Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation

Abstract

Storywork provides an epistemic, pedagogical, and methodological lens through which to examine Indigenous language reclamation in practice. We theorize the meaning of language reclamation in diverse Indigenous communities based on firsthand narratives of Chickasaw, Mojave, Miami, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, and Native Hawaiian language reclamation. Language reclamation is not about preserving the abstract entity “language,” but is rather about voice, which encapsulates personal and communal agency and the expression of Indigenous identities, belonging, and responsibility to self and community. Storywork – firsthand narratives through which language reclamation is simultaneously described and practiced – shows that language reclamation simultaneously refuses the dispossession of Indigenous ways of knowing and refuses past, present, and future generations in projects of cultural continuance. Centering Indigenous experiences sheds light on Indigenous community concerns and offers larger lessons on the role of language in well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice.

RETRACTED: Reconceptualising a Quandamooka Storyweave of language reclamation

“…For example, a Western ideological approach to education is reflected when producing written learning materials and curricula that offer resources for others to learn an Indigenous language (Hassan, 2015). By contrast, centring Indigenous experiences casts a light on Indigenous community concerns and suggests encompassing teachings on the role of language in individual and communal well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice for all oppressed peoples (McCarty et al, 2018). In exploring the intersections between my understanding of the intersection of land, language and ceremony on the one hand, and creative processes on the other, using a decolonising methodology, it also becomes important for me to consider what it is about the nature of these processes that is applicable and necessary in reclaiming language.…”

Indigenous and Deaf People and the Implications of Ongoing Practices of Colonization: A Comparison of Australia and Canada

“…Deaf communities continue to fight in Australia to have Auslan recognized as a formal language of Australia, 6 and to have Auslan taught as a Language Other Than English subject in mainstream schools (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016). McCarty et al (2018) propose that “…(Indigenous) languages are not replaced but rather displaced through policies designed to eradicate linguistically encoded knowledges and cultural identifications with those associated with dominant-class ideologies” (p. 160), and we here view that this also applies to Sign Languages. We extend McCarty et al’s viewpoint on language reclamation by including Deaf people: “language reclamation is of larger Indigenous and Deaf 7 projects of resilience, rediscovery, sovereignty, and justice” (p. 161).…”

“…Deaf communities continue to fight in Australia to have Auslan recognized as a formal language of Australia, 6 and to have Auslan taught as a Language Other Than English subject in mainstream schools (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016). McCarty et al (2018) propose that " . .…”

Spiritual connectedness through prayer as a mediator of the relationship between Indigenous language use and positive mental health.

“…Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation” (p. 9). McCarty et al (2018) also speak to this interdependency of language and spirituality: “language negotiates the way I know myself—what I believe I am capable of, how I know myself in relationship to others, what I can offer others, what I deserve from others in return” (p. 163). Language has more value than communication alone; language gives voice to people, who have their own unique histories, worldview perspectives, and ways of interacting with the world.…”