On Endangered Languages: Indigeneity, Community, and Creative Practice

Peter Morin performs "Hello Darlin'" at the Symposium, MOA, Sept. 14th 2013. Photo by Kate Hennessy.

On September 14th, the symposium ‘On Endangered Languages: Indigeneity, Community and Creative Practice’ took place at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC in the Ames Theatre. I co-organized this with artist John Wynne (University of the Arts, London)  and linguistic anthropologist Tyler Peterson (University of Arizona), and curator Karen Duffek (Museum of Anthropology, UBC). For a full list of participants, a detailed description of the symposium, and video documentation of the sessions, visit the page on our Making Culture Lab site.

John Wynne’s Anspayaxw is installed at the Satellite Gallery until the end of October, 2013. An online catalogue publication [download PDF] for the show includes my essay ‘Asymmetrical Translations: John Wynne’s Anspayaxw’.

As the multi-sensory installation Anspayaxw opens for exhibition in the Satellite Gallery in Vancouver, we bring artist John Wynne, linguist Tyler Peterson, anthropologist Kate Hennessy, Musqueam elder Larry Grant, and Gitxsan participants Louise Wilson and Barbara Harris into conversation with scholars and artists on the preservation of endangered languages, the interconnected role of digital media, and engagements with artistic practice.