Revitalizing Language Within: An Ethnographic Exploration of a Community-Based Endeavor to Save the Chumash Language

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Ethnographic Explorations of Community-Based Learning and Becoming

Abstract

UNESCO has declared, 2019, as the "International Year of Indigenous Languages". As an Indigenous researcher, this is in parallel to my own ethnographic exploration of a California Indigenous group, the Chumash, located within the central valley of California. I intend to look into what it takes to revitalize a dying language. What insights can we gain from an ethnographic exploration of the Chumash community? These general curiosities guided my journey into the Chumash community members, three of whom invited me into their language classroom to learn about what they are doing with younger members of the community to save their Native Chumash language from extinction.

Author

• Rachelle Mottus, University of California - Santa Barbara