Language more important than land - academic (fwd link)

[Richard Zane Smith]

Thanks Bernadette,
for voicing these concerns and thoughts. The idea of "ownership" in our
Wyandot language is interesting. its still not completely understood,
but one can't "own" an animal,a lake,a valley,or a mountain. Ownership in
the most common forms seems to be about what you can "hold"
or an object that is so much yours, no one else would WANT to own
it...because it wouldn't make sense. Why would i want a brothers bow
that is made to fit his arm draw length and weight? or his medicine pouch?
or even a sacred stone he keeps ?
Its absurd to even comprehend. it'd be like wanting someone else's teeth,
or trying to borrow someone else's eyebrows.

I hope everyone has heard about  the returning of personhood to the
Whanganui River in Aotearoa (NZ)

http://www.care2.com/causes/new-zealand-grants-a-river-the-rights-of-personhood

This is in my opinion a good first step towards restoring honor to ancient
waterways  and restoring the river the status of a "being"
needed to protect it against abuse. Perhaps we can take note and begin a
similar process with many of our own sacred places, rivers and lakes.
The clear cut division of inanimate and animate seems to be a foreign idea,
its not often so clear within our ancient paradigms.
Honor to the Maori people for the guts, the strength and "audacity" to do
what needs to be done.
I wish our assimilated ones tip-toeing, around the American flag, afraid to
shake the system, could visit Aotearoa and see what the Maori are
accomplishing.
Grounded Indigenous peoples who walk with heads held high and simply don't
take "no" for an answer.

Speaking of our own cosmology,
 people always say "oh you are a Leo!" when they hear my birth date. I
say..."well, not really...I'm Wyandot not Greek"
unéh
Richard


On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 12:26 PM, BSantaMaria <bernisantamaria at gmail.com>wrote:

> I strongly disagree with the last statement of paragraph:  "Language &
> culture are intertwined & because of this it's impossible to see how land
> can be seen as more important."  It is because of how intertwined
> everything is in our Indigenous ideologies/philosophies including
> especially our lands, natural resources, languages, cultures, social and
> economic issues, etc., etc., that is not understood by non-Natives or
> non-Indig. people that is an issue in many aspects of language & culture
> revitalization efforts.  I believe they do not "get it" because they do not
> speak an Indigenous language that speaks intimately of our connections to
> our homelands within our speech/terminology.  Speaking our languages
> fluently also engages/intimately involves our lands and resources that come
> from it, without these, our languages would be missing a vital link to our
> cultures, some of us even believe that "our land is us" in our language,
> is our mother.  Thinking of land as property with fiscal value is the
> antithesis of some of our views on it and that usually comes from the
> western world capitalist view.
>
> These are also the reasons why I came to an MA thesis conclusion back in
> the mid-1990's that language revitalization efforts involves "Wholistic
> Healing for our Native People" to revive their languages and I meant in all
> areas of Native life including returning to a belief in our
> cosmologies/spiritality beliefs, traditional socio-economic patterns, etc.
> It seems that recent articles and books on these issues are arriving at
> similar conclusions. These reasons are also why I saw the field of
> linguistics as lacking in considering these aspects of Native people
> when studying our languages focusing so narrowly on a certain aspect
> of them and mostly benefiting themselves.
>
> I'm also going to request info from those on this list that know of some
> books and titles/articles that I can review pertaining to what I brought
> out above.
>
> Ahiye'e (Thank you,
>
>
> Bernadette Adley-SantaMaria
> White Mountain Apache
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Phillip E Cash Cash <
> cashcash at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
>> *Language more important than land - academic
>> *
>> Updated at 7:19 pm on 10 September 2012
>>
>> Linguistics expert Ghil'ad Zuckermann says that the loss of language is
>> more damaging for indigenous peoples than the loss of their land.
>>
>> Access full article below:
>>
>> http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/115509/language-more-important-than-land-academic
>>
>
>


-- 

 "…revitalizing our language is really just an act of returning to what we
are supposed to be. It is like a fish returning to the water, breathing and
living once again. "Xh'unei Lance E. Twitchell (Tlingit)
*

richardzanesmith.wordpress.com

**

**

*
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