Miguel Pinheiro In the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, along the Xingu River and one of its tributaries, the Iriri, traces of an ancient, vanished population are found. The petroglyphs carved in the rocks tell a ghost story—faint echoes of faded voices that today we struggle to imagine alive. A language can be a map

Darryl Whetung Our spirit isn’t red skin, or light skin, brown skin, white skin Or if we have red hair, brown or black hair, when will the buffalo herd come back here? Are we raven or are we eagle? We are families, we are equals It’s our wigwam, it’s our war song, or the moon that

Severn Cullis-Suzuki The Haida people know the cost of disease. They have lived in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the west coast of Canada, for the past 14,000 years. In their recent history, after the first encounter with Europeans in 1774, waves of smallpox, measles, and other contact diseases ravaged the Haida population. From 30,000-strong,

Chonon Bensho with Pedro Favaron When I was born, my parents registered my birth in the town of Yarinacocha, giving me the name Astrith Gonzales Agustín. But in Shipibo-Konibo, my mother tongue, my name is Chonon Bensho, which means “the swallow from medicine orchards.” I am heir to the knowledge of my ancestors. My husband’s

Chloe Dragon Smith On the Land We feel The roots beneath our languages— Twisting and turning, gnarly, knowing. On the Land We learn With bodymindheartandsoul, The truths that shaped our words Long before they were spoken. Language is more than words and Words hold more than any language Could ever explain. Simple rhythmic sound waves

Marie-Émilie Lacroix interviewed by Marco Romagnoli “Dialogue is a way of knowing myself and of disentangling my own point of view from other viewpoints and from me, because it is grounded so deeply in my own roots as to be utterly hidden from me.” —Raimon Panikkar This is, at its simplest, the reason behind my

Last month, there were just four people left on earth who could speak a language from the Great Andamanic family, which hails from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. On April 4, one of those speakers—a woman named Licho—passed away from tuberculosis and heart disease. She was the last woman alive to speak

Re-Storying Biocultural Diversity: Wisdom from Young Indigenous Leaders Langscape Magazine Volume 8, Special Double Issue Summer/ Winter 2019 . Bringing the Past into the Future by Luisa Maffi and David Harmon . “We, the Indigenous Peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors.” So begins the Kari-Oca Declaration and Indigenous Peoples’ Earth

Khadry Okotetto (Nenets, Russian Federation), interviewed by Galya Morrell I was born in the tundra and grew up with the animals. My first language was the language of reindeer and of Arctic birds. I was raised by my grandparents, like everybody else here. I was a lucky guy. As an artist, I see my main mission

by Lisba Yesudas & Johnson Jament (Mukkuvar, India) Marine biodiversity and cultural diversity are deeply interwoven in the coastal fishing communities of Trivandrum, Kerala, South India. This is the story of our ancestors, the story of our fellow community members; it is the story of our life! It is about our connection with the sea,