Language and Church Again

[Susan Penfield]

Thank you Jon,
Very pertinent to this discussion....

Recently, I was talking to a community member and I was
complaining about the awfule effects of residential schools on
indigneous languages. His comment was that , "We have to stop
blaming the schools entirely ---modern pressures are continuing
the problem. We now have a tribal Senior Citizens home -- the extended
family is breaking down...values are changing ...."

I took this to suggest what others have mentioned on list -- that while the
schools launched
the negative direction, attention needs to be directed to current social
pressrues
that are actively contributing to the decline of languages....

Just to chime in....

On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 9:37 AM, Jon Reyhner <Jon.Reyhner at nau.edu> wrote:

> Dear Friends of Indigenous Languages:
>
> I thought the quote from G. McKay (1996), The land
> still speaks (Commissioned Report No. 14).
> Canberra, Australia: Australian Government
> Publishing Service (GPO Box 84, Canberra ACT
> 26011, Australia) might interest some of you.
>
> "While most people . . . tended to see the term
> 'language maintenance activities' as including
> only formally organized language programs and
> activities, Saibai Island Council, in its
> response, made explicit what other communities
> assume: that traditional ceremonies and other
> traditional activities (they mention dancing,
> singing and story-telling -- others would include
> hunting) are an important means of keeping the
> traditional language strong. At the same time, the
> people of Saibai include church services and
> tombstone unveiling in this arena, showing that
> Christianity and other post-contact developments
> have been firmly adopted by members of the
> community in the ongoing development of their
> indigenous culture and life. The church has become
> part of their heritage . . . but not the school .
> . .  (p. 110)."
>
> Jon Reyhner, Professor of Bilingual Multicultural
> Education
> Northern Arizona University
> http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar
>



-- 
____________________________________________________________
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.

Department of English (Primary)
American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI)
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT)
Department of Language,Reading and Culture(LRC)
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: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20080301/1618a12b/attachment.htm>