9 - Activism and Endangered Language Work, with an Arctic Focus

Summary

Indigenous communities across the Arctic are undergoing massive cultural disruption due to a nexus of factors. This paper addresses the multiple roles of an outsider linguist in these communities, where language shift has become both the symbol and symptom of cultural change and loss. Faced with such social disruption, local revitalization efforts are models of resilience and adaptability in Indigenous-driven efforts to build vitality and sustainability. Climate change has transformed nearly all aspects of life: hunting and fishing are fundamentally changed due to thinning sea ice (making traditional hunting and travel routes unsafe); melting permafrost has resulted in flooding and habitat destruction, and resulting in the decimation of reindeer, elk and sea mammal populations, to name just a few. Such changes force Indigenous peoples to urban centers, where they find new neighbors and languages, often living as invisible minorities alongside both local majority peoples and recent immigrants, who have come seeking new opportunities. Language shift goes hand-in-hand with cultural change, and speakers of Arctic Indigenous languages are undergoing shift to the majority colonial languages.Indigenous communities across the Arctic are undergoingmassive cultural disruption due to a nexus of factors. This paper addresses themultiple roles of an outsider linguist in these communities, where languageshift has become both the symbol and symptom of cultural change and loss. Facedwith such social disruption, local revitalization efforts are models ofresilience and adaptability in Indigenous-driven efforts to build vitality andsustainability. Climate change has transformed nearly all aspects of life:hunting and fishing are fundamentally changed due to thinning sea ice (makingtraditional hunting and travel routes unsafe); melting permafrost has resultedin flooding and habitat destruction, and resulting in the decimation ofreindeer, elk and sea mammal populations, to name just a few. Such changesforce Indigenous peoples to urban centers, where they find new neighbors and languages,often living as invisible minorities alongside both local majority peoples andrecent immigrants, who have come seeking new opportunities. Language shift goeshand-in-hand with cultural change, and speakers of Arctic Indigenous languages areundergoing shift to the majority colonial languages.