Premier of 'Navajo Star Wars' centerpiece of Native language institute program (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

*Premier of 'Navajo Star Wars' centerpiece of Native language institute
program*

Published on Thursday, 11 September 2014 15:48
Written by University of Texas at Arlington Linguistics Dept.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Less than two weeks after the passing of Chester Nez,
one of the original Navajo Code Talkers, the University of Texas at
Arlington hosted the Texas premiere of ‘Navajo Star Wars’ at CoLang 2014, a
major institute on language revitalization focusing on Native American and
other endangered languages.  Nearly two hundred people, representing
twenty-nine different tribes and indigenous communities from the Americas
and countries ranging from Australia to Japan and Ethiopia, participated in
events at CoLang in June and July.

As part of the public events, the first Texas screening of ‘Navajo Star
Wars’ took place.  The Navajo Nation Museum worked with Lucasfilm and 20th
Century Fox to create a Navajo language version of the science fiction
classic, with dialogue dubbed into Navajo and accompanied by English
subtitles.  Navajo Language Academy Executive Director Irene Silentman
commented on the movie’s significance.

"It’s one way of preserving the language, it’s one of the most fun ways to
do it. It’s a major motion picture.  It brings the language up to par with
English, in a sense. I know a lot of people, when they first viewed the
movie in Navajo, they were so proud. It’s something to be proud of, to show
off the language, and to show it in other forms.  You can use it [Navajo]
in any form, you can use it in any field," said Silentman.

​Access full article below:
http://nativetimes.com/index.php/life/education/10483-premier-of-navajo-star-wars-centerpiece-of-native-language-institute-program
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