During a busy summer that included film screenings, summer youth camp sponsorships, and funding two Sauk Language apprentices’ attendance at programs like the Canadian Indigenous Languages Literacy Development Institute at the University of Alberta, Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program also collaborated in-house with the Community Radio Project to help the Smithsonian Recovering Voices initiative in hosting a conference for Indigenous language radio producers.
Endangered Languages Program interns helped complete a nationwide informal survey of Native language content and programming on Indian Country’s 60 tribal stations, and also found examples of Indigenous urban radio programs that sometimes incorporate language lessons, interviews with tribal language practitioners, and stories about Indigenous language classes and events.
Some of these new contacts, and programs hosted by “Our Voices on the Air” attendees will soon be incorporated into Cultural Survival’s Indigenous languages movement web platform that will launch next week, the Language Gathering—initially profiling 15 model language revitalization programs, most of which offer language immersion efforts focused on training new speakers for their communities. In addition to photo and video content of successful language education efforts, the site will include profiles of funders, language news and events, descriptions of best practices in fostering fluency in tribal languages, and links to language jobs and local educational tools, including apps and games developed by language educators to engage youth. Linked with both cs.org and ourmothertongues.org the site will be a permanent online resource, eventually connecting hundreds of Indigenous language projects and programs that are focused on restoring cycles of Indigenous language transmission to their communities, thereby extending the life of endangered languages.
