Lyrical Sovereignty: Indigenous Language Reclamation Through Interdisciplinary Arts Education

• In Event: Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge: Decolonial and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies for Language, Art, and Educational Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper documents an interdisciplinary curriculum at an Indigenous-based school in Los Angeles, which expands to another in Mexico. Known as the Cantares Project, the student-led series explores 16th-century Nahuatl poetry from the Florentine Codex and Cantares Mexicanos through translation, music composition, and media production. Using an artist-in-residence model, students in the U.S. and Mexico collaborate with codex scholars, Nahuatl instructors, Indigenous music experts, and a rap artist to reinterpret ancestral texts and create original performances. The project advances a methodology for language autonomy, vibrancy, and relevance. It asks: How do Indigenous youth revitalize ancestral languages in schools? And how can educators design meaningful, culturally rooted language learning?

Author

• Ernesto Colin, Loyola Marymount University