to the point that mastery of the Russian language became the key to career advancement. For that reason, many parents opted to enroll their children in schools where Russian, rather than their native language, was the language of instruction. Yet whether as a result of the emphasis on preserving minority languages, or as a conscious statement of national identity, many non-Russians still identified the language of their nationality as their native language. Data from the 1979 Soviet census show that more than 90 percent of Daghestan's 10 largest indigenous native groups designated the language of that ethnic group as their native language. By contrast, the percentage for the native peoples of Siberia and the Far East averaged 61 percent, and for some of those small ethnic groups it was as low as 30 percent. No Money For Books The collapse of the Soviet system demolished the ideological rationale and the hothouse conditions, including generous state subsidies, that existed for encouraging the use and teaching of small languages. At the same time, a knowledge of Russian as lingua franca remained crucial, especially within a multiethnic society such as Daghestan, where, in addition, unemployment is high and competition for jobs intense. Moreover, Daghestan's government, which as of 2005 depended on subsidies from Moscow for 80 percent of its budget, was forced to revise spending priorities, with education getting short shrift. This has led to chronic shortages of school textbooks in languages other than Russian. Even the language of Daghestan's largest ethnic group, the Avars (who numbered 758,438 people in 2002, or 29.4 percent of the republic's population), is under threat, and has been for some time. In 2002, a language teacher in Kaspiisk told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service that several factors were contributing to the decline in the use of Avar: a lack of qualified teachers and up-to-date textbooks (not all schools had an adequate number of textbooks, and the limited number available were up to 20 years old); the lack of an up-to-date Avar-Russian dictionary; and, crucially, lack of interest among school students in studying their own native language. Some wealthy businesspeople sponsored the publication of language textbooks, but those textbooks were not always approved by and coordinated with the republic's Pedagogical Institute. The situation does not seem to have improved greatly over the past five years. In 2003, a new Avar-Russian dictionary was published, the first for over 50 years, but native speakers say it is not of outstanding quality, and the print run was only 3,000 copies. And the problem of school textbooks remains acute. Magomed Gazaliyev, the director of a school in the village of Andikh in Shamil Raion in west-central Daghestan, told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service in July that his school cannot buy new textbooks for students in 10th and 11th grades, and that teachers comb villages in the hope of buying old ones. "We have been without books for more than 10 years," he said. Gazaliyev said the republican Education Ministry claims it does not have sufficient funds to finance the publication of a new series of textbooks. He said the ministry is apparently hoping that a private sponsor might be found. Study Time Reduced Gazaliyev further complained that the number of hours devoted to the study of Avar in schools is being reduced, but did not specify how drastically. In rural schools, instruction in all subjects is in Avar for the first four grades. From fifth to ninth grade, instruction is in Russian, with two hours per week devoted to the Avar language and two to Avar literature. In 10th and 11th grades, two hours per week are devoted to the Avar language. "They are reducing the time spent on teaching the native language and literature and increasing the number of hours spent studying other subjects at their expense," Gazaliyev told RFE/RL. Radio and television broadcasting in languages other than Russian has also been subjected to cuts. Republican television now broadcasts exclusively in Russian, although there are still daily radio programs in the 13 other titular languages, in addition to Russian. The number of hours broadcast is directly proportional to the number of speakers of a given language, with Avar and Dargin having the most and Tsakhur the least. All these factors serve to undermine many Avars' commitment to their native language. And the decline in the use of Avar is not confined to urban areas with a multiethnic population, but extends to districts where the population is almost exclusively Avar. A correspondent for RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service recently quoted Bata Aliyev, a resident of the village of Mesterukh in Akhvakh Raion, as saying that with every year that passes, it becomes clearer that members of the local Avar population are losing respect for their native language. "The raion administration, the local education board, schools, and local television are contributing to the gradual decline of the Avar language, because the Russian language is used everywhere," Aliyev said. "Very little time is devoted to the study of the Avar language in school." The published summary of the July 12 roundtable discussion in Makhachkala did not give any indication whether participants came to the conclusion that some languages are in greater danger of becoming obsolescent than others, and if so, which. The participants said much of the blame for the decline of Daghestan's indigenous languages lies with the Education Ministry. They characterized many of the ministry's staff members as having no relevant expertise and implied they are indifferent to the issue of teaching small languages They contrasted the situation in Daghestan, where high-school students spend a maximum of four hours per week studying their native language, literature, and history, with that in Kabardino-Balkaria, where the comparable figure is 36 hours. The roundtable participants appealed to Daghestan President Aliyev to take urgent measures to reverse the decline in the use of small languages. But even if the republic's leadership could secure funds for programs to promote the study of Avar and other state languages, it could take years before such programs yielded the desired effect. (Magomedgadzhi Gasanov and Uma Isakova of RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service contributed to this report.) Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty ? 2007 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Aug 20 19:15:05 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:15:05 -0700 Subject: Rescuing recorded sound from ravages of time (fwd) Message-ID: Rescuing recorded sound from ravages of time Submitted by harminka on Mon, 2007-08-20 16:03. http://www.huliq.com/31083/rescuing-recorded-sound-from-ravages-of-time While listening to National Public Radio in 2000, Carl Haber learned that the Library of Congress had a big problem. The Library's audio collection, which spans the 130-year history of recorded sound, includes the soaring tenor of Enrico Caruso, the speeches of Teddy Roosevelt, and the voices of Native Americans from now-vanished tribes. These echoes of a bygone era were recorded on media such as wax cylinders and shellac and lacquer discs. But many are now too fragile to play in their original format; the pressure of a stylus or phonograph needle could cause irreversible damage. Others are too broken, worn or scratched to yield high-quality sound. The archivists needed a means to preserve the recordings without injuring them further. A physicist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Haber was developing subatomic particle detectors to be used at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. This involved using digital cameras and robots to place each delicate detector in precisely the right place. In a flash of insight, Haber realized that an optical scanning system could solve the Library's quandary. "I had phonograph records as a kid, so I knew sound was stored in a mechanical profile. I realized that we could use images to figure out in detail what the groove actually looked like, and use a computer to calculate the sound. I thought that might be a way to get around the problem of things being delicate and damaged; you wouldn't have to touch them," Haber says. Haber already had access to a machine that could make high-resolution digital scans. Postdoctoral fellow Vitaliy Fadeyev wrote a computer program to control the turntable and translate the images into sound. Haber used a narrow beam of light to illuminate the record's surface. The flat bottoms of the grooves and the spaces between tracks appeared white; the sloped sides of the grooves, scratches and dirt looked black. The image was then analyzed by computer. The program found the edges of each groove by focusing on areas of high contrast. It could correct areas where scratches, breaks or wear made the groove wider or narrower than normal. That first test was agonizingly slow. Forty minutes of scanning was required to obtain just one second of audio. But it provided what the scientists needed-proof of principle. And the scan played far more cleanly and clearly than the worn original disc. Haber and Fadeyev wrote a paper describing the device and sent it, unsolicited, to the Library of Congress. The next thing Haber knew, he had an invitation to visit the Library to talk about the technique. By 2004, Haber and Fadeyev were developing ways to scan discs and cylinders more efficiently. The two types of media presented very different problems. On antique monaural discs, sound is recorded in horizontal wiggles of the record groove. On cylinders, sound is recorded in the vertical plane-the depth of the groove. "With discs, we used a camera to image them at high resolution in two dimensions. Once we understood how cylinders were recorded, we realized we had to measure the third dimension (3D) as well," Haber says. In 2005, LBNL engineers Earl Cornell and Robert Nordmeyer joined the project. With the Library's urging, the team concentrated on producing a dedicated disc scanner. Dubbed IRENE (after the Weavers' "Good Night, Irene," the first disc the team scanned), the device was installed at the Library last summer for evaluation and needs just four seconds to scan one second of audio. The group is now refining a device that scans in 3D. The device is based upon a type of confocal microscope. White light directed at the surface of a cylinder or disc passes through a lens. But the lens is imperfect by design; though it splits the light into its component colors, each color comes into focus at a different depth. The color of the reflected light reveals the height of the scanned point. The computer assembles these points into profiles for each groove and translates the data into sound. The current 3D scanning process takes 20 hours to record one minute of sound. But a new version of the confocal scanner, developed for the dental industry, should reduce that to about 10 minutes. A half-dozen physics and engineering undergraduates from UC Berkeley have been instrumental in speeding the project along. "Students can apply the kinds of techniques they learn in classes about statistics, mathematical analysis and signal processing to a project they can really get their arms around," Haber says. A Berkeley graduate student in linguistics is poised to join the project later this summer. UC Berkeley's Phoebe Hearst Museum and Native Americans are among those who could benefit the most from IRENE and its sister 3D scanner. In the early 1900s, UC Berkeley anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and colleagues recorded the legends, songs, customs and voices of dozens of California Indians on some 3,000 one-of-a-kind wax cylinders. Many of these tribes and languages have since died out or are on the verge of extinction. The LBNL group is now collaborating with linguist Andrew Garrett and Victoria Bradshaw of the museum to digitize the Kroeber recordings. Remastering these cylinders could help new generations of native peoples study their ancestral customs and tongues?and help carry the sounds of the past into the future. -Berkeley University From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 17:44:49 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:44:49 -0700 Subject: New life for a fading language (fwd) Message-ID: New life for a fading language By Rebecca Aldous the Chronicle Aug 21 2007 http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=18&cat=23&id=1048201&more=0 Lhxilush ? stand up. This word, along is other commands, will be used as stepping stone in the fight to save the Chemainus First Nation?s language. Thirty-six teachers from the community have been busy this summer learning directives in Hul?qumi?num?. Only 10 per cent of the band?s population understands bits and pieces of the Coast Salish language. In 2000, it was estimated the number of fluent Hul?qumi?num? speakers was less than a dozen. ?I hope one day we can teach the language right from baby stage up until high school,? instructor and program organizer Pearl Harris says. The two week course teaches teachers the ?total physical response? to instructing a language course. This teaching method centres around actions and directions. It will be used in the band?s Nutsumaat Lelum Child Care Centre, Stu?ate Lelum Secondary School and adult language courses. ?My dream is that when I am an elder my children around me will speak the language,? Harris says. Harris sees many obstacles in the path of her goal and is ready to climb them. She believes barriers and conflict within the band need to be broken down before they can forge ahead. ?The biggest battle I have is convincing everyone to come in and be a part of it,? Harris says. Buffi David, one of the instructor of the language course, understands Hul?qumi?num?. Her parents only spoke their native tongue and couldn?t speak English. David practices speaking Hul?qumi?num? year round. ?We learn lots during the winter time because of long-house season,? David says. David believes the youth of her community need to become more involved with the language. The school system?s decision to take it on is a good beginning, she says. This September, David will be among a class of adults learning Hul?qumi?num?. The course includes a 75-hour mentorship program with an elder. ?We will learn to read, write and speak it,? David says. The Coast Salish language was spoken around the Fraser River and Southern end of Vancouver Island. The language is close to extinction largely due to the forced relocation of First Nation children to residential schools. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 17:50:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:50:40 -0700 Subject: Baby talk is universal (fwd) Message-ID: Baby talk is universal Public release date: 21-Aug-2007 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/afps-bti082107.php A major function of speech is the communication of intentions. In everyday conversation between adults, intentions are conveyed through multiple channels, including the syntax and semantics of the language, but also through nonverbal vocal cues such as pitch, loudness, and rate of speech. The same thing occurs when we talk to infants. Regardless of the language we speak, most adults, for example, raise their voices to elicit the infant's attention and talk at a much slower rate to communicate effectively. In the scientific community, this baby talk is termed "infant-directed speech." There are direct relationships between the way we speak and what we wish to convey. For example, when we see a child reaching for the electrical socket, we do not call out their name as we would during a game of hide-and-go-seek. Researchers Greg Bryant and Clark Barrett, at the University of California, Los Angeles, propose that the relationships between sounds and intentions are universal, and thus, should be understood by anyone regardless of the language they speak. To test their hypothesis, Bryant and Barrett recorded native English-speaking mothers as if they were talking to their own child and then as if they were speaking to an adult. The speech varied across four categories: prohibitive, approval, comfort, and attention. Then, they played the recordings to habitants of a Shuar (South American hunter-horticulturalists) village in Ecuador to see if the participants could discriminate between infant-directed (ID) and adult-directed (AD) speech, and whether they could tell the difference between the categories in both types of speech. The results, which appear in the August issue of Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science, showed that the Shuar participants were able to distinguish ID speech from AD speech with 73% accuracy. They were also able to tell which category (e.g. prohibitive, approval, etc.) the English-speaking mothers used, but they were better at this when the mothers used baby talk. This is the first study to show that adult listeners in an indigenous, nonindustrialized, and nonliterate culture can easily tell the difference between baby talk and normal adult directed speech. "These results also provide support for the notion that vocal emotional communication manifests itself in similar ways across disparate cultures," writes Bryant. Future research might focus on how infants respond behaviorally when listening to infant-directed speech in a different language. ### Author Contact: Greg Bryant gabryant at ucla.edu From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 18:23:15 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:23:15 -0700 Subject: Leaving a linguistic legacy (fwd) Message-ID: Leaving a linguistic legacy Patrick Springer, The Forum Published Monday, August 06, 2007 Twin Buttes, N.D. http://www.in-forum.com/News/articles/174106 The art of capturing words spoken in a language threatened with extinction, and putting them in writing so they can achieve immortality in print, is work best done while nibbling brain food. Or at least Edwin Benson and Sara Trechter have found that it?s nice to be able to munch on blueberries and carrot sticks while he speaks in Mandan and she jots down his words. Mandan, the language spoken by the tribe famous for hosting Lewis and Clark during the explorers? winter encampment in North Dakota, hangs by a linguistic thread that frays a little more as each year slips by. Benson, a 75-year-old horse rancher, is the strongest strand left in that thread. Experts regard him as the only fluent speaker of Mandan still alive. [photo inset - Edwin Benson, left, and Calvin Grinnell make silent prayers before dropping cigarettes as tobacco offerings at a Mandan shrine near Twin Buttes. Similar shrines once occupied the center of each Mandan village.] So for the past three summers, working for six hours at a stretch, Trechter and Benson have camped out in a small office, where he speaks his deep, rumbling voice into a microphone on his desk, and she scribbles notes on a yellow legal pad. The two recently reached an important milestone. They finished transcribing the last of seven Mandan folk stories Benson told for posterity, recorded several years ago on digital videotape. Trechter, a linguist who specializes in Siouan American Indian languages, has made these perennial summer pilgrimages from Chico, a college town in northern California, where she teaches at a state university. Their work is strenuous but sedentary, filled with painstaking repetition to ensure accuracy. Hence the snacks, and lots of bottled water ? all that talking works up a thirst. As if summoning the past, Benson often leans back in his chair, closing his eyes in concentration while he gropes for the right word, either in Mandan or to find its counterpart in English. Although Mandan was his first language, he seldom has a chance to use it in conversation. Occasionally he speaks with his 82-year-old sister, who lives more than an hour away on North Dakota?s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. But she never matched her brother?s fluency. Benson, alone among his siblings, was raised by a grandfather who insisted on keeping alive Mandan traditions and language. Ben Benson forbade speaking English in his home, a log cabin near the mouth of the Little Missouri River. These days, Trechter sometimes serves as Edwin Benson?s conversational partner in Mandan, a language she acquired after branching out from Lakota Sioux, a linguistic cousin of Mandan, also a Siouan tongue. Trechter?s mission to help rescue Mandan required her to master its linguistic quirks. She has learned, for example, that a bird is said to ?stand? while flying but ?sit? when perched on a tree. And at times, she?s had to accept that some words or phrases simply defy translation into another tongue. One instance came last week as she was about to wrap up her field work this summer. She was transcribing a recording of Benson conducting a naming ceremony, a traditional practice still carried out on the reservation, when she ran up against a word that sounds, to the untrained ear, like ?ay-posh.? ?That word has a long history,? she explained to a visitor. To supplement her transcription, the process of converting spoken Mandan into writing, she includes a version in English. But maybe not with ay-posh. ?It has no English translation,? Trechter said. Still, because even an approximation might help, she offered her rough English equivalent, ?I say.? Benson, who has been coaching Trechter as she transfers his words onto the page, took up the challenge. ?Wah-ha-noh-sh,? he said in his sub-baritone, repeating the phrase in Mandan. ?I am sounding it.? ?I kind of give up,? the linguist replied, smiling but flustered. Benson takes another stab. ?I?m echoing what I?m saying.? Then he, too, finally surrendered. ?It?s untranslatable.? ?No finishing with Mandan? Trechter first learned about efforts to preserve the Mandan language when visiting with her doctoral thesis adviser, a Siouan language expert at the University of Kansas. He?d heard the project was looking for a linguist to join the team. She got in touch with the man who?d sent out a query over an Internet network for linguists in native languages asking whether anyone was interested. That man is Calvin Grinnell, who works in the cultural preservation office of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation at Fort Berthold. In partnership with Joseph Jasztrembski, a history professor at Minot (N.D.) State University, he directs the Mandan language preservation project. Their endeavor started seven years ago with a grant from the National Park Service, which paid to videotape Benson telling the folk stories at its Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton, N.D., which features replicas of earth lodges used at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages that once dotted the area. The project?s ultimate goal is to produce learning materials for language labs on the reservation, ideally with the videotapes of Benson telling his stories in Mandan with follow-along captions of Trechter?s transcriptions on the bottom of the screen. Work has been slow, plagued at times by technical problems, sporadic funding and busy schedules. But things have moved along more quickly since Trechter joined the team in 2004, replacing a linguist who was unable to devote as much time because he was finishing his doctoral thesis, in Hidatsa. One afternoon last week, as Benson and Trechter were winding up their work for the day, Grinnell and Jasztrembski stopped by to talk about where they should focus their future efforts. They crowded into the office Benson uses near Twin Buttes Elementary School, where he teaches Mandan. Since finishing the last of the folk stories, Trechter and Benson have turned their attention to recording and transcribing Mandan social and cultural customs, such as the naming ceremony. To find old Mandan names, Trechter went to the archives of the North Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Bismarck, and was pleasantly surprised by what she found. ?There?s tons of stuff,? she said. ?Boxes and boxes of it,? including a Mandan dictionary compiled in the 1970s and 1980s as well as manuscripts from the 1920s and 1930s, the work of earlier linguists now dead. Grinnell, who said he thought the project now had a solid foundation for a language-learning program, asked whether they should record more old stories. That would be fine, Trechter replied, but she said it also would be good to help people who want to speak Mandan in social and cultural occasions. ?We?ve been doing things people should know how to say,? she said, giving as an example a farewell poem traditionally spoken by the senior pallbearer at a Mandan funeral, one of their current pieces. Benson said he is unaware that anyone had previously recorded or written about Mandan burial rites. Jasztrembski agreed that a proper balance must be struck in choosing what to preserve, given limited time and funding. Reviving a language takes many years, and progress is slow, much like restoring an endangered plant or animal species, he said. ?I think language revitalization is something like that,? the historian said. ?It takes a great deal of time to do.? At one point, as the discussion over what to tackle next continued, Trechter volunteered that she could record and transcribe dialogue with Benson. ?My pronunciation isn?t great, but it?s OK,? she said. ?We could talk back and forth.? Grinnell added that the tribal college archives has hours of tape recordings of elders from the 1970s that also might provide helpful material. ?There is no finishing with Mandan,? Trechter said. At age 44, she?s already seen enough material to keep her busy for the rest of her career and beyond. ?It?s ongoing as far as I?m concerned.? Sites, stories hold tribal importance Without coming to any firm conclusion about their next step, the group left the confines of the office in Twin Buttes and drove to two nearby sites that hold cultural significance for the Mandan. They stopped first by a grassy hillside, on top of which was a monument of seven large stones ? the subjects of a legend Benson recently told Trechter, a tale they?re considering transcribing. Benson gave a brief version of the story, which involves a young boy who was left behind on a hunting trip because he overslept. Undeterred, he set out on his own and encountered a Sioux raiding party. The boy, who had the element of surprise, slayed all seven warriors. Swollen with pride, the boy returned to his village and told about his adventure ? and nobody believed him. Skeptics asked him to show them the bodies. He agreed, and when they reached the site, they found seven stones, not seven bodies. >From the hillcrest, Benson and the others walked down to a woody draw, the site of a Mandan shrine, relocated years ago because of the reservoir created by Garrison Dam. It consisted of four sides of wooden posts, all roughly shoulder-high, with a slightly shorter wooden pole in the center ? representing Lone Man, who created humans, lakes and trees in the Mandan creation story. A band of willow surrounded the four sides, representing the level of water in a flood from the time of creation. Benson, who seems at times like a linguistic Lone Man, made a silent prayer, then dropped a cigarette as a tobacco offering. It landed inside the shrine, where other offerings lay scattered on the ground. On the drive back to Twin Buttes, the party passed a country cemetery. Benson said his grandparents and other relatives were buried in the cemetery. ?I?m not ready for that,? he added, chuckling. ?You better not,? Trechter replied. ?You have a lot of work to do.? Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522 [photo inset - Edwin Benson, left, the last fluent speaker of Mandan, concentrates as he helps linguist Sara Trechter transcribe a traditional Mandan naming ceremony. The pair have spent three summers working to preserve Mandan, an endangered native language.] From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 21 22:21:41 2007 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:21:41 -0700 Subject: Rare Chukchansi speakers record, preserve language In-Reply-To: <20070821112315.egwoowo0kg4o084g@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: COARSEGOLD, Calif.?The few remaining speakers of the Chukchansi language have begun preserving their tribal words and songs using electronic translators first developed for military use. The unwritten Chukchansi language has long been spoken by residents of the Madera County foothills, the traditional territory of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians. But like many other American Indian languages in California, it is considered nearly extinct. Just six tribal members are sufficiently fluent to teach it to others. "We're recording our language ... to save our language," said Jane Wyatt, 62, of Coarsegold, who has been teaching the language at the Wassuma Round House culture center. "I learned because my grandmother raised me. That's all we spoke." Tribal members gathered Friday near the tribe's busy Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold to try out the "Phraselator," an electronic translator developed by the Banning-based Thornton Media Inc. Seventy tribes in the United States and Canada have purchased the hand-held translation devices, which also are used by U.S. troops to translate Farsi in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the company's president Don Thornton. The tribe will use the units to start a language preservation program, said Picayune Rancheria tribal administrator Cornel Pewewardy. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6670195 ___________________________________________ Garry J. Forger, MLS, MWS (Santa Cruz Watershed) Development and Grants Management Officer for Learning Technologies http://ltc.arizona.edu and Technology Manager for the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) http://cercll.arizona.edu The University of Arizona gforger at email.arizona.edu 520-626-3918 Fax 520-626-8220 "You can stand under my Umbrella ." Rihanna From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:22:10 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:22:10 -0700 Subject: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language (fwd) Message-ID: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language 22 Aug 2007 09:28 SharePoint and Access used to preserve the Awabakal indigenous dialect in digital form With some Australian Aboriginal languages facing extinction, the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) has adopted Microsoft SharePoint and Access to help its work to preserve one indigenous dialect. Based on Access, ACRA has created its own program, Miromaa ? meaning "saved" in Awabakal ? to store data and research into the Awabakal language, and is using SharePoint Server 2007 to share its work with other Aboriginal groups to help the spread and restoration of the language. According to ACRA, the system can help archive "all evidences of language including, text, audio, images and video" as Word documents and spreadsheets. In the future, ACRA plans to make Miromaa available using a web-based platform to enable other groups to contribute to its research as well as enabling Aboriginal communities to use ACRA's work in their own language studies. Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288696,00.htm Copyright ? 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET NEtworks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CNET Networks, Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:23:40 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:23:40 -0700 Subject: Local language given funding for education (fwd) Message-ID: Local language given funding for education Posted August 22, 2007 09:09:00 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/22/2011551.htm?site=newengland One of northern New South Wales' local Aboriginal languages has been given a boost by the State Government. The Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Paul Lynch, has handed over $15,000 in funding to the Birrelee Childrens' Service in Tamworth to develop a DVD to teach Indigenous people the Gamilaraay language. He says its one of just 20 remnants out of 200 original Aboriginal languages that once existed in New South Wales. "It has survived to the extend that there are some elders who can speak it and what's quite impressive and exciting is they're teaching it to the younger generation in the Aboriginal community," he said. "As part of that process, this DVD will be very important as a way of keeping the language alive." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:31:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:31:55 -0700 Subject: Many will spurn residential school payout: elder (fwd) Message-ID: Many will spurn residential school payout: elder Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post Tuesday, August 21, 2007 http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/local/story.html?id=9a7380d0-ad3d-40c0-8fb2-0b550caa651c REGINA (SNN) -- The deadline for those wanting to opt out of the residential school settlement passed on Monday, but criticism of the deal has not. "If we had been thinking long term, $2 billion in language and culture programs would have lasted a lot longer than a couple of weeks of shopping," said Floyd Favel, a playwright and performer, According to official court notice of the settlement, former students had three main options. The first option was to request a claim form and agree to the terms of the settlement. The second choice was for survivors to remove themselves from the process by opting out, which meant they still retained the rights to sue the church or government on their own. The third alternative was to do nothing, which meant those people would be choosing to not receive a payment and giving up the right to sue. "I have travelled this country, I've been to the territories, the Yukon, Nunavut and all the provinces and I haven't met one person that is opting out," said Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Survivor Society. He said at last count the numbers were very low, but will get an exact number later this week. One estimate puts it under 40. The only benefit to opting out is that it allows survivors to settle their own cases in court, explained Quewezance. Favel believes the settlement isn't enough to right the wrongs the residential schools have done to First Nations people. Favel attended residential school for one year and is choosing the third option by doing nothing, because he doesn't agree with the deal. "The financial figures are too little. It works out to approximately $20,000 per person. In a way, it's not really a settlement," said Favel. First Nations people were taken from their homes and lost both their language and culture, so no amount of money can erase that devastating effect of residential schools, he said. "Home life is the central part of Cree culture and to destroy culture you destroy a home. That was a deliberate policy of the federal government through the church-run residential schools," said Favel, whose father also attended residential school. Residential school survivors then brought that dysfunction back into their own homes, Favel said. He said the more subtle effect of residential schools was assimilation. Survivors turned their backs on the traditional value system and adopted a foreign culture and religion. He believes a better deal could have been negotiated, because survivors were not given any alternatives. Favel believes aboriginal leaders who negotiated the settlement have done a great injustice for First Nations people across the country that will affect future generations. "That money effectively washes away a tragic event in Canadian history," said Favel. Mike Piney, an elder from the Peepeekisis First Nation, went through the residential school system. He said the settlement process has been confusing for some and many don't know what it meant to opt out. "They really don't understand the total process. A lot of our people are still confused, especially the older ones," said Pinay. He said there are many factors one has to think about when it comes to residential schools and although some have chosen to opt out that's not to say everyone agrees with the settlement. "Some won't apply. There's going to be a few who want nothing to do with it. They're happy in their own little world," Pinay said, adding everyone's experience was different and not all experiences were bad. He said there are many First Nations people who have strong religious beliefs and are hesitant to apply for the money. Pinay believes the settlement has been a long time in coming and it's important to acknowledge the older people because every day more survivors are dying. "It's not enough, but at the same time it's something," said Pinay. (REGINA LEADER-POST) ? The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 14:45:37 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:45:37 -0700 Subject: Learning through film (fwd) Message-ID: Learning through film Tulalip filmmaking students tell tribal stories By Jasa Santos Herald Writer http://heraldnet.com/article/20070821/NEWS01/108210038/-1/news01 There's a story in Tulalip culture about a young girl making her first cedar basket. The story tells how the cedar tree has her remake the basket four times, until finally the boughs are woven tightly enough for the basket to hold water. That story is being brought to life by participants in the Tulalip Filmmaking Institute. The film will be shown at the 2nd Annual Tulalip Film Festival on Friday. The film was shot entirely in Lushootseed, the native language, but has English subtitles. The script was created by experienced filmmakers for participants to follow as they learned the ins and outs of editing film and audio. Film and audio clips for the story were pre-recorded for participants, making the focus on arranging the material to tell the story as they envisioned it. Even still, the process of creating a film challenged the people going through the institute. "Oh, my brain hurts," Ginny Ramos said of what she'd learned in the class. Ramos works for the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club. She took the workshop to educate herself on film, something she can use with the multimedia club at the Boys & Girls Club. Having Tulalip youth involved in positive projects, such as the multimedia club, keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, Ramos said. Participants were split into two groups, each responsible for creating its own version of the story. Each group considered each idea for choosing a clip or arranging film sequences. Charles Sneatlum took time off from his job at the Tulalip Casino to attend the workshop. Sneatlum learned about the class last year, but didn't sign up in time to take it. His interest in learning about filmmaking is personal, he said. "I want to make a documentary on fishing rights," he said. Sneatlum already has DVD recordings of his father talking about the Tulalip tribes and their history. Preserving the history and the language of his people is important, Sneatlum said. Robin Carneen, coordinator for the institute, said that storytelling is second nature in the American Indian culture. Though participants weren't experienced using film editing software, they had little trouble in making their films. "We teach through storytelling," Carneen said. "If we don't preserve these stories they're going to be lost forever." There are two benefits to sharing American Indian culture with the general public, Careen said. One, it gives American Indians an opportunity to show their people through their own eyes. Two, it reeducates the public about the culture and people. "It's been too much John Wayne, and not enough 'Smoke Signals,'" Carneen said, referring to the 1998 movie written by Spokane/Coeur d'Aelene Indian author Sherman Alexie. Movies such as "Smoke Signals" really opened a door for American Indian artists, she said. Films now have bravado in telling the truth about everything from alcoholism to traditional culture, Carneen continued. Holding workshops such as Tulalip's gets Carneen excited about the future of American Indian storytellers. "We really need to light a passion inside of them," she said. "There's just not enough of us out there." Reporter Jasa Santos: 425-339-3465 or jsantos at heraldnet.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 22 15:09:02 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:09:02 -0700 Subject: SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070822072210.cesc44kgcwgk844o@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: I am looking forward to when Miromaa becomes available.? I would be glad to give it a try for the communities with whom I work with. Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) UofA Quoting phil cash cash : > SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language > > 22 Aug 2007 09:28 > > SharePoint and Access used to preserve the Awabakal indigenous dialect in > digital form > > With some Australian Aboriginal languages facing extinction, the Arwarbukarl > Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) has adopted Microsoft SharePoint and > Access to help its work to preserve one indigenous dialect. > > Based on Access, ACRA has created its own program, Miromaa ? meaning "saved" > in Awabakal ? to store data and research into the Awabakal language, and is > using SharePoint Server 2007 to share its work with other Aboriginal groups > to help the spread and restoration of the language. > > According to ACRA, the system can help archive "all evidences of language > including, text, audio, images and video" as Word documents and > spreadsheets. > > In the future, ACRA plans to make Miromaa available using a web-based > platform to enable other groups to contribute to its research as well as > enabling Aboriginal communities to use ACRA's work in their own language > studies. > > Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288696,00.htm > > Copyright ? 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved > ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET NEtworks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a > service mark of CNET Networks, Inc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 23 17:07:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:07:53 -0700 Subject: Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language (fwd) Message-ID: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0708/S00284.htm Thursday, 23 August 2007, 3:44 pm Press Release: Norfolk Island Tourism Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language Norfolk Island has taken a small but significant step towards achieving international recognition of the unique Norf?k language. UNESCO has agreed to include Norf?k in the next edition of its Atlas of the World?s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Norfolk Island chief minister Andr? Nobbs says the progress follows a submission by the Norfolk Island Government to UNESCO of a research paper prepared by Prof. Peter Muhlhausler. The Chief Minister paid tribute to a small group of enthusiastic community members who had initiated the approach to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. He also thanked his predecessor Hon. David Buffett for his efforts in promoting the use and recognition of the language. In 2004, the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly passed the Norfolk Island Language (?Norf?k) Act. The act recognised and affirmed ? the Norfolk Island Language (Norf?k) and the right of the people of Norfolk Island to speak and write it freely and without interference or prejudice from government or other persons?. The language was defined in the act as ? the language known as ?Norf?k? that is spoken by the descendents of the first free settlers of Norfolk Island who were descendents of the settlers of Pitcairn Island?. The legislation established rights to use the language within Norfolk Island in all forms of communication and for it to be taught in schools. ?The advice from UNESCO is a significant step in building recognition of the unique language and culture of Norfolk Island,? Mr Nobbs says. ?Other exciting cultural initiatives are underway, including progress toward establishing a cultural centre. ?The Norfolk Island Government will continue to support and encourage the projects to recognise and promote our special cultural values.? Here is a taste of the ?unique? Norf?k language: Norfolk / English Watawieh Yorlye? / How are you? Si Yorlye Morla / See you tomorrow Kushu / Good We baut yu gwen? / Where are you going? Fut nort? / Why not? Hetieh' / Here it is Daaset / That's it Daa letl salan waili ap in aa pain / That little child is stuck in that pine About Norfolk Island: Discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, Norfolk Island was first settled as a British penal colony in 1788 through to 1856. On June 8, 1856, the island was re-inhabited by a community from Pitcairn Island, descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. Known today as Norfolk Islanders, they form a majority of the 1,800 resident population. Norfolk Island is renowned for its spectacular coastal scenery, colourful history, sporting and cultural activities, convict heritage and tax-free shopping. From harveyd at SOU.EDU Thu Aug 23 17:09:16 2007 From: harveyd at SOU.EDU (Dan Harvey) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:09:16 -0700 Subject: Acorns Language Restoration Software Message-ID: Hi All, The new release of the ACORNS software is now available. This software is freely downloaded. It's purpose is to support tribal language revitalization programs. The software can be effectively used with any language. The name ACORNS stands for [A][C]quisition [O]f [R]estored [N]ative [S]peech in honor of the indigenous tribes of Northern California and Southern Oregon. You can visit http://cs.sou.edu/~harveyd and click on the ACORNS language project for more information. The download page has instructions related to installation. The software allows language teachers, or their students, to prepare lessons to assist in language acquisition. Prepared lessons can be posted on the Web, or sent back and forth by e-mail. It is easy to use and requires little training. However, should any tribes want training, we are happy to provide it. Version 2.0 had two types of language lessons. Picture and Sound lessons allows you to attach a group of sound recordings to places on a picture. When the student clicks on those places in the pictures, one of the recorded sounds attached to that spot is heard. Multiple Choice lessons work much like those of the commercial Rosetta Stone product. This kind of lesson attaches a group of recorded sounds to a series of pictures. The student hears a sound clip and then clicks on the appropriate picture. This kind of lesson has proven successful in training our country's diplomats. Version 3.0 now adds a third lesson type. This lesson, called Hear and Respond, annotates a sound recording with translation phrases and words. The student hears the recording (which could be a story for example) and sees the transcription, either in English or in the indigenous language. The program randomly leaves words blank which the student fills in. The program gives audible feedback as to whether the student is correct, or if they are close. This kind of lesson is useful to improve comprehension and helps the student learn correct spelling. Version 3.0 also integrates our Sound Editor directly into the ACORNS application. This feature enables you to edit recordings. For example, you might want to delete the parts of the recording that have 'ahs' or other sounds that don't relate to the language. Our Sound Editor also includes the 'front end' of portion of a speech recognition system. We intend to use this as a tool for research as this project matures. Our long term plan is to create games where indigenous speakers can interact with the computer in their native tongues. Version 3.0 now supports both the Cherokee and Chinook-Wawa keyboard fonts. It is easy to add others, so let us know if you have needs for this feature. We plan to incorporate a GUI front end to this feature so users can easily add their own keyboard mappings. We are still working on the ability to import dictionaries created by linguists. With this capability, we can create an indigenous scrabble game, magnet games, flash card lessons, and other neat features. This feature will also provide user a friendly interface that allows you to update and maintain the dictionary. Please let us know if you have any problems. Universities don't have a quality support department, so we can only find out about problems if you let us know. There is now a forum at the ACORNS web site for easy posting of any problems that you come across. Thanks for your interest. My goal is for ACORNS to become a useful tool for restoring culture and language. Have a great day, Dan Harvey, Associate Professor, Southern Oregon University (541) 552-6149, harveyd at sou.edu From David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG Thu Aug 23 17:25:25 2007 From: David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG (David Lewis) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:25:25 -0700 Subject: Genealogy software Message-ID: I am interested in learning what gen software other tribes are using? David -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Fri Aug 24 01:05:27 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:05:27 +1000 Subject: Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language (fwd) In-Reply-To: <20070823100753.g5qkg4wosg8ck4ok@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of endangered languages is available? -Aidan phil cash cash wrote: > http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0708/S00284.htm > > Thursday, 23 August 2007, 3:44 pm > Press Release: Norfolk Island Tourism > > Recognition for unique Norfolk Island language > > Norfolk Island has taken a small but significant step towards achieving > international recognition of the unique Norf?k language. > > UNESCO has agreed to include Norf?k in the next edition of its Atlas of the > World?s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. > > Norfolk Island chief minister Andr? Nobbs says the progress follows a > submission by the Norfolk Island Government to UNESCO of a research paper > prepared by Prof. Peter Muhlhausler. > > The Chief Minister paid tribute to a small group of enthusiastic community > members who had initiated the approach to UNESCO, the United Nations > Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. He also thanked his > predecessor Hon. David Buffett for his efforts in promoting the use and > recognition of the language. > > In 2004, the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly passed the Norfolk Island > Language (?Norf?k) Act. The act recognised and affirmed ? the Norfolk > Island Language (Norf?k) and the right of the people of Norfolk Island to > speak and write it freely and without interference or prejudice from > government or other persons?. > > The language was defined in the act as ? the language known as ?Norf?k? that > is spoken by the descendents of the first free settlers of Norfolk Island > who were descendents of the settlers of Pitcairn Island?. The legislation > established rights to use the language within Norfolk Island in all forms > of communication and for it to be taught in schools. > > ?The advice from UNESCO is a significant step in building recognition of the > unique language and culture of Norfolk Island,? Mr Nobbs says. ?Other > exciting cultural initiatives are underway, including progress toward > establishing a cultural centre. > > ?The Norfolk Island Government will continue to support and encourage the > projects to recognise and promote our special cultural values.? > > Here is a taste of the ?unique? Norf?k language: > > Norfolk / English > > Watawieh Yorlye? / How are you? > > Si Yorlye Morla / See you tomorrow > > Kushu / Good > > We baut yu gwen? / Where are you going? > > Fut nort? / Why not? > > Hetieh' / Here it is > > Daaset / That's it > > Daa letl salan waili ap in aa pain / That little child is stuck in that pine > > About Norfolk Island: Discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, Norfolk Island was > first settled as a British penal colony in 1788 through to 1856. On June 8, > 1856, the island was re-inhabited by a community from Pitcairn Island, > descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. > > Known today as Norfolk Islanders, they form a majority of the 1,800 resident > population. Norfolk Island is renowned for its spectacular coastal scenery, > colourful history, sporting and cultural activities, convict heritage and > tax-free shopping. > > From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:33:52 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:33:52 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Here is a link to the Endangered Languages section of the UNESCO website, but I have not yet found their list of endangered languages: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11172&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Wayne Leman > Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of > endangered languages is available? > -Aidan From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:37:40 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:37:40 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Here's another UNESCO link on Endangered Languages: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7856&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Wayne Leman > Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of > endangered languages is available? > -Aidan From wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET Fri Aug 24 01:39:33 2007 From: wayneleman at VFEMAIL.NET (Wayne Leman) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:39:33 -0700 Subject: endangered languages list Message-ID: Wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages Caveat emptor! Wayne Leman > >> Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of >> endangered languages is available? >> -Aidan From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Fri Aug 24 01:47:08 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:47:08 +1000 Subject: endangered languages list In-Reply-To: <049901c7e5ef$a7d05020$6401a8c0@gatewaybztrjyk> Message-ID: That reminds me, ethnologue has an interesting page on statistics, number of language by population size, by area, etc., http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size They also have a list of 'nearly extinct languages', though many of the sources they cite go back decades: http://www.ethnologue.com/nearly_extinct.asp -A Wayne Leman wrote: > Wikipedia list: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages > > Caveat emptor! > Wayne Leman > > >> >>> Just out of interest, does anyone know if/where the UNESCO list of >>> endangered languages is available? >>> -Aidan From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Aug 28 19:11:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:11:55 -0700 Subject: Web helping tribe to save language (fwd) Message-ID: Monday, August 27, 2007 Web helping tribe to save language Site aims to keep Dena'ina culture from extinction JESSICA CEJNAR Peninsula Clarion http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/082707/news_3586.shtml For Alan Boraas, an anthropology professor at Kenai Peninsula College, helping to revitalize a language that's nearly dead is not just an interesting project, it's the right thing to do. "It's a very emotional thing to see a language become extinct," he said. "It's the equivalent of a species becoming extinct. What we lose is not just the words, but the thought processes that are part of a language." For more than two years, Boraas and his colleague Michael Christian have taken pictures, navigated through HTML and digitized old audio recordings of Native writer Peter Kalifornsky in order to present Dena'ina vocabulary, grammar, stories and place names in an interactive Web site that went live last month. "I'd sit in front of my computer and Michael was next door sitting in front of his. I'd build a Web page there are several hundred Web pages and add certain elements," Boraas said. "(Christian's) expertise is in doing the sound work and perfecting the pages so they ran smoothly. I couldn't do that so I'd give it to him and he'd edit and fix it. "We've got a draft of it up and running now, we're just trying to get the bugs worked out." In an e-mail, Boraas said some browsers may not support his Web site, but the kinks should be worked out within the next couple of weeks. The Web site is an ongoing project with more features being added to it as time goes by. Visitors can access the Web site at http://qenaga.org/kq/index.html. "I hope people of all ages go to it and gain insights into both the language and the culture," Boraas said. This project is the latest in the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's endeavor to revitalize their Native language. Cultural Director Alexandra "Sasha" Lindgren, a tribal elder with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, said a three-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans allowed the tribe to buy Boraas out of his teaching contract with KPC, enabling him to devote more time to the Web site. But the site is only one part of what the grant was used for. "We're training people to teach the Dena'ina language," said Lindgren, the project director for the grant. "It's more than the Web site." The credit for much of the Dena'ina revitalization goes to James Kari, who spent 30 years working on a dictionary that's on sale now, as well. Boraas said Kari came to Alaska in the 1970s after studying Navajo and worked with Peter Kalifornsky to develop his dictionary. "He began recording before computers," Boraas said. "He would write the word as people said it, develop the spelling system and just build up massive amounts of information." Kari's dictionary took him to Nondalton and Tyonek, where he would seek out Native speakers in order to expand it. "What's so remarkable about it is if it wouldn't have been done over this 30-year period, it would never have been done because the youngest speaker that we know of is 60 years old and most are in their 70s or 80s," Boraas said. "This dictionary is a great achievement. In a hundred years it will be considered the most important book produced during this time period for this part of Alaska." Finding people who actively speak the Dena'ina language is one of the most difficult parts of revitalizing it. Boraas said a lot of people know the language, but because of language extinction policies in place as recent as the 1960s, some were severely punished for speaking it. "Children, if they spoke the Native language in most parts of Alaska, including the Kenai Peninsula, would have their mouths washed out with soap or be beaten," Boraas said. "Now those folks are elders." To the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, language revitalization ties into their sense of identity, Lindgren said. "Why is it important that we revitalize a Native language? It defines who we are, and it defines the relationship to where we are," she said. "Imagine how you would feel if the United States were to sell Alaska, and that company or that country that bought the land mass that's Alaska came in and said you may no longer speak English." Lindgren said the grant money allowed them to initiate a Head Start program centered on language revitalization. The Alaska Native Heritage Center also has a middle school program centered on the Dena'ina language and the Alaska Native Language Center is training teachers. "Alan's Web site falls into the middle of that," she said. The majority of the tribe's 1,200 members live in Anchorage, Soldotna and Kenai, but the Web site is an important tool for members scattered across the country. "The people who don't live here can access the language their grandmother spoke," Lindgren said. "It's a wonderful opportunity, and we'll just wait to see how far it goes." Jessica Cejnar can be reached at jessica.cejnar at peninsulaclarion.com. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 29 17:31:54 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:31:54 -0700 Subject: Reading in your own tradition (fwd) Message-ID: Reading in your own tradition SRJ Staff http://www.srj.ca/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=88&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=2180&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1957&hn=srj&he=.ca Students across the North are reading books in their traditional languages thanks to the South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC). "There are four different titles and eight different languages," said Brent Kaulback, SSDEC. "There is Dogrib, North and South Slavey, Cree, Chipewyan and three Inuit dialects." The books grew out of an Aboriginal language workshop in Feb. 2006. "We got instructors together and talking about Aboriginal language and literacy. They came up with a number of story ideas." [Photo by Lea Storry. The South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) has created four books, which were translated into eight different languages.] Originally, the teachers were only thinking of Cree, Slavey and Chipewyan families who would benefit from the books. "But when other teachers were shown the idea, they thought it was great and the project became much larger than anticipated." Reading and speaking in traditional languages is the purpose of the books whether it is with parents or grandparents or aunts or uncles. "We want students to interact in their own language. It's important because the language itself is an integral part of the culture and we want to be able to support this part of culture." According to Kaulback, the goal is to have more and more youth and parents committed to learning their own language. "By starting young, hopefully they are hooked on it and if interest [in learning the language] doesn't come from the parents, it'll come from the youth themselves." Stories were written by Fort Smith Chipewyan instructor Eileen Beaver, Fort Smith Cree instructor Liz Tuckey and Kaulback himself. "I did a story called Birch Water. It's on how to make birch syrup. I spent the whole day in Hay River and photographed the process." A campaign will be launched this September to promote the books throughout the North. "Too often students are picking up stories which have no direct meaning to them and their culture. These books celebrate who they are, what they are and the language they speak." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Aug 29 17:49:30 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:49:30 -0700 Subject: Native languages taught to undo cultural damage (fwd) Message-ID: Native languages taught to undo cultural damage By AMANDA ROBINSON, SUN MEDIA http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/08/29/4454517-sun.html The N'Amerind Friendship Centre in London is turning to language to undo the damage done to aboriginals by residential schools. For the first time, Oneida and Ojibway languages will be offered to students attending Wiingashk secondary school at the centre this school year. "We've provided languages before (to the community), but not in the school. It will be the first time it will be accredited," said Chester Langille, executive director of the Colborne Street centre. "Education played a direct role in the depletion of (native) language and it should play an instrumental role in establishing them, particularly because so much of a child's life is spent in the education system," Langille said. Residential schools were schools for aboriginal children operated in the last century by churches. Native children were stripped of their language and culture at the schools and many were sexually abused. Wiingashk, an alternative school for at-risk aboriginal students, has spaces for 15 students. There is currently a waiting list. Across Canada, 50 per cent of aboriginal students drop out of high school. That's because mainstream education fails to meet and understand aboriginal students' needs, Langille said. He identified three key reasons that cause aboriginal youth to leave school: - The curriculum lacks cultural relevance. "Instead of learning about their own history they learn European history, and instead of learning their own language, they learn French," he said. - Native students move around more than other students and this affects their social environment and their academic performance. - Aboriginal students face many issues outside school, including, poverty, addiction and abuse, which take priority over academics. Also new at the centre will be a Culture Camp, which will run the first week of October. Its aim is to to help students learn life skills to connect to their culture and community. The camp itinerary includes students receiving their spirit names, clan names or clan colours, along with learning songs and building a sweat lodge, Langille said. "(The camp) will have a significant impact on the kids because they will learn what their (spirit) name is for the first time and that's something they should be learning as children," Langille said. "If students have a high sense of self-worth and self-esteem they will excel in academics." Other initiatives being introduced by the N'Amerind centre for the coming school year: - An aboriginal-focused Best Start program should be implemented by April 2008. Best Start is a government program that focuses on early learning and healthy child development. Through the program, aboriginal children up to five years old will be introduced to their culture and languages. They'll also participate in adoption and naming ceremonies and receive their colours, clan and spirit names. School-age children will be able to access before-school and after-school programs at Best Start. - Talks are ongoing with the Thames Valley District School Board about a full-fledged cultural immersion school for native students that could start in September 2009. From donaghy at HAWAII.EDU Wed Aug 29 21:17:31 2007 From: donaghy at HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:17:31 -1000 Subject: Astronomer exchanges kanji greetings with Hawaiian Language students Message-ID: http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/news/press/view/591/ Astronomer exchanges kanji greetings with Hawaiian Language students Dr. Keiichi Kodaira of the Subaru Telescope Project delivered a written greeting in Japanese kanji characters to students during an assembly today at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Hawaiian immersion laboratory school, Nawahiokalani?opu?u. But what he got in return proved that sometimes the teacher can learn a thing or two from the students. The entire school turned out to greet Dr. Kodaira and read out loud a projection of their own message. To his surprise, the language spelled out in the greeting was not Japanese, but Hawaiian -- something Kodaira had never seen. The greeting was authored by Miki Kawachi, a Japanese national who studied Hawaiian at UH Hilo. Kawachi played a key role in developing the system of writing Hawaiian in kanji and taught it to many students at the school before returning to Japan two years ago. Staff from the Hawaiian language organization, ?Aha Punana Leo, who sailed aboard Hokule?a, joined Kodaira in a presentation of the canoe?s voyage to Japan. Kanji letters from Nawahiokalani?opu?u were among the gifts from Hokule?a?s crew to the Japanese school children. The Punana Leo Hawaiian language revitalization movement is known to many school children in Japan since it is a featured element of the government?s approved school curriculum. Hawaiian language college faculty at UH Hilo have led the way in developing schools run entirely through Hawaiian from the Punana Leo preschool age up to the doctorate. The best practices are employed at Nawahiokalani?opu?u, which has produced a 100% high school graduation rate and approximately 80% college attendance. ?When we first began teaching through Hawaiian, some people said we should be teaching a more economically useful language such as Japanese or Chinese,? said Kauanoe Kamana, the director of the school. ?Ironically, Nawahiokalani?opu?u today has one of the most developed elementary school Asian language programs in Hawai?i.? All first through sixth graders at the school spend an hour each week studying kanji in Hawaiian and another hour studying Japanese. As early as third grade, they can read books written in Hawaiian using kanji, including one that recounts the travels of King Kalakaua to Japan. The focus of the kanji messages carried aboard Hokule?a was aloha to the ancestral land of those in the school who are part Japanese. Nawahiokalani?opu?u teaches all subjects through Hawaiian language and values, such as honoring one?s ancestors. Students honor their Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, and Korean ancestors by learning the Chinese characters, or kanji, in which those East Asian languages are traditionally written. European ancestors are honored by studying Latin in the upper grades. The system of writing Hawaiian in kanji was developed as a project by Dr. Pila Wilson with support from Kawachi and Ms. Wen Chi. Unlike English, kanji can be written in Hawaiian due to certain structural features it shares with East Asian languages. Wilson says there are additional academic advantages to writing Hawaiian in kanji. ?Kanji reinforces reading by syllables and whole words, which helps you to read in any language,? Wilson said. ?The stroke order and distinctive positioning of kanji on the page also strengthens artistic and mathematical skills.? Kodaira said he was honored to deliver the Japanese school children?s response to the students. He noted that the word Subaru derived from an old Japanese word for unity and that writing Hawaiian in kanji reinforces the historical and ancestral ties that unify the people of Japan and Hawai?i. For more information on kanji and the Hawaiian language, visit www.ahapunanaleo.org. ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "T?r gan teanga, t?r gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 30 17:06:42 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:06:42 -0700 Subject: Bilingual-intercultural education aims to keep indigenous girls and boys in school (fwd) Message-ID: Bilingual-intercultural education aims to keep indigenous girls and boys in school [UNICEF Image: Guatemala, bilingual education ? UNICEF Guatemala/2007/Arteaga Guatemalan children learn in two languages, K?iche? and Spanish, at the UNICEF-supported NEUBI school in Sacualpa, in the state of Quiche.] By Blue Chevigny http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guatemala_40728.html PANAJACHEL, Guatemala, 29 August 2007 ? Here on the shores of Guatemala?s beautiful Lake Atitlan, a group of educators, organizers and young people gathered earlier this month for the Forum on Bilingual-Intercultural Education. Organized by UNICEF and its partners, including the Ministry of Education, the forum started off with a group of about 20 girls and boys singing the Guatemalan national anthem and a song about how hard it can be to grow up as a girl. They were all dressed in traditional Mayan clothing. Proponents of bilingual-intercultural education here are calling for classrooms that teach both Spanish and the dominant Mayan language spoken in the area. ?It?s been proven by several studies that a child develops better intelligence, better abilities of all kinds, if he learns in his mother tongue,? said UNICEF Guatemala Assistant Education Officer Ana Maria Sanchez. ?It?s is very much related to the idea of child rights. The child has the right to use her own language to learn, and the right to develop within her own culture.? Respect for cultural diversity Ministry of Education Departmental Director Marcelino Ajcabul Ramirez ? who is from an indigenous background ? also participated in the forum. ?First we have to recognize that we are a diverse country, and that every linguistic group, every population, has its own way of understanding life. And this way of understanding life is communicated through the language,? he told UNICEF Radio. But a total of 22 indigenous languages are actively used in Guatemala. How can respect for this level of cultural diversity be expressed in education? New Unitary Bilingual-Intercultural Education, or NEUBI, is a UNICEF-supported model that may provide an answer. ?The classrooms in the NEUBI schools are made up of ?learning corners? in different areas,? explained Jose Miguel Medrano Rojas, an advocate of this approach. ?The student can go to the different learning corners and learn something at any moment. In this way, it?s very active and participatory.? [UNICEF Image: Guatemala, bilingual education ? UNICEF Guatemala/2007/Arteaga Children sing the Guatemalan national anthem at the opening of the Forum on Bilingual-Intercultural Education in Panajachel, Guatemala.] Model school in Quiche UNICEF Representative in Guatemala Manuel Manrique said everything in NEUBI schools, from classroom structure to homework, must be culturally specific. ?Schools have to adapt to the conditions and circumstances of the population? and should ?be much more flexible in their curriculum,? he noted. ?Teachers should be facilitators who make it possible for students to acquire the abilities and capacities they need.? One example of the NEUBI model in action is a school in Sacualpa, in the state of Quiche ? an area that was affected profoundly by more than 30 years of civil strife that ravaged Guatemala until the mid-1990s. Nowadays, administrators like Sacualpa?s School Director Orfaliz Giron Perez face the challenge of keeping students, especially girls, in school. ?When they finish sixth grade, we try to convince them to continue studying,? she said. ?It?s a shame that sometimes girls at around age 13 stop coming to school. They are taken away to work, or they get married.? Literacy in two languages UNICEF and others assert that bilingual-intercultural education, combined with the efforts of dedicated teachers, can keep both girls and boys in school longer. ?We believe that if a child attends an educational programme in her own language, the child feels more comfortable, more relaxed,? said Ms. Sanchez. ?We hope that with bilingual education, children invest more in the school and stay in school.? Clara Morales de Medrano teaches a second-grade class in a combination of Spanish and K?iche?, the mother tongue of her students. She believes that they will ultimately master reading, speaking and writing in both languages, which will serve them well as adults. ?It?s very sad that sometimes people like us, indigenous people, feel ashamed, or we don't want to put our culture into practice,? she said. ?I never had bilingual education as a student. And at my school there was a lot of discrimination. I had a teacher who I will never forget because I couldn't do the homework and she rejected me. ?That's something I would never want ? that my students remember me that way.? From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Aug 30 17:19:21 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:19:21 -0700 Subject: Dust Echoes (fwd link) Message-ID: Dust Echoes Ancient Stories, New Voices http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/ The Dust Echoes series is a collection of twelve aboriginal dreamtime stories collected from the Wugularr (Beswick) Community in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia.