Talk with Dr. Ray Huaute – Weaving in Community Voices: An Indigenous Approach to Community-Based Language Research
Several “collaborative” or “community-based” language research models have been proposed (Cameron et. al 1992, Czaykowska-Higgins 2009) in which “research on a language… is conducted for, with, and by the language-speaking community,” but where “by” usually refers to Indigenous community members who are working “in collaboration” with a non-lndigenous researcher rather
than leading the research themselves. In this talk, I present an alternative framework rooted in Indigenous Research Methodologies, where research that is on a language is conducted for, with,
and by members of the Indigenous speech community, but where “by” can include linguistic research led by an Indigenous community researcher. Crucially, my model goes further than the previous models by adding an additional requirement that the research be conducted in a manner that is relationally accountable to the Indigenous speech community in which the research takes
place and affects. This approach, which I call the Indigenous-Based Language Research Model (IBLR) naturally centers linguistic research around community-specific language reclamation goals,
allowing researchers to identify what type(s) of linguistic research might best support language revitalization efforts in a given community. Specific examples of this approach will be illustrated
from both my doctoral and postdoctoral research.
Dr. Ray Huaute (Chumash, Cahuilla) is a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Riverside. He completed a BA in Native American Studies at UC Riverside, an MA in Native American Linguistics from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in Linguistics from UC San Diego. His main research interests include, language documentation and description (particularly of Uto-Aztecan and other Indigenous languages of the Americas), community-based linguistics and language reclamation, language pedagogy, language acquisition, Indigenous signed languages, and critical discourse analysis of language endangerment rhetoric, as well as pejorative rhetoric found in early language documentation records.
Tuesday, December 3rd 2024, 11:00 A.M. – 12:30 P.M., Rolfe 2125
