Linguapax
Terralingua collaboration with the Saanich People to launch oral literature project
With support from Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, this year Terralingua is starting a new project to enable the recording and intergenerational transmission of Indigenous oral literatures. These invaluable oral traditions, which embody the worldviews, wisdom, knowledge, and artistry of the world's diverse peoples, are rapidly vanishing, to the tremendous loss of each and all peoples.
We're very excited to announce that the project will be launched next month with the start of our collaboration with the Saanich (Coast Salish) people of British Columbia (BC), Canada. A group of Saanich Elders and Language Apprentices will work together to identify and record traditional stories about important cultural and spiritual places in Saanich territories on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, including Salt Spring Island where Terralingua's offices are located. The stories will be videotaped, transcribed, and archived by language apprentices. The cultural teachings and knowledge contained in the stories will be identified. The texts will be used to enhance language and culture teaching in the Saanich Tribal School curriculum.
This pilot project will lay the foundations for further work we plan to do with the Saanich, other BC First Nations, and indigenous peoples elsewhere. More to come in the next issue of our e-news.
http://www.terralingua.org/