How can the speakers of indigenous languages be educated during a pandemic like coronavirus?
In this episode of O Foundation Conversations, Subhashish Panigrahi speaks to Dr. Mandana Seyfeddinipur who is a linguist and heads the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme at the SOAS University of London. Dr. Seyfeddinipur shares how indigenous and endangered language speakers need to document their language, and recommendations for the government and other authorities to ensure that such speakers get access to critical information (like health advice during COVID-19) in their own language(s). Recorded during the Decolonizing the Internet’s Languages Conference 2019 that was organised by Whose Knowledge? October 2019 in London at the Mozilla Festival 2019.
Producer: Subhashish Panigrahi
Background music and sound effects:
Flight announcement by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 4.0 YVONNE GuitarArpeggiation.wav by gutiyvon, CC0 1.0 bingBong.wav by stib, CC0 1.0 Warm guitar rhythm Intro by quetzalcontla, CC-BY 3.0 hospital_lobby.flac by tim.kahn (CC-BY 3.0)
Adivasis are the indigenous communities in India. There are 104 million Adivasis that speak a few hundred languages but only a handful of them have a access to media of their own. In this episode of O Foundation Conversations, our host Subhashish Panigrahi talks to Ankush Vengurlekar and Ashish Birulee of Adivasi Lives Matter, a platform dedicated to giving a voice to Advisi content producers. Shaped with inspirations from the Black Lives Matter movement, Adivasi Lives Matter provides training to many Adivasi youths on a regular basis who then create stories — text, audio and video. Even the hardship of COVID-19 lockdown has not stopped these content creators who are on a mission to promote their people, languages and cultures online. This episode is only a glimpse of the myriads of activities that Adivasi Lives Matter has been leading.
PRODUCER: SUBHASHISH PANIGRAHI
GUESTS: ANKUSH VENGURLEKAR & ASHISH BIRULEE
MUSIC: https://freesound.org/people/0ktober/sounds/188828/, https://freesound.org/people/16HPanskaBenda_Jonas/sounds/503635/, https://freesound.org/people/mahammed/sounds/444271/, https://freesound.org/people/Tr4ck3r/sounds/132382/, https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/411162/, https://freesound.org/people/pjcohen/sounds/414447, https://freesound.org/people/SamplingSamTheMarylandMan/sounds/468520/, https://freesound.org/people/swapnil_gt/sounds/255115/, https://freesound.org/people/quetzalcontla/sounds/458425/, https://freesound.org/s/173564/