Files

42054.pdf (13.15 MB)
42054.mp3 (24.48 MB)

Date

2017-03-05

Authors

Perry, Robyn

Bird, Steven

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Perry, Robyn
Bird, Steven

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Volume

Number/Issue

Starting Page

Ending Page

Alternative Title

Abstract

Description

The dominant “monolingual mindset” in many anglophone countries rewards the use of English only, at the cost of other languages, by assuming that competence in one language inhibits competence in another. This does harm to historically traumatized indigenous and immigrant groups, especially accompanied by racism, classism, and assimilation pressures (1). However, there is opportunity for building connections between communities by strengthening small languages and, we hypothesize, for increasing community wellbeing. The colocation of immigrant and indigenous communities in cities opens the possibility for building solidarity across language communities, and for sharing treasure languages with mainstream monolingual audiences. An upwelling of interest in the storytelling genre has created eager audiences, primed to listen respectfully and witness the storyteller’s transformation while sharing their story. Treasure Language Storytelling brings indigenous and immigrant people together to share stories in original languages, and then translate them into a language of wider communication such as English. A panel of language champions also discusses maintaining language in their communities. Speakers have typically never been publicly recognized as speakers of their languages, and report that it is extraordinary to be acknowledged. Some renew their resolve to speak their languages with their children. By-products include high quality video recordings of the stories, evidence of the storytellers’ bravery and skill, that add to the documented materials for the language. It’s been shown that knowledge of heritage language (2, 3), as well as participation in language revitalization work can serve as protective health factors. As we have refined Treasure Language Storytelling, we now investigate the degree to which this approach also can promote individual healing and community wellbeing. Audience responses like the following have further bolstered our hypothesis (4): "After the event, I could see the potential for healing. I thought I knew one of the storytellers, but I realized when he told his story I only knew part of him. I felt like I was taken back with him to his country, instead of him being in my world. There is much more to him than what I know of him here. That's where there’s value for community members and storytellers." —Andrea VanDerWerf, Melaleuca Refugee Centre staff We will present the results of our investigation into the impact of Treasure Language Storytelling on community wellbeing. The work will involve developing evaluation measures for storytelling events and piloting several school-based treasure language appreciation activities. (1) De Leo D, Ratkowska KA. Suicide in Immigrants: An Overview. Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 2013, 2, 124-133 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojmp.2013.23019 Published Online July 2013 at http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojmp. (2) Whalen DH, Moss M and Baldwin D. Healing through language: Positive physical health effects of indigenous language use [version 1; referees: 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2016, 5:852 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.8656.1) (3) McIvor O, Napoleon A. Language and Culture as Protective Factors for At-Risk Communities. Journal de la santé autochtone, novembre 2009. (4) More about the events, including additional quotes, at https://treasurelanguage.org

Keywords

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/42054

Extent

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Table of Contents

Rights

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Collections

5th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC)