Call for video responses on the importance of native languages

Can you share a few minutes on the importance of native languages via video?

See' tlahpalolli', Nomasewal'ikniwah (Hello, my native relatives). My name is Kichi Patlan. I am an undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. I am conducting a video project on the beauty of indigenous languages in the world while raising awareness on the serious rate of language loss overall (some estimates suggests that at the end of our most of our lifetimes more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will disappear).

I am calling for short video responses on the beauty and importance of learning, teaching and speaking native languages today.

If you’d like to take part in this video project that will simply bring together different voices from around the world in one video montage, please follow the instructions below:

Steps for recording your video response:

1) Introduction:

a) Your name

b) Your tribe/nation(s)

c) Your native language(s)

2) In 4 minutes (max.), please respond to the following question:

a) How do(es) your indigenous language(s) influence the way you, personally, experience the world?  (i.e., identity; values; spirituality, etc…)

3) In 3 minutes (max.), please respond to the following question:

a) What is a unique and/or remarkable feature of your particular native language(s) that you’d like to share? 

4) In one sentence (max.), please share a brief message on the importance of preserving and maintaining indigenous languages in the world today. This will be addressed to other indigenous peoples and native language advocates, in particular. 

5) Please send videos/video links to ramjr1991@gmail.com

Tlasohkamati miyak nama' wan nochipa.

Thank you, relatives.

-- 

"Se tototl amo kemaj kimakajsi mapostekis kuauitl 

pampa itlatemachil eltok ipam ieltlapal uam amo ipan kuauitl imakuayo. " 

"Un pájaro en un árbol nunca tiene miedo a que la rama se rompa porque su confianza no está en la rama, sino en sus propias alas."

"A bird in a tree never fears the breakage of a branch because her confidence is not in the branch, but in her own wings."

-Quichi Patlan (Raul Martinez)