Transforming Deficit Ideology: Building Critical Indigenous Awareness and Activism Through Yaakthung Language, Art, and History

• In Event: Reclaiming Cultural Identity: Research on Indigenous Empowerment Through Language, Art, and Historical Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Yaakthung Indigenous youths in Nepal transformed deficit views against Indigenous languages. The data for this paper are drawn from a thirty-hour immersion program designed to educate youths about Yaakthung language, culture, art, epistemology, and history. The study shows that Yaakthung Indigenous youths, who are never taught about their language, culture and epistemology in school, can develop critical awareness of how Indigenous languages, knowledge and epistemologies are important in education. I conclude by theorizing ‘critical Indigenous awareness’ as a theory to understand how youths can resist discriminatory language policies and develop plans for creating spaces of Indigenous languages in the public sphere.

Author

• Prem Phyak, Teachers College, Columbia University