![Sample our Language & Literature journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5941/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Language-Literature.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Stories and storytelling about language initiatives are an important political device in constructing and perpetuating language status planning and policies. However, little attention has been given to meta-discursive practices by institutions about Indigenous language revitalization in the U.S. as well as how music can play important roles in storytelling of Indigenous language initiatives by Indigenous storytellers and performers. In this paper, we problematize congressional discursive practices about Indigenous languages and show how “damage-centered” (Tuck, Eve. 2009. “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities.” Harvard Educational Review 79 (3): 409–427.) storytelling attempts to normalize and justify problematic federal language status planning and policies on Indigenous language initiatives. In contrast, we highlight how Indigenous storytellers and performers creatively tell stories about themselves and their languages both with and through music at federal events that concern Indigenous language revitalization. We show how musicking in relation to or as a form of storytelling can help dispel damaging outsider misconceptions, uplift Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies by Indigenizing time and space, and (re)claim self representation. We suggest that storytelling with music can be a possible strategy to affirm Indigenous storytelling sovereignty that can also disrupt damaging language status planning and policies that attempt to govern Indigenous language initiatives.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See Ager Citation2001, Grinevald and Sinha Citation2016; Hinton Citation2001; McCarty Citation2013; Nahir Citation1984; Sparling Citation2011.
2 Some Indigenous language scholars problematize the term “language revitalization.” See De Korne and Leonard Citation2017; Leonard Citation2011, Citation2017.
3 See Brayboy and Jones Citation2005; Kroskrity Citation2011; and McCarty et al. Citation2018 for storytelling about language initiatives in the U.S. See Archibald Citation2008 and Xiiem, Lee-Morgan, and De Santolo Citation2019 for storytelling about language initiatives in Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Australia.
4 We utilize this term to encompass all Indigenous initiatives that reclaim, revitalize, awaken, and/or strengthen their language(s).
5 We would like to thank Siv Lie, Kelsey Fuller-Shafer, the co-editors, and the anonymous reviewers for providing invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.
6 Since we are looking at Indigenous language status planning within the context of the U.S., we focus on Native American and Indigenous communities in U.S. occupied states and territories whom the federal government categorizes as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander. We acknowledge that western conceptions of Indigeneity by the U.S. government do not always coincide with conceptions of Indigeneity by Indigenous communities themselves.
7 See Small Citation1998. Musicking rejects the notion that music is an object, and rather refocuses that making music is a social process that involves social actors.
8 See Barker Citation2012; Barker and Battell Lowman Citation2015, Banivanua and Edmonds 2010; Tuck and Yang Citation2012; Veracini Citation2010; Veracini Citation2015; Wolfe Citation1999.
9 Historic and contemporary state violence against Indigenous communities cannot be overemphasized. The U.S. federal government (and preceding European colonies) enact(ed) forced removal, genocide, forced assimilation, and erasure against Indigenous Peoples for centuries. Despite these incredible barriers, Indigenous communities continue to remain resilient, as they have for centuries.
10 The sudden shift of American language policy was in large part due to the Native Hawaiian social movement to reclaim Indigenous languages and with support from allies in positions of power. See Arnold Citation2001 and Klug Citation2012.
11 Here is the video of congressional hearing: < https://www.indian.senate.gov/hearing/oversight-hearing-examining-efforts-maintain-and-revitalize-native-languages-future>.
12 See Robinson Citation2020. Through Stó:lō ways of knowing, Robinson conceptualizes “hungry listening” as western listening regimes that contribute to epistemic violence against Indigenous Peoples. Robinson unmasks the “range of appetites” of “hungry listening,” such as desires for sweetness (good feelings like reconciliation) and bitterness (consumption of Indigenous trauma), cravings for Indigenous knowledge and space, among other pernicious indulgences.
13 Robinson (Citation2020) describes the settler-colonial “tin-ear” as refusal to listen and apathy towards Indigenous sonic epistemologies and ontologies.
14 See Foucault and Gordon Citation1980.
15 See Nagle (Citation2019) and Klug Citation2012.
16 While Administration for Native Americans (ANA) is the primary agency for this funding, the Department of Education, Bureau of Indian Education, and Bureau of Indian Affairs also provide(d) congressional funding for Indigenous language initiatives.
17 See Klug Citation2012.
18 Tuck defines “desires-based” storytelling as accounting “for the loss and despair, but also the hope, the visions, the wisdom of lived lives and communities. Desire is involved with the not yet and, at times, the not anymore” (417: her emphasis).
19 “Lady back-up singer” is the colloquial term used by Native American drum groups for the women who sing behind the men around the center drum.
20 See Kroskrity and Field Citation2009.
21 Here is the recording of the 2021 Annual ANA Grantee Meeting Opening Ceremony: <https://youtu.be/c5qcNKhJ76A>.
22 Kawakami and Dudoit (Citation2000) explain that an “Oli (chant) is a significant part of the Hawaiian oral tradition and is used to convey information from person to person, generation to generation, and to uphold structures of protocol” (384). See Kana’iaupuni Citation2005; Stillman Citation2005; Task Citation1999.
23 See Turino Citation2008.
24 See Ellis Citation2003 and Zotigh Citation1991.
25 See Palmer Citation2003.
26 We use the term chant here as this is the term utilized by the Native Hawaiian teachers in this program.
27 Siva Samoa (lit. Samoan Dance) are dance performances usually conducted to welcome and/or entertain guests. See Hughes Citation2018; Radakovich Citation2004; Sagapolutele Citation2018.