Indigenous Languages

"Celebrating IY2019 will help promote and protect indigenous languages and improve the lives of those who speak them. It will contribute to achieving the objectives set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The celebration is also expected to strengthen and reinforce the many standard-setting tools adopted by the international community which include specific provisions to promote and protect languages."

We collect recordings of Indigenous speakers on traditional medium like Hi-8, reel-to-reel, video and audio cassette, and other older formats, and we then digitize those recordings, preserving those voices that would otherwise be lost due to time and decay. If you or someone you know has older recordings that they think should be preserved and added to our site, please contact us and let us know. We provide a way for language learners to begin or continue their path to rekindling their own Indigenous language through live-chats with our fluent language Mentors. Groups or individuals can schedule their learning time on our site and then have real-time conversational tutorials with a Mentor, allowing them to see and hear their language spoken along with real life examples built into each lesson, bringing a style of teaching much closer to their own traditions.