Despite the fact that each Nami and Tomoyuki have been born on Okinoerabu Island (at the moment residence to solely 12,000 inhabitants), neither realized to talk Shimamuni – a neighborhood number of the Kunigami language – fluently as youngsters.
Kunigami was added to UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Hazard in 2009 and categorised as “positively endangered” to boost public consciousness that “youngsters now not be taught the language as a mom tongue within the residence.”
A household takes motion
After studying that the indigenous language of Okinoerabu Island was formally thought-about endangered, the couple and their 4 youngsters took it upon themselves to translate their love for language into impactful actions which have since resonated far past the island.
Okinoerabu Island residents weren’t simply involved about shedding a language, but in addition more and more alarmed by the proliferation of marine litter. In what started as a college challenge assigned over the summer time break, the Sao youngsters determined that they may sort out each points concurrently by performing each day seashore clean-up whereas participating in language actions, reminiscent of singing and maintaining a diary in Shimamuni to doc their day-to-day progress.
Leveraging the Shimamuni vernacular as a thread of shared native identification connecting folks from numerous walks of life, the Sao household has since expanded its conservation pursuits to incorporate cooking native delicacies, offering haircuts to residents of nursing houses, studying arts and crafts on the group centre and collaborating in a “Shimamuni Salon” the place language classes are provided and native environmental points are recurrently mentioned. The purpose is to domesticate the subsequent technology of eco-conscious Shimamuni audio system.
“With out these community-driven actions, the language would develop into extinct with the passing of its aged audio system,” mentioned Dr. Sumittra Suraratdecha, assistant professor of linguistics on the Analysis Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA) in Thailand.
Linguistic range and sustainable improvement
When queried in regards to the underlying motivation for his household’s involvement in such a broad vary of actions, the considerate Tomoyuki cites the urgency of reaching the bold Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs) by 2030.
He felt that slightly than imparting to his youngsters information that he acquired by way of formal training 20 to 30 years in the past, it could be higher to help their studying by doing and thereby facilitate their accumulation of real-life experiences that may empower them to make a distinction.
Because it seems, the Shimamuni language not solely serves as a automobile for transmitting native information, reminiscent of conventional dessert recipes, to the island’s youth, it additionally improves the effectivity of communication about environmental points to aged islanders, a few of whom as soon as harboured the mistaken perception that marine litter ought to merely be left to degrade by itself.
Given the present world actuality of burgeoning non-degradable waste and microplastics, the Shimamuni mom tongue helps to convey the true extent of the issue to senior residents with larger immediacy.
Reflecting on the circumstances of the Sao household and their artistic response to native ecocultural challenges, Kyungah Kristy Bang, a guide for multilingual training on the UNESCO regional workplace in Bangkok and coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Multilingual Training Working Group, remarked that “celebrating linguistic range could be an efficient software and answer to reaching the SDGs on the native degree.”
Recognition on a world stage
In October 2023, the Sao household had the chance to current their inspiring story on the seventh Worldwide Convention on Language and Training, in Bangkok, Thailand.
UNESCO/Santibhap Ussavasodhi
The Sao household
As representatives of Okinoerabu Island collaborating in a serious worldwide convention co-hosted by UNESCO, they attended the occasion, which drew over 450 language specialists and members from all around the globe.
The Sao household garnered island-wide help, as the 2 principal cities on the island united in serving to to arrange the household’s presentation movies and canopy a portion of their journey bills.
“Whereas the convention brings collectively numerous stakeholders, reminiscent of coverage makers, practitioners and researchers who share their experiences with language in training, we regularly neglect that there’s extra typically a whole group or group, or in such case a household, driving the sustainability of linguistic range,” mentioned Brandon Darr, a training guide with UNESCO’s regional workplace.
For Tomoyuki, reaching recognition on a world stage has solely served to strengthen his household’s guiding sense of objective.
“Our purpose is to reside a mentally ample life,” he mentioned.
His spouse concured.
“When our kids develop up, they will reside wherever,” she mentioned, “however I need them to protect their language and tradition of their hearts.”
Launched in 1996 with some 600 endangered languages mapped globally, the Atlas continues to thrive immediately as an interactive on-line software premised on the assumption that linguistic range underpins sustainable improvement and fosters equitable and pluralistic societies.
Be taught extra in regards to the Atlas and the languages it protects right here.
