A refuge for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, Malta rediscovers its land-based identity while helping newcomers rebuild theirs. Mario Gerada . How does one visualize the notion of territories of life when the stories one hears daily are about territories of death? That haunting question is never far from the minds of those of us working

A young volunteer reflects on the rights of refugees and the responsibilities of host countries. Deven Carse with Milana Carse . I live outside of Chicago, one of the biggest and most diverse cities in the United States. The Chicago area has a history of accepting immigrants from around the world and today hosts some

The right to formal education is considered so sacrosanct that we fail to see how it can undermine our biocultural responsibilities. Chang Liu (劉長亭) . Language is our birthright. So much of what makes us human — how we perceive, think, and communicate — is encoded in language, be it spoken, sung, signed, or written.

At a pond’s edge, a woman muses about waterlilies as metaphors for mother-tongue languages and their power to anchor story, wisdom, and heritage. Dawn Wink . Waterlilies hold a special place in my heart. I did not grow up with them, though. I grew up on a remote ranch amid the sand, rocks, cacti, and

Conversation with J,SIṈTEN John Elliott A respected Elder shares important teachings that are intrinsic to his people’s language and way of life. Luisa Maffi     “Our languages are a part of the winds, the rain, the mountains, and all life as it was given. These are our original laws and our sacred connections to

A journey through endangered and minority languages that reveals diverse ways of relating to land and nature. Philippa Bayley and Neville Gabie, with Missinak Kameltoutasset (Marie-Émilie Lacroix) and contributors to Living-Language-Land     The languages we speak shape much of how we understand the world around us, including our connections to land and nature. But

A young Ghanaian muses about his Indigenous identity, traditional values, and biocultural diversity. Abraham Ofori-Henaku   “Ouch!” I exclaimed, after hitting my pinkie toe against the leg of a table that stood idle in my path. I’d been busy brainstorming ideas for this piece, and while at it I paced the corridors of my apartment,

By learning how to swim against the current like salmon do, a woman finds her way back to the source of her language and identity. Daniela Boccassini   As our times’ bewildered becoming keeps unfolding, two simple words from a French medieval poem have accompanied me every step of the way: contreval l’iaue. They sank

WORDS Abraham Ofori-Henaku IMAGES Abotchiethephotographer . It’s been quite a long journey growing up in a society that very much holds on to its rich way of life — something that I always took for granted. And now, it’s all coming back to me in regret. Oh! Pardon me! Where are my manners? Hi there! I’m Abraham

Faith Baisden, Thomas Dick, Carolyn Barker, and Kristina Kelman . . For tens of thousands of years, the rich and beautiful sounds of hundreds of different languages washed across Australia. Over all of the continent it is believed there were more than five hundred languages at one time. Around two hundred years ago, a new