Saving Language and Culture
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Using Technology to preserve oral culture.
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66% of the World’s Languages are in danger of extinction within the next 50 years. Culture is intimately linked with language – destroy the language, destroy the culture. The health of a people is, in large part, determined by the strength of their culture.
The Volkswagen Foundation states:
“Some two thirds of the estimated 6,500 languages still spoken throughout the world are in danger of disappearing within the next one to two generations. But if a language dies, this also means that a piece of the cultural diversity of our world dies with it.”
(http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/index.php?id=172&L=1)
The current generation of elders is the last who grew up speaking their language as a First language.
There are few, if any, elders left who learned in traditional ways. Most, if not all, of the elders were severely impacted by the Residential Schools.
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How is Knowledge Passed On?
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Traditionally, the elders trained the next generation in the arts and sciences in which they were expert. The younger generation spent years apprenticing to the elders in these skills. The stories, songs, and art took the place of written language – they were repeated many, many times.
Oral History requires an unbroken chain – each generation learning from the previous. If the chain is broken in one generation, it is possible to by-pass that generation and have the elders teach the children. However, if two generations are lost, language and culture begin to disappear.