5 June 2023
The next meeting in the seminar series: “Hyper-collaboration” for the documentation and maintenance of Sonsorolese- Vasiliki Vita & Daphne Nestor, June 7, 2023
The next meeting in the seminar series of the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity “Decolonizing approaches to studying history and linguistic-cultural heritage. Methods, tools, results and challenges”
will take place on
June 7th, 2023
16:45 CET
“Hyper-collaboration” for the documentation and maintenance of Sonsorolese
Sonsorolese is one of the languages of the Republic of Palau, an archipelago nation in Micronesia in the Philippines Sea with, according to Ethnologue, less than 400 speakers. In the past, the islands were densely populated but for economic and environmental reasons their inhabitants migrated to the bigger islands of Palau.
This talk explores “hyper-collaboration”, putting together “less obvious partners”, between an external non-Indigenous linguist and an Indigenous youth group when documentating and maintaining Sonsorolese. We discuss its implications for decolonizing efforts in studying historical and linguistic heritage, from topics related to trust, flexibility, empowerment, reciprocity, and linguistic analysis.
