In honor of International Mother Language Day on Feb. 20, the Northwest Indigenous Language Institute is holding a fundraiser in support of the revitalization of native languages.
Held in the Art House of Eugene, the fundraiser will show two films centering on the hard work and process of revitalizing languages in several different Indigenous communities in Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Washington.
NILI plans to use the fundraiser to expand their reach to more states across the country. Anthony Michael Ryder, an Ojibwe student worker helping organize this event, is hoping to show the joy of language revitalization and the community it brings to campus.
“I think both of these films show how people, even though there is this kind of disconnection happening in the background of subtle colonial violence, you see people reengaging one another and reconnecting and finding each other through community and labor,” Ryder said. “There’s this kind of intimacy with laborious acts.”
One of these films being presented in the fundraiser is created by a student at the university, Princi Bass-Mason (she/they/he).
Bass-Mason, a Klamath and Western Shoshone individual, created their first film about the Klamath tribe languages, shot during the Klamath tribe restoration powwow in 2023.
“The Klamath restoration powwow is an annual event that’s like celebrating the restoration of tribal status,” Bass-Mason said; “and so I thought that was an excellent time to interact with community members and kind of find out more about what’s going on.”
The film opens with their own personal experience with the Western Shoshone language, and overall, the film wants to highlight the current language revitalization efforts. He wanted it to capture how far the community has gotten, not only for the tribe but for everyone watching it.
“For people who don’t know the context, I want people to leave knowing that language is exciting, and it’s so precious,” Bass-Mason said. “I think when you speak a majority language or a dominant language, we kind of take it for granted.”
She wants their viewers to know that Indigenous language isn’t stagnant but developing. It’s a current issue, and has been for a long time, a statement also pushed by the other film creator of the event, Torsten Kjellstrand. Kjellstrand is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, and a non-native director in the recent documentary “And Knowledge to Keep Us.”
“This is happening now,” Kjellstrand said. “That is particularly important when we talk about Indigenous communities in North America, where it’s too often the assumption that everything that was important is in the past.”
His documentary itself takes place in Alaska and is about the Native community of Akhiok. Mark Blaine, a professor at the university, and Sven Haakanson, a Native American anthropologist, also helped create the film in the hope of showcasing a glimpse of the hard work and dedication that goes into language revitalization.
“These films are both about people who are out there doing the work of keeping important things alive, including each other,” said Kjellstrand.
These films are to encourage hope in Indigenous communities and to educate others who might be unaware of the importance of language, and to hopefully build community from that. Kjellstrand stated that for students or individuals who didn’t have the experience of growing up in an Indigenous community like himself, as he is a non-native individual who learned about tribal communities, there are things in the documentary and within the Alutiiq tribe that connected to him and his experiences.
From growing up in a small immigrant community, Kjellstrand would see echoes of his childhood within the small community of Akhiok, claiming that there are ways to connect people in ways that are almost unexpected but beautiful. “There are things to hold on to,” Kjellstrand said.
“I hope that when people leave this event, they leave with more of themselves,” Ryder said when discussing the goal of this fundraiser, claiming that building community, honoring language and reaching out to other groups are what this event and the films hope to accomplish.
Ryder, Bass-Mason and Kjellstrand want to give the campus and Eugene an opportunity to listen to other groups and help bring to light the importance of language revitalization, not only that, but also show the reality of tribal communities, and give at least a small window to the labor that goes into revitalization of something so vital for community, culture, history and future.
