Thanks to Dr. Lisa Nathan and the iSchool’s FNCC Travel grants I was recently extremely lucky to have the opportunity to attend the 4th annual International Conference for Language Documentation and Conservation. The conference was hosted by the University of Hawaii Manoa, and held at the Ala Moanoa hotel in Honolulu.
It wasn’t until I spent the summer working in a co-op in Bamfield with members from the Huu-ay-aht First Nations that I understood what language revitalization really meant and the impact that is has on communities. When I returned to UBC in the fall I was motivated to learn more so I enrolled in classes with Dr. Patricia Shaw and Dr. Mark Turin, two instructors within UBC’s First Nations Language program who were also planning on attending ICDLC. Dr. Turin reinforced the need for better partnership and collaboration between librarians, archivists, linguists and community groups to the Endangered Language movement and encouraged me to attend the conference.
The conference itself was an extensive, highly organized four-day onslaught of non-stop presentations, poster sessions and Master Class workshops. Conference attendees were as diverse as the languages covered and included community members and elders, computer scientists, teachers and even other information professionals. As a result, the conference offered many workshops and presentations that were accessible to non-linguists including three Master classes for beginners.
I found that the most inspiring sessions tended to revolve around the unlikely collaborations made between opposing disciplines, such as biologists and linguists, or between remote, distant communities. For example, there was one session which featured Rose-Marie Dechaine and James Crippen who spoke about their project which brought Tlinglit elders to UBC as resident consultants for a year to document their language, and teach university students about their culture.
It’s hard to summarize an experience such as ICLDC. I’ve never been surrounded by so many fascinating people from all across the world who are all doing important and diverse work committed to the same important cause: the passion was palpable. The main thing that I took away from ICLDC was an infectious energy to promote positive growth within communities to help encourage sovereignty, sustainability, access and cultural identity—values which extend far beyond the linguist community.
The quality of speakers and presentations were so high that I truly could go on, and on, and on about various sessions, however I will just say that it was the most intellectually stimulating four days I’ve ever had.
by Mikale Fenton, MLIS
