Siraya petition

[Eleonora Deak]

Hush Piers you've blown my cover! I LOVE press-the-button activism. It makes me feel like an active activist.


From: Piers Kelly 
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:27 PM
To: Margaret Florey 
Cc: Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity at unimelb.edu.au 
Subject: Re: Siraya petition


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.)



Eleonora Deak :))
0428 140 891
http://picasaweb.google.com/eldeak
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