Allan Hayton, Doyon Foundation’s language revitalization program director, has been selected to speak at TEDxFairbanks 2016, which is the first Tedx event to be held in Fairbanks.
The event will take place on Sunday, February 21 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center Theater at 101 Dunkel St. in Fairbanks.
Parameters set by the official TED conference limit attendance to 100, and individuals interested in attending must pre-register. Tickets to the event will be $20.
The TEDx Fairbanks event will also be livestreamed; please watch for details on how to log on. Viewers can also watch the event at The Hub downtown and the Wood Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Following the event, the talks will be edited and posted on YouTube.
Organizers provide the following description of the event: “Fairbanks is an intimate space. Not only are we literally in the heart of Interior Alaska; we are a cultural, social, political, and economic hub for many smaller communities throughout the state. Fairbanks – and to a larger extent, Alaska – is not an easy place to live, yet we still call this place home. In our first TEDx Fairbanks event we will explore what it means to have an intimate space. We will explore the value of a strong and resilient community built on good communication and respect for one another.”
In his talk, titled Intimate Space: Athabascan Language, Land, Culture, Hayton will discuss how the “Athabascan languages of Alaska are connected to the land, developed over centuries in intimate conversation with the natural world” and how “We must reconnect the broken ties with the land and our languages for healing and revitalization to begin.”
“Athabascan languages in Alaska are all severely to critically endangered,” Hayton said. “There are many challenges to endangered languages besides the dwindling number of speakers; there are also attitudes towards the languages that have to be shifted if we are to begin revitalization of our languages.”
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks, which are limited to 18 minutes or less. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.
For more information on Doyon Foundation and the language revitalization program, visit www.doyonfoundation.com. For more information on TEDxFairbanks, visit www.ted.com/tedx.