See the below opportunity for students, teachers, language activists, and learners to join Where Are Your Keys for a language revitalization experience this summer. Every year WAYK runs a Summer Language Intensive where we work closely with a host community to focus on their language.
The summer of 2019 will be our 9th Summer Intensive, and our 2nd summer partnering with Tsleil-Waututh Nation in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Due to the location and history of the Nation, many Tsleil-Waututh members have (at least) two heritage languages, hən̓q̓əmin̓̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, both Coast Salish languages with very small numbers of speakers. In 2014, when Tsleil-Waututh hosted their first Summer Language Intensive with WAYK, we focused on developing hən̓q̓əmin̓̓əm̓ fluency and curriculum. In 2019, we’ll be spending the summer months (May 17th—August 4th, 2019) focusing on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim.
The Tsleil-Waututh host community is sponsoring several summer positions on the WAYK team. Although these positions are not paid, all costs associated with the program (lodging, food, and transportation) will be covered by this funding, and participants will receive extensive training in the WAYK method. This is a unique experience for students to participate in the hands-on, boots-on-the-ground, rubber-meets-the-road work of language revitalization by supporting local learners and speakers. In addition to gaining proficiency in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim, summer participants will receive training and practice with the WAYK method, language pedagogy, curriculum design, and project management.
To be clear, participants do not need training in linguistics. WAYK would love to have people with a wide array of skills and interests join us this summer. Past participants have focused on a variety of fields in their work and studies, such as language revitalization, languages, education, curriculum design, anthropology, Indigenous/Native studies, neuroscience, computer programming, film production, theater, and more.
The application window closes soon (January 20th, 2019) so if you know of anyone who might be interested in this opportunity, please direct them to our blog to learn more and apply!