Indigenous language sustainability during COVID-19
Keywords:
language, COVID-19, Pacific Island, Samoa, innovationAbstract
This paper gives insights into the ways an Indigenous group has continued to teach and learn their language(s) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an insider researcher from this community, I draw upon observations and dialogue among my people globally, as part of an inquiry into our language sustainability. Although social distancing and border closures hindered communal gatherings, this cohort continued to teach and learn their language(s). Many used digital forums such as social media, Zoom and Facebook to facilitate their language transmission. This article shares how this group has been able to maintain and sustain their language(s) in a time of global crisis, may their story support the Indigenous language fight.
References
Akeripa, J. (2017). O a’uo le Tama Toa: Does the Faasamoa and Masculinity Influence Samoan Male Educational Achievement in New Zealand? Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology.
McCarty, T. L. (2008). Schools as strategic tools for Indigenous language revitalization: Lessons from Native America. In Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? (pp. 161-179). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Enari, D. (2021). Methodology marriage: Merging Western and Pacific research design. In Pacific Dynamics: Journal of interdisciplinary research. https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/101590/5%20Methodology.pdf?sequence=5
Enari, D., & Fa'aea, A. M. (2020). E tumau le fa'avae ae fesuia'i faiga: Pasifika Resilience During COVID‐19. Oceania, 90, 75-80.
Enari, D. & Faleolo, R. (2020). Pasifika well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: Samoans and Tongans in Brisbane. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 9(1), 110-127.
Enari, D. & Matapo, J. (2020). The Digital Vā: Pasifika education innovation during the Covid-19 pandemic. MAI Journal, 9(4), 7-11
Enari, D., & Matapo, J. (2021). Negotiating the relational vā in the University: A transnational Pasifika standpoint during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Global Indigeneity, 5(1), 1-19.
Enari, D., & Rangiwai, B. W. (2021). Digital innovation and funeral practices: Māori and Samoan perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 11771801211015568.
Enari, D & Taula, L. (2021) Tattoo My Mouth: Samoan Language Survival in Australia. Alternative Journal (Forthcoming).
Fa'aea, A. M. & Enari, D (2021). The pathway to leadership is through service: Exploring the Samoan tautua lifecycle. In Pacific Dynamics: Journal of interdisciplinary research. http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/10643
Faleolo, R. L. (2020). Pasifika well-being and Trans-Tasman migration: a mixed methods analysis of Samoan and Tongan well-being perspectives and experiences in Auckland and Brisbane. PhD Thesis, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland.https://doi.org/10.14264/uql.2020.511
Farrelly, T., & Nabobo‐Baba, U. (2014). Talanoa as empathic apprenticeship. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 55(3), 319-330.
Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages (Vol.76). Multilingual matters.
Matapo, J., & Enari, D. (2021). Re-imagining the dialogic spaces of talanoa through Samoan onto-epistemology. Waikato Journal of education, 26, 79-88. https://wje.org.nz/index.php/WJE/article/view/770
Matapo, J., & Teisina, J. (2020). Reimagining teacher subjectivity in Pacific early childhood education in New Zealand. Policy Futures in Education, 1478210320960890.
Matapo, J. (2018). Traversing Pasifika Education Research in a Post-Truth Era. Waikato Journal of Education, 23(1), 139-146.
Mila-Schaaf, K. (2010). Polycultural capital and the Pasifika second generation: negotiating identities in diasporic spaces: a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, Massey University).
Ministry for Pacific Peoples. (2021). Retrieved 24 January 2021, from https://www.mpp.govt.nz/
Niuatoa, M. J. (2007). Fa'a-Samoa: The Epistemology of Samoan Spirituality: a Theological and Psychological Exploration for Religious Education of Spiritual Formation. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Claremont School of Theology.
Papagiannis, G. (2021). Is Culture the Key to Safeguarding Indigenous Rights?. Retrieved 24 January 2021, from http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-753
Ng Shiu, R. (2011). " It's Like Going To The Moon": The Experiences of Samoan Tertiary Health Students at The University of Auckland (Doctoral dissertation).
Singleton, R.A., & Straits, B.C. 2010. Approaches to social research. Fifth Edition. New York, USA: Oxford Press.
Tagoilelagi-Leota, F. (2017). Soso'o le fau i le fau: Exploring what factors contribute to Samoan children’s cultural and language security from the Aoga Amata to Samoan Primary bilingual classrooms in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology.
Tuia, T. (2013). Re-contextualising and re-theorising cultural values in teacher education practices: A Samoan standpoint. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology.
Vaioleti, T. M. (2006). Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12, 21-34.
Wilson, S.A. (2017). Malu i fale le gagana, e malu fo'i i fafo: The use and value of the Samoan language in Samoan families in New Zealand. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology, NZ.
