MARCH 2019 NEWSLETTER
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear members and friends,
The UN General Assembly officially declared 2019 as the year of Indigenous Languages. As the first newsletter of the year, we wanted to leverage this declaration and highlight the intrinsic nature of language that’s intertwined with the many dimensions of Indigenous culture, rights and worldviews.
IFIP’s commitment to elevating Indigenous self-determination interfaces with a range of issues including, but not limited to, protection of territory, Indigenous knowledge, rights of Indigenous women, and climate change. Language permeates all of these topics, and IFIP’s members and guest authors of this newsletter will illustrate this connectivity in different ways and through different experiences.
Please also take a moment to read the March Issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly dedicated to Indigenous languages. As Suzanne Benally shares, “of the 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, close to 2,680 languages are in danger of disappearing altogether. Throughout the world, Indigenous Peoples are working vigorously to reclaim and revitalize their languages, which are essential in maintaining their cultures. Indigenous languages intrinsically carry unique systems of knowledge and ways of knowing and understanding our relationships, responsibilities, and place in the world; our languages are sacred living expressions of creative thought and power.”
We hope the articles in this newsletter will engage our membership in elevating the role of Indigenous languages across all issues and encourage fostering partnerships predicated on respect for Indigenous cultures and cosmovision.
In the spirit of nurturing continuous learning in philanthropy, please consider joining us at the upcoming IFIP Learning Institute, a program for funders to learn firsthand from an all Indigenous faculty.
Also, stay tuned for an update on IFIP events hosted at the 18th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, including a side event co-organized by IFIP on Indigenous languages and climate change.
In Solidarity,
Lourdes Inga
Executive Director, IFIP
Language is born of land
By Sonja Swift, Co-director of the Windrose Fund, trustee for Swift Foundation and board member of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, Community Agroecology Network and Oakland Institute. When my Danish... ...
The power of participatory video and digital dictionaries in preserving Indigenous languages
by Nick Lunch, co-founder at InsightShare “We need to have our language back as a matter of pride, because if we don’t have our language, we are forever dependent on... ...
?así horįsha dëne: Indigenous Languages the Key to Solving the Climate Crisis
by Indigenous Climate Action staff At Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) we believe that Indigenous peoples are the keepers of valuable knowledge necessary to address the climate crisis and that by... ...
Indigenous Language, Climate Change & Forced Displacement
by Salote Soqo, Senior Partnership Officer, Climate Justice & Crisis Response, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) During the First Peoples Convening on Climate-Forced Displacement, which brought together over sixty First... ...