Please join us next week for the first of three talks in connection with the LING/DISE search in Indigenous Languages.
Speaker: Dr. Kari Chew (University of Victoria)
Coordinates: November 19th, 3:00–4:30 in EDUC 624 (to be followed by a reception)
Title: Weaving Words: Situating linguistics, education, and language reclamation within a culturally-significant metaphor
Abstract:
Drawing on a five-year study with Chickasaw language learners and speakers, I consider the metaphors used to talk about language reclamation, which involves the work of linguists and educators. As a Chickasaw, I understand language as the vehicle for our original instructions from Aba’ Bínni’li’, the Creator, to be in good relation with people, land, plants, animals, and spirits. Within dominant discourses about Indigenous languages, metaphors of endangerment, loss, and extinction pervade. I conceptualize Chickasaw language reclamation within the culturally-significant metaphor of tanni—the art of finger weaving belts for ceremonial attire. I identify strands of the weaving as themes emerging from research with my community and personal experience as a language learner, including a critical consciousness of cultural identity rooted in language, a holistic understanding of language as cultural practice, and a view of language reclamation as an intergenerational endeavor in which younger generations are especially valued. I argue that by situating language reclamation within metaphors envisioned by Indigenous peoples, communities can exercise linguistic and educational sovereignty to enact language continuance in alignment with their own aspirations.