Native Nations, Native Voices

[Gordon Bronitsky]

I am working with the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center of Albuquerque New 
Mexico to create Native Nations, Native Voices--a festival to honor 
contemporary Native language writers. To honor Native language authors, 
  Native language writers have been invited to participate in a 
three-day festival.  Writers will read from their works in their own 
languages;  National language translations will be made available to 
the audience at the option of each writer.  A special effort has been 
made to include and honor high school and college authors in Native 
languages, for they are the future of languages.  Selected writers 
represent as broad a range of languages and styles as possible.  The 
festival is scheduled for summer 2005, and the
exact dates will be set soon.
Over 500 Native Nations, each with its own language and culture. These 
are the Nations which were encountered by the first Europeans to enter 
North America.  Yet now Native languages are under threat everywhere, 
due to Euro-American educational policies, disease, and the virtual 
omnipresence of English language television.  Some languages are 
extinct--from Guale to Esalen, from Eyak to Timucuan.  Others are only 
spoken by a handful of elderly individuals.
Yet throughout Native America, a small but growing body of writers
are giving new voice to Native languages, using their own languages to 
write about and confront the world they live in, the world of the 
Twenty First Century.  Often unknown outside their own communities, 
such writers have much to say to all of us.
Right now, participants include
1. Greenland--Jokum Nielsen (Kalaallisut [Greenlandic])
2. Canada--Floyd Favel (Cree), Peter Irniq (Inuktitut)
3. United States--Jim Northrup (Anishnaabe [Chippewa/Ojibwe]), Eveline 
Battiest Steele (Choctaw), Nia Francisco and Nora Yazzie (Navajo),  
Dominik Tsosie (outstanding high school writer--Navajo), Virgil Reeder. 
(Kawaikagamedzene [Laguna Pueblo]),   Frances Washburn (Lakota)
4. Hawai¹i--Kainani Kahaunaele, Larry Kimura (Hawai¹ian)
5. Saipan--Frances Sablan (Chamorro)
6.  Guam--Peter Onedera (Chamorro)
7. Mexico--Jesus Salinas Pedraza (Nyahnyu [Otomi]), Diego Méndez Guzmán 
(Tzeltal Maya), Ruperta Bautista Vazquez (Tzotzil Maya),  Jun Tiburcio 
(Totonac)
8.  Peru--Martin Castillo (Quechua), Felix Julca (Quechua)
9.  Brazil--Nanblá Grakan (Xokleng)
Might this be of interest?  Naturally I would be happy to provide more 
information or answer any
questions you might have.
Thank you.

Yours,


Gordon Bronitsky, PhD
Bronitsky and Associates
3715 La Hacienda Dr NE
Albuquerque, NM  87110

505-256-0260
e-mail g.bronitsky at att.net


On Mar 8, 2004, at 1:34 AM, Trond Trosterud wrote:

> Dear nicholas ostler!
>
> I am about to give a talk on laguage technology and minority languages 
> here in Tromsö (linked to my project http://giellatekno.uit.no).
>
> Connected to that I would like to give a quote. i believe it comes 
> from you, in some publicaton I imagine i have seen you have 
> paraphrased Uriel Weinreich's "a language is a dialect with a fleet 
> and an army" into "a language is a dialect with a machine-readable 
> dictionary and basic language technology resources" (as you see, my 
> attempt at remembering  both quotes are quite inaccurate).
>
> So, do you know what I am talking about? If so, could you send me the 
> quote (and I'll make it famous here in Tromsø)
>
> Trond
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Trond Trosterud                                        t +47 7764 4763
> Institutt for språkvitskap, Det humanistiske fakultet  m +47 950 70140
> N-9037 Universitetet i Tromsø, Noreg                   f +47 7764 4239
> Trond.Trosterud (a) hum.uit.no          http://www.hum.uit.no/a/trond/
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 3875 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20040308/9f2b7d7e/attachment.bin>