An Anthology of the Anthropocene

Dialogue Two

RECONNECTING LAND, LANGUAGE, AND LOVE:
Indigenous Futures of Hope and Courage

Thurs, January 9, 2024
@MacBride Museum, 1124 Front StreetWhitehorse, Yukon
6:30pm Doors open with beverages and light fare provided
7-9:00pm Round table discussion follow by community inquiry
Tickets Sliding scale $5-20/person
Event contact jodi@weareriver.earth, 867.332.7795

Our languages are more than just a tool of communication — they are a waterway for identity, culture, story, and a way of seeing the world that has been floated down through generations. X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell has long advocated for Indigenous futures on Indigenous lands to focus on the health of Indigenous languages by reclaiming time and space that was stolen and unnaturalized through acts of violent and inhumane colonialism. "We know about the horrors of the residential school and erasure era, but in order to move towards healthy and safe languages, individuals, families, and societies must look into the wounds and heal through a combination of traditional knowledge systems and inclusive methods of behavioral therapy. The move towards Indigenous strength and reclamation must also include difficult conversations about the normalization of violence and the shift towards a protective society that engages in difficult conversations in order to love ourselves, Our Ancestors, and Our Future Generations." Through the lens of Indigenous language revitalization, this dialogue will explore how language frames our beliefs about reality and how we see everything we look at, hear, or otherwise experience. Through illuminating the influence of Indigenous languages on perception and action, we will discuss proposed shifts in society and its institutions, rooted in revolutionary self-love.
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Featuring premiere of the short film “The River That Untangles One’s Mind” authored by Skaydu.û Jules, Guná Jensen, + X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, produced by Creative Crow Media

Speakers

X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell (Lingít, Haida, Yupʼik, Sami) is a Professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, and lives in Juneau with his wife and bilingual children. He speaks and studies the Lingít language, and advocates for Indigenous language reclamation through teaching, program development, legislative changes, and healing. Twitchell is an author of poems, stories, and screenplays, and is a filmmaker, musician, and Northwest Coast Artist. He has been a writer and cultural consultant for Molly of Denali, an Emmy nominated children’s show on PBS that features a female Alaska Native child as the lead character. His first book of poetry, G̱agaan X̱ʼusyee / Below the Foot of the Sun, is available from the University of Alaska Press and the University Press of Colorado. Dr. Twitchell holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota, an MFA from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and a doctorate in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization from Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. His studies are in creating safe language acquisition spaces and building language reclamation movements through the love and brilliance of the Ancestors of the language and by overcoming the horrors of colonization.

Ayana Young and her daughter Penelope Mae Walker spend most days strategizing how to stop large scale industrial projects in wild salmon habitat; and exploring the wilderness of Coastal Alaska. Ayana is the Co-Founder and Host of For The Wild, an independent slow media organization and podcast dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling that dreams towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity. Learning deeply from the critical dialogue shared with over 100 guests, Ayana approaches For The Wild’s mission with critical thinking, deep reverence, and artistry. She is also a Co-Founder of the The Chilkat Watershed Fund at Alaska Venture Fund as well as the Co-Founder of The Asher Foundation.

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