Content area
Full Text
Jon Reyhner and Louise Lockard, eds. Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University, 2009. 214 pp. $15.00
Proceedings from the 2008 Stabilizing Indigenous Language Symposia (SILS) provide the content for this book edited by Jon Reyhner and Louise Lockard, both from Northern Arizona University's College of Education. The book provides readers a sampling of papers, keynote speeches, and presentations prepared by various authors for the fifteenth session of this annual language symposium. The editors note that their subtitle, Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned, is taken from a keynote presentation given by Darrell Kipp, a Blackfoot language activist. The book covers a broad variety of topics and information that will be of interest to practitioners, researchers, and advocates of Indigenous languages. Each of the five sections of the book contains individually authored papers.
Section 1 begins with contributions from two veteran language revitalization activists, Darrell Kipp of the Blackfoot Piegan Institute and Margaret Noori from the University of Michigan. Each author shares firsthand experiences in language revitalization initiatives and witnessing the challenges that accompany community-based and home-based language teaching initiatives. Darrell Kipp recounts the problems and difficulties that had to be overcome over the course of twenty years of language activism in his community. Margaret Noori shares her observations of teaching and listening to her own children as they took "ownership" of their language learning, using it in different contextual circumstances within family and public settings. She provides insights into family-based efforts to teach the Annishinabewomen language, a task that is both challenging and rewarding for her and her family. Both...