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Burge, Heather Dawn

University of British Columbia

This dissertation examines the relationships the Lingít language revitalization movement has to concepts of gender, identity, organizations and academia. The Lingít language and the Lingít people reside within Southeast Alaska in the United States, as well as northern British Columbia and the southern Yukon territory in Canada. Relying on my own lived experience as a Lingít learner and educator, as well as interviews and conversations with Lingít community members, we discuss how relationality supports the larger goal of Lingít language and cultural revitalization. Specifically we talk about the role of women within the language movement, and what approaches can best support current and future female language learners and speakers. Next we discuss the role identity plays within Lingít language revitalization and how varying understandings of Indigeneity both support and add additional pressure to language learning. We also reflect on the various roles multiple institutions play in Lingít language work, and touch on some of the programming organizations have implemented. Last, we discuss the role universities in particular, and academia in general plays within language revitalization, and how that role has evolved over time. The thread throughout is relationality, how personal and collective relationships with individuals, organizations, and identities shape language work, and how that relationality can best support the larger goal of continued Lingít language resurgence.

Text

2024-02-16

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87452

Anthropology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/