## Virtual panel: Data considerations across Humanities disciplines
### **"Data" in Indigenous Language Documentation**
**Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, University of Victoria**
There is a strong movement amongst Indigenous communities worldwide to maintain and revitalize their ancestral languages, many of which are under pressure due to such external forces as colonization, urbanization, displacement, and globalization. Language workers from inside and outside the language communities are thus increasingly focused on digitizing legacy materials and on documenting Indigenous languages in the form of born-digital written, audio and video recordings. Parallel to this increase in documentation is an increased focus on establishing and carrying out data management plans, including curating and archiving materials. This presentation describes Indigenous language documentation "data" and provides a brief overview of the resources, training, and archiving associated with language documentation practices. It concludes by asking whether public memory institutions have a role to play in ensuring (digital) language documentation "data" are available and accessible for future generations.
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**Transcript:**
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**Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins**' theoretical interests in Salish evolved into a commitment to collaborative, community-based work in language and language revitalization. Her community-engaged work has included projects on ethical issues in linguistic fieldwork, on Community-Based Language Research methodology in linguistics, on policies and practices in evaluating community-engaged scholarship, and on language revitalization. With UVic colleagues, members of the SENĆOŦEN and Hul'q'umi'num' Vancouver Island Coast Salish communities, and First Peoples' Cultural Council, Ewa has been involved in several major projects with a focus on language revitalization. She's currently working with Colville Tribes’ Language Program to compile a dictionary and online database of Nxaʔamxčín words recorded by Dale Kinkade in the 1960s.
