indigenous language survival

[Heather Souter]

Taanshi, Richard,

I am pondering your thoughts....  I wonder about many of the same things as
I do work on our language.  I worry that if we place such great a focus on
technology, all we will be left with are "holograms" of elders speaking our
languages.

I also often think about how to show the connection between our language,
our ways of thinking and the land to which we are related....   I wonder if
is not to start from the most basic and local--to think about all the things
that sustain us as peoples-starting from the most basic--food, family,
community, art/spirituality--and make sure that our languages are central to
them all.  It seems to me that our languages provide us with an
important--perhaps the most important?--way to keep and recreate an
internally cohesive identity in ways that are authentic to our cultures....
The question is how to do this effectively when we all now live embedded in
a dominant culture with dominant patterns of thought and ways of interacting
that are not just associated with one nation or region but  with global
reach?

Eekoshi pitamaa.
Heather

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Richard Zane Smith <rzs at wildblue.net>wrote:

> Kweh all,
> just some thoughts....
> I know linguists can't hep but be linguists, as artists can't help but be
> artists.
> but when i read about the threat of EVEN the Maori language extinction,
> it really got me thinking.
> Many are busy creating indigenous words for NON-indigenous* thought
> paradigms*.
> At an immersion school in Aotearoa I visited, students science classes were
> being taught
>  with a myriad of NEW designed Maori words to describe atoms,particles
> etc...
> in other words "things" that many of our indigenous cultures never *broke
> down*
> in a traditional context other than perhaps stories about "how things are
> all connected"
>
> Might this forced and continual translation of noun based colonized terms
> into indigenous terms
> be actually turning our languages into "*codes*" to basicly think *the
> same thoughts*
> but to represent them as indigenous characters and sounds?
> Are we paradigm shifting basic-thought pattern of OUR languages when we do
> this?
>
> Ok, now we will all have gadgets to text message in
> Cherokee,Swahili,Chinese, English,Mohawk
> but what if the whole IDEA of text messaging isn't weighed "culturally" and
> every NEW gadget is now "NDignized" just like we have Nammy Awards instead
> of Grammy Awards, Native RAP version of Ghetto RAP, An NDN version of every
> WHITE thing the dominant (even parasitical) culture comes up with. What are
> we doing? Are we thinking about what we are doing?
> Aren't we the people who are supposed to lead the way to LIFE
> sustainability?
> The dominant system of conquest is still marching, and its cancerous to our
> planet.
>
> We KNOW in our minds that a language survives/thrives only in *context* of
> its own healthy culture.But unless children grow up imbedded in Wyandot
> culture(life/ways),
> going to school and learning to speak Wyandot does not a Wyandot make.
> They are only speaking Wyandot code .* the new code talkers?*
> If this is true, dying languages are only PART or symptomatic of a bigger
> problem.
> Our minds are changing, our children's minds are changing, and if we want
> them to be strong in their languages they are going to need *a whole lot
> more* than Wyandot language classes.
> or free gadgets to do Wyandot texting.
>
> The reason the languages are dying is because there is a *replacement *of
> thinking.
> Its EASIER ,maybe even more appropriate? to use English when students are
> dissecting
> a frog because its the nature of that kind of thinking to dissect things
> and solve problems by taking things apart.  Is that OUR way?
> When we Wyandotized the process of dissecting a frog, we lose Wyandot
> paradigm.
> If you dissect a frog and learn science that can cure cancer thats
> wonderful,
> Kids should learn that ALSO.
> but I'm just wondering the benefit of mixing.blending thinking paradigms.
>
> Traditionalist always tell me - ceremony has to stay OUT of politics
> for that very reason...the various "thinkings" don't mix well.
>
> I  heard just at ONLA from a Cherokee language teacher in Talequah
> that a modern childs attention span is now *9 seconds .*
> *why? **Its the average time it takes to send a text message.*
> what are we doing folks? Are we simply getting on board this Titantic
> because OUR language needs to be on the ship??
> Maybe we need to strengthen our cultural roots/languages/arts/communities
> and be VERY selective/careful about introducing all these new shiny toys?
> Shall we talk about the addiction of* "the new"* ?
> uuuh ...some other time...
>
> just some thoughts, i don't know the answers
> I'm someone who still plays in the mud ....for a living!
>
> Richard Zane Smith
> Wyandotte Oklahoma
>
>
>
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