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Māori Oral Tradition: Ancestral Sayings and Indigenous Knowledge

by Hēmi Whaanga and Priscilla Wehi . . E koekoe te tūī, e ketekete te kākā, e kūkū te kererū “The tūī chatters, the parrot gabbles, the wood pigeon coos.” (A saying for “It takes all kinds…”) Hēmi: As a young child, I often sat at the window of my house peering out at the

Linking Language and the Land: How Words, Stories, and Ceremonies Can Inform Discussion around Decision Making for the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw Peoples and Ceremonies

traditional knowledge

by Andrea Lyall Tsa̱g̱a̱ł (thimbleberry). Photo: Andrea Lyall, 2016. Kwak̓wala is the Indigenous language of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw on the mid-coast of present-day British Columbia. It expresses a connection to the land through words, stories, and ceremonies, which describe the patterns of the seasons, traditional use, important places, and cultural and spiritual values. When I was young,

Language, Landscape and Custom: A Synthesis for Memory

linguistic diversity

by Marilee K. Gloe .. One February day I made my way through Jordan’s al-Siq at Petra. Jutting skyward, the granite walls were shades of orange, peach, brown, and beige, whipped into curvatures and sharp edges by the passage of wind and water over time. The magnitude of the walls dwarfed all human presence. The winter

“No one said a word”: Children Give Voice to the Fullness of Language, Landscape, and Life

Cape Breton

by Patrick Howard . We don’t like to think of our lives as predictable, as being mapped out, but our connections to people and place and how they shape who we become are most often undeniable. Much to the surprise of friends and family, on graduating from teacher’s college, I chose to take a position

Earthlings are Invading! Radical Language and Dialogue at the United Nations

Zulu (Bantu) village

by Joseph Lambert “There is an urgent need for society to replace the current anthropocentric worldview with a holistic system of governance, in which humanity plays a different role in how it perceives and interacts with the natural world.” —Experts Summary, United Nations’ “Harmony with Nature” Dialogue, 2016 I am, and have always been, fascinated

Maintaining the Linguasphere in the Anthropocene

linguistic diversity

by Peter Bridgewater .. One of the books that most influenced me as a young student was The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist. His work on evolution, though not uncontested, remains some the most important in the world of paleontology. In The

Flourishing at Twenty: On Context and Foundations in the Rise of the Concept of Biocultural…

by Ken Wilson In the last issue of Langscape, Dave Harmon traced the emergence of the field of biocultural diversity as a call for engagement with the beautifully rich complexity of life. In this second take on “biocultural diversity at twenty,” I ponder the emergence of the concept (and field) from the perspective of the history

Rough Waves and Remembered Names in Haida Gwaii

traditional ecological knowledge

by Graham Richard On August 11, 2015 a Haida-language team set forth from G̱aaw on a three-day journey to survey the north and west coasts of Haida Gwaii (the archipelago off the north coast of British Columbia, Canada that is the Haida people’s homeland). Guided by elders’ teachings, the Haida language, historical records, and century-old maps,

A Blossoming Time at ÁLEṈENEȻ (Homeland): Reclaiming W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Place Names on the West Coast of Canada

biocultural diversity

by Alice Meyers in conversation with Earl Claxton Jr. (Thuh-thay-tun Kapilano) This is the story of my friendship with Earl Claxton Jr., a SȾÁ,UTW̱ (Tsawout) Elder and respected botanical knowledge holder from the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Coast Salish First Nation on the territory known as Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Anglicized from his SENĆOŦEN language, his

Cristina Calderón: Memories of My Yagan Grandmother

by Cristina Zárraga “I was born in Róbalo, on the 24th of May. And they say, so tells me my aunt, that when I was born during the night, there was a storm from the south. And I was born in an akali. My dad built an akali, and my aunt attended my mom so