Siraya petition

[Piers Kelly]

Hi Margaret and RNLD,
I've signed the petition but it got me thinking off the topic.

I've never had much faith in the value of online petitions and a part of me
believes that they may be counterproductive in that they provide
'participants' with the satisfaction of having engaged in a worthy campaign
by simply clicking a button. I may be wrong: this is simply an impression.

I can think of various cases in Australia where the description of a
language-endangerment issue is fantastic but the subsequent action strategy
is ineffectual or nonexistent. I'm not blaming linguists or casting
judgment, I just wonder if there might be an inherent inefficiency in how we
approach things.

I'd love to get a discussion going on the practicalities of successful
language activism. Environmental movements have been very good at separating
the tasks of scientific description and action/intervention. These are
discrete skills and rarely are they embodied in a single individual. Perhaps
as descriptive linguists we should even think about stepping back a bit to
encourage other skilled people to enter the space.

Thoughts? Examples?

Piers

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Margaret Florey
<margaret.florey at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear RNLDers,
>
> Chun (Jimmy) Huang is asking for support with a petition seeking official
> status for the Siraya people of Taiwan (and for other unrecognized low-land
> Aboriginal peoples). Recognition would provide Siraya people with access to
> funding and resources to support the revitalization of Siraya language and
> culture.
>
> He has set up a petition at <
> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Siraya-reclamation> and has provided
> detailed background information at that site.
>
> Chun is a Linguistic consultant with the Tainan Ping-pu Siraya Culture
> Association and PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Florida.
> He can be contacted on <huangc20 at ufl.edu> for further information.
>
> kind regards,
> Margaret
>
> --
> Margaret Florey
> Margaret.Florey at gmail.com
> Ph: +61 (0)4 3186-3727 (mob.)
>
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