By Dana Benner
Nothing screams Hawai’i more than the lu’au. Every year countless people experience the numerous commercial lu’aus offered on all of the islands, but how many of those people understand what the lu’au, or as it is called by the Hawai’ian people, ‘aha’aina, means to the Hawai’ian culture. In many cases, the modern lu’aus that draw many tourists, only very slightly convey the true meaning of the event.
Tribal language programs nationwide have begun summer program preparations for a range of community language immersion and teacher training opportunities. Among Cultural Survival’s advisor programs, the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project and Euchee (Yuchi) Language Project, will offer multi-week language camps for youth focused on building conversational skills and ceremonial vocabulary to engage students as future community cultural leaders.
The team-based master apprentice project based at the Sac and Fox Nation has completed a multi-year effort to significantly boost the language proficiency of three second language learners. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Native Americans, the project was jointly administered by Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program and the Sauk Language Department in Stroud, Oklahoma.
The Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award will be given to a courageous advocate who is pursuing the rights of Indigenous Peoples' with an Indigenous community. The Award is intended to recognize Indigenous activists for their dedication, passion, and commitment to human rights and their struggle for Indigenous Rights.
This month Cultural Survival's Endangered Languages program manager Jennifer Weston met with six Innu tribal members from Sheshatshiu, Labrador to discuss Native American language revitalization programs in the U.S., and the status of the Innu language in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec. Three students, two teachers, and a community-based artist from the Sheshatshiu Innu School visited Cultural Survival’s offices while taking time off from an exhibition they helped develop with the Phillips Academy Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusett
The Makepeace Productions documentary WE STILL LIVE HERE: Âs Nutayuneân, produced with the assistance of Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program, travelled this month to a series of ten workshops in Bosnia and Herzegovina with director Anne Makepeace as part of the U.S. Department of State’s American Film Showcase program that hosts screenings and discussions at international embassies, universities, and diverse community organizations.
Reconocimiento de tierra
Reconocemos que nuestra sede está en la tierra de Massachusetts, en Cambridge, MA, y agradecemos a los administradores Indígenas pasados, actuales y futuros de este territorio.
