FW: Visit to UK of Kuiusi Suya

[Julia Sallabank]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lagb at essex.ac.uk on behalf of Daniel L. Everett
Sent: Mon 9/13/2004 2:11 PM
To: lagb at essex.ac.uk
Cc: Daniel L. Everett
Subject: Visit to UK of Kuiusi Suya

Folks,

In early June or late May of 2005 the AHRB and ESRC will be sponsoring
a trip to the UK of two representatives of the Suya (Kiseji) community
of the Xingu Park of Brazil.

There are two purposes for this trip. First, Kuiusi, the main chief of
the Suya and one of the best-known leaders in the Xingu park, will be
speaking about the importance of language and culture from his
perspective as chief of a highly endangered group (there are only about
200 Suya left in the world). This lecture, by a dynamic and articulate
spokesman from an Amazonian language will be a rare experience. The
second purpose of the trip is to raise funds for a (yet-to-be-created)
foundation for the preservation of the Kiseji culture and language.

Although details are still being worked out, I would like to know how
many departments might be interested in having Kuiusi (and his
son-in-law and official interpreter, Gakomberi) speak at their
university. Ideally, the audience would include not only linguists,
anthropologists, etc. but also laypersons with interest or potential
interest in the issue of language endangerment.

The Suya have some very well-thought out views on language and culture
endangerment, intellectual property rights, and other issues that
linguists and anthropologists often discuss, though at one remove from
those most affected by the issues.

Aspects of Suya culture have been studied by Anthony Seeger, an
ethnomusicologist at UCLA (formerly of the Smithsonian Institution).
The AHRB and ESRC are sponsoring a three-year project to document and
describe the Suya language.

If you believe that your university might be interested in hearing the
Suya's perspective on language and cultural endangerment, could you
please contact me at this email address?

Thanks very much,

-- Dan Everett


---------------------------------------------
Daniel L. Everett
Postgraduate Programme Director
Professor of Phonetics & Phonology
Department of Linguistics and English Language
University of Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL UK
Fax: 44-161-275-3187
Phone: 44-161-275-3158 http://ling.man.ac.uk/info/staff/DE/DEHome.html