\u201cEven though we are from different tribes, we are all in the same canoe. We need to work together to preserve the languages of our ancestors,\u201d said Tsimshian artist from Metlakatla David R. Boxley at the opening of the first Alaska Language Summit on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Boxley spoke to a crowd of about 50 people in the clan house of Sealaska Heritage Institute\u2019s Walter Soboleff Building. Summit participants came from all over Alaska, including Barrow, Dillingham, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kotzebue. Presenters traveled from Hawaii and Canada; one teleconferenced in from New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, was one of the summit\u2019s organizers. He sponsored the 2014 bill that made 20 Alaska Native languages official state languages.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne observation I had from the Native language bill was that people dedicating their lives to language revitalization in different parts of Alaska were not as connected as they could possibly be,\u201d said Kreiss-Tomkins. \u201cSo people were independently developing models and practices in different regions of the state, and we felt there\u2019s a lot of opportunity for people in different parts of Alaska to learn from each other.\u201d He said speakers from Hawaii, Six Nations and New Zealand served as other good examples.<\/p>\n
Language revitalization efforts around the state include developing pre-kindergarten learning materials, creating immersion childcare centers, online language classes and building \u201clanguage nests\u201d \u2014 spaces in the community to immerse in the language.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur language is a source of wealth,\u201d said Edna MacLean, an I\u00f1upiaq from Barrow. MacLean is on the North Slope Borough\u2019s I\u00f1upiaq History, Language, and Culture Commission, which was established in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
MacLean said the North Slope is gradually losing its ancestral language. Something elders can do to turn that around, she said, is speak I\u00f1upiaq to younger generations. \u201cWe need to look down and talk to our grandchildren in I\u00f1upiaq. Otherwise, they\u2019ll always be bystanders.\u201d MacLean said. \u201cWe have to take it step by step. It\u2019s very easy to respond back in English but tell yourself, \u2018I have to answer this child in I\u00f1upiaq.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
MacLean plans to work with teachers in the school district and create a concrete language revitalization plan. \u201cA system of communication needs to be developed between our institutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Xh\u2019unei Lance Twitchell said summit participants should make a declaration that these are the last days of language loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re entering an era where we can say, maybe a couple decades from now, \u2018Hey, remember how much trouble we were in? Remember how scary it was to think we might lose our languages?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Twitchell is an Assistant Professor of Alaska Native Languages at University of Alaska Southeast. He\u2019s also been laying the groundwork for a Tlingit immersion school in Juneau.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe days are gone where we waited for someone to fix this, and we just did it ourselves. Schools don\u2019t work? We build our own schools,\u201d Twitchell said.<\/p>\n
Kreiss-Tomkins hopes participants leave the summit energized to work together toward the goal of language revitalization. He said one possible outcome is to produce a Wiki, or a handbook, \u201cfor creating fluent speakers, language nests, master-apprentice programs, immersion schools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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