Category Archives: Module 2

Module 2:5 – Terralingua

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http://www.terralingua.org

Terralingua is a group of academics and activists who study biocultural diversity – diversity of plants, animals, and nature as well as cultures and languages – and work towards building awareness of the importance of maintaining it. The Downloads section under the Publications tab has interesting articles such as “Biocultural Diversity & Sustainability”, and “Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the World & Ecoregion Conservation Booklet.” There is also a link to a book co-published by the WWF, UNESCO, and Terralingua called Sharing a World of Difference: The Earth’s Linguistic, Cultural and Biological Diversity (2003). Their work is focused on educational initiatives, policy development, and documenting biocultural diversity.

Module 2:4 – Murder that is a threat to survival

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http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/mar/22/tefl3

In looking for something to post about ethnobotany or linguistic genocide, I came across this short and simple Guardian newspaper article by Tove Skuttnab-Kangas. To quote from the article:

 “threatened languages store the knowledge about how to maintain and use sustainably some of the most vulnerable and most biologically diverse environments in the world. It has taken centuries for people to learn about their environments and to name the complex ecological relationships that are decisive for maintenance of biodiversity. When indigenous peoples lose their languages, much of this knowledge also disappears: the dominant languages do not have the ethno-biological and ethno-medical vocabulary, and the stories will not be translated.”

Skuttnab-Kangas says that just as the loss of biodiversity is a threat to our survival, so is the loss of linguistic diversity—monocultures are vulnerable. The author claims that the biggest weapon we have against linguistic genocide is to enshrine rights to education in the mother tongue much more strongly throughout the world than is currently practiced, and also to raise awareness about the great risks of language loss.

Module 2:3 – Library Services to Indigenous Populations: Case Studies

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http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/indigenous-matters/publications/indigenous-librarianship-2013.pdf

This publication from the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) was developed with two goals in mind: to guide practice, and to strengthen international networks of indigenous librarians. Case studies of library services for indigenous people are included from all over the world: North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The PDF of this 117-page book is freely available on the IFLA website. Each case study is presented in a consistent form-like fashion, more a directory-type entry than what I would normally expect from a case study (I was expecting longer narratives). But a resource for contacts, and as a quick overview of things that are happening worldwide, it is useful.

Module 2:1 – Research Guide to Indigenous Librarianship

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http://guides.library.ubc.ca/content.php?pid=482521

Indigenous librarianship is a specialized field within library and information studies. Its focus is the culturally sensitive management and development of collections about or for indigenous people, and the appropriate provision of library services to indigenous communities or groups. The Research Guide to Indigenous Librarianship by the Xwi7xwa Library @ UBC is a useful portal to other sources, including a short list of recommended books, associations, etc. The section on indigenous policy development in public institutions is most interesting to me, with links to guides to on how to be a culturally responsive library and protocols for handling indigenous materials. It includes links to indigenous classification schemes (alternatives to Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress classifications) and to lists of standardized indigenous names and terms, needed by librarians for their daily work of indexing and cataloguing.

Entry 8: Language and Culture

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“The world loses a language every two weeks” – Wade Davis

The IRCA (Indigenious Remote Communications Association) “is the peak body that represents and advocates for the media and communications interests of remote and very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.”  This site discusses the importance of maintaining and strengthening the languages of aboriginal groups. Languages hold a key to the tranmission of culture, ideas, values, etc and often some information can not be translated into nother language, say English, wihout losing the importance of the information.  Therefore, it is imperative that the languages of aboriginal peoples be maintained.

IRCA “believes that strong language and culture are fundamental to strengthening Indigenous identity and culture.”

Languages contain complex understandings of a person’s culture, their identity and their connection with their land. Language enables the transference of culture and cultural knowledge across generations. Languages are a source of pride and strength.

The site goes on to list several key reasons for languages. These include 1) Culture    2) Health, Education, Employment  3) Heritage  4) Economics  5) Science and Sustainability  6) Reconciliation.  IRCA also offers many documents and reports that  support indigenious languages.

http://www.irca.net.au/about-irca/friends/sector/language-and-culture

Entry 7: Canadians increasingly reporting aboriginal identity

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Gloria Galloway and Travis Grant published this article in 2013 in The Globe and Mail  The authors report on the phenomenon where many Canadians are now claiming to be aboriginal.   Galloway and Grant cite Wayne Smith of Staistics Canada, who discovered “an unexpectedly high number… who claimed to be aboriginal”  in the 2011 data from the National Household Survey. Yet, many of these Canadians did not report aboriginal identity in the census of 2006.

I find this article worrisome on the basis of comparing data from 2006 and 2011. Having worked with Staistics Canada for the 2002 census, I was told, and in turn relayed, that nams on the census were simply for keeping track of households completed.

The authors comment that aboriginal leaders believe the trend to be partly a result of social media and a new sense of pride.  Betty Ann Lavallee, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples states that young people ” are no longer afraid. They know they have the basis of law behind them and they’re becoming extremely vocal.”

Wilf falk, Manitoba’s top statistician,  indicated that ‘the number of  people who self-identified as Metis at both the national and provincial level went up about 60 percent… He attributes the shift to increased awareness of identity.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/native-people-boldly-standing-up-to-be-counted/article12912056/

 

 

 

Module 2 – Post 5 – Local Language Radio in Tofino

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Combining two of the themes from my previous post (language and ecotourism in Tofino) is the Long Beach Radio Web Log, Tofino and Ucluelet’s Local Radio.   I found it incredibly interesting that this radio station has a link on it’s website called “Local Language”.  While this section is relatively new and doesn’t contain a ton of information, their note promises that the page will continue to grow as the program develops.  They do have various links and sample audio so that you can become familiar with the Nuu Chah Nulth language.

http://www.longbeachradio.ca/p/local-language.html

 

 

Module 2 – Post #2 – “Return of Treasures”

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While contemplating the ideas of culture and commodification in this Module, I discovered a website that has been compiled by the U’Mista Cultural Society. The website associates the meaning of U’Mista with the return home of captives who may have been abducted in raids. It then identifies the return of artifacts or treasures of the Kwakwaka’wakw people from foreign institutions and collections as a form of U’Mista.

A wonderful link from this site is the Story of the Masks. This site uses text, images, video and simple games/quizzes to introduce and share the stories of the Kwak’wala speaking people of the Northwest Coast of B.C.  The site includes many personal accounts of how masks and/or regalia, along with their stories, have been passed along through generations.

This site is also part of a much larger, quite interesting institution known as the Virtual Museum of Canada. This initiative seems to me to be a wonderful way to allow a diverse range of communities and groups to share their stories and educate others about their culture while at the same time protecting the things most sacred to those cultures and ensuring that they are physically located in the places where they belong.

The Story of the Masks has given me much food for thought as I pursue my research regarding digital stories and indigenous knowledge and culture.

In my proposal for my final paper, I explained that I am wanting to delve into ecotourism and it’s connection to the First Nations people of British Columbia.  Because of this I have been looking into various First Nations tourist activities that advertise that they are “ecotourism”.   The community of Tofino is a hotbed for ecotourism so it was no surprise when I came across “Walk theWild Side”,  a 2 day hike just outside of Tofino on Flores Island.

“The trail, from the Ahousaht village to the wild coast of Flores Island, is a unique showcase of the First Nation’s history and culture.  The trail has been continuously used by the Ahousaht people for thousands of years for spiritual purposes, to gather medicinal plants and seasonal food, as well as to collect wood and bark for cultural uses.”.  Travellers are encouraged to learn some Ahousaht language phrases as well as some history about the sites they will be visiting, before they visit.

Module 2 – Post 3 – First Nations’ font downloads

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In the interview of Dr. Lorna Williams that we watched in module 6, she spoke at length about language.  Both about the systematic attempt to wipe out First Nations languages through residential schools and the attempts to reteach those languages through programs within her community.  At one point she is speaking about creating these programs from scratch and identifies the challenge of what happens to a language when it becomes coded and static… when it shifts from an oral tradition to a literate one.  Certainly one of those challenges is the constraints that are put on by the roman alphabet of the keyboard.  A few of our readings have made reference to programs that you can download but I had yet to see one until I came across this site that allows you download fonts for a large number of First Nations in North America, including this page for the Haisla People how live near Kitamaat (they are among the First Nations who are standing against the Enbridge pipeline).