By Wexa Nita | Project Advocate
Jakón néte! - Good day!
Two wonderful new developments have come our way as the "Axenon Ikanwe" Shipibo-Konibo radio program continues to be a success! Before getting to those we want to thank everyone who has donated to our cause to revitalize and maintain the Shipibo-Konibo language, especially to our recurring donors. Íchabires iráke jatíbi! - Thank you all so much!
Advancement with the Shipibo-Konibo E-Dictionary
Over the past few months we have been typing out the entire Shipibo-Konibo dictionary from the Summer Institute of Linguistics. We decided to use Google Sheets for this process, and it has worked well. Now that all the linguist meta-data is in a digital format we can begin revising and improving it!
This editable spread sheet has also helped us to create a digital database for a new computer application that is being developed by a volunteer. We will soon be able to load the simple data entry application into a new website, where anyone in the world can access. Once the E-Dictionary is live we will let you all know so you can check it out and learn some more of this beautiful language! Meanwhile please let us know if you would like to view the spread sheet and we will share the document with you.
New Teaching Positions for Inin Yoi and Metsa Jisbe!
We are proud to announce that the producers and radio personalities for Axenon Ikanwe both received exciting new positions for the 2019 school year. Inin Yoi is back at the primary school in the urban Shipibo-Konibo community Bena Jema, where Alianza Arkana has collaborated on educational and environmental projects since 2011. Language loss is much more prevalent in Bena Jema due in part to its proximity with the city. It is wonderful to see that Inin Yoi, and his passion for his language, will have the whole school year to share this love for language with his urban students.
Additionally, Metsa Jisbe graduated at the beginning of the year with her degree in secondary education and received her first contract in the community San Francisco. While her official position is as a professor of social sciences, she was also giving the opportunity and privilege of "Reinforcement of Original Languages". This is part of a new initiative taken by the Peruvian Ministry of Education to maintain the indigenous languages of Peru, partly in thanks to United Nation's International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019.
Metsa Jisbe is now one of seven secondary school teachers that dedicates 10 minutes per class to go over the daily lessons in Shipibo-Konibo and includes grammar and spelling lessons. 201 secondary students will have 20 minutes of instruction per week that is dedicated to revitalizing and maintaining their ancestral language! It may not seem like a lot of time, yet it is 20 more minutes than any student has ever received before. This is the first program of its kind and we are so happy for Metsa Jisbe to have been given the opportunity to lead this important new initiative with her quality instruction!!
Again, thank you to everyone who has donated and please share this with others who are also interested in strengthening Indigenous Languages around the world. If you are not already a reoccurring donor, please consider doing so as well. Your continued support is always appreciated!
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