Hul’q’umi’num’ language heroes: a successful collaboration between Elders, community organisations, and Canadian West Coast universities

ABSTRACT

Community collaboration is essential to the survival of theatre and performance labour in the neoliberal university. This evidentiary document describes one project of a successful collaboration between Hul’q’umi’num’ Elders and teachers, community organisations, and a range of Canadian West Coast universities, including the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and Royal Roads University. It will discuss how university-based theatre and performance work, applied in the community, can support the sustainability of Indigenous languages on Vancouver Island and beyond – and can thus make important contributions to community learning and survivance.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous theatre
• language revitalisation
• community collaboration
• Coast Salish

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta (PhD, University of Manchester) is currently conducting research on Coast Salish language revitalisation through theatre. As a theatre practitioner, she has been involved in projects with different communities. For instance, she has worked with children in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, young people in Brazilian favelas, young women in rural areas of Cambodia, and students with special needs in schools in The Netherlands.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Insight Grant; Partnership Development Grant).