March 2025 – Honolulu, Hawai’i
At the 2025 International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC) in Honolulu, over 400 attendees came together to tackle an immediate world-wide concern: the survival of Indigenous languages in the face of displacement, urbanization, and intergenerational loss. What was emphasized over the course of the gathering —revitalization is not only necessitated by local effort but also long-term global collaboration and knowledge exchange.
The conference opened with the keynote address by Ross Perlin and Rasmina Gurung of the Endangered Language Alliance, addressing the complex linguistic realities of large cities. In their work in New York, they have documented over 12,000 sites where minority and Indigenous languages are indeed spoken—mosques and temples and apartment buildings and parks.
Gurung, a full-time nurse and Seke heritage speaker, addressed the personal challenges of language maintenance in diaspora. Within a virtual network of support from family and community speakers, her community has built what she calls a “virtual village”—a space where language can survive even in the face of geographical distance. “Sometimes it feels like the language is reviving itself,” she reported, but even so she acknowledged the ongoing barrier of intergenerational transmission in the lack of fluent Elders to pass on the language.
That challenge resonated across sessions. In one of the breakout sessions: Talk Story – Speech Generation for Indigenous Language Education, UK, Japan, and Canadian researchers presented preliminary findings from their speech synthesis software that aims to support Indigenous language learning. This software would produce high-quality sound output for a learner using virtually minimal input from speakers—a solution that is being carefully planned alongside Indigenous Elders and community members. It is unique in that it operates under principles that respects data sovereignty where the data remains in the control of Indigenous peoples. This work is especially promising for languages that have very few fluent speakers.
Others focused on pedagogy. One set of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh students in the province of British Columbia gave their peer-directed approaches to gaining high proficiency in a language with limited first-language speakers available to live among. Their approach involves immersive environments, self-practice recording, and switching roles in teaching a language to foster learner confidence and independence.
From Aotearoa (New Zeland), Lynne Harata Te Aika offered insight into Māori teacher training schemes that began 25 years ago with a tribal model to restore language usage in the home. Thousand of teachers have graduated since then. But in 2023, vital government funding was halted. The work continues—privately, and at cost to participants.
Brian Maracle in another session outlined Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa’s Kanien’kéha adult immersion program’s curriculum. The intensive, two-year program modeled on the polysynthetic root-word language construction is geared to the creation of skilled speakers that will be in a position to raise children into full speakers of the language. The program curriculum has been followed by numerous Canadian and U.S. communities.
The unifying theme of these projects is the importance of collaboration and exchanging knowledge and promising practises. From across disciplines and regions, participants emphasized that language revitalization draws on both local context and shared challenges: the absence of first-language speakers, the constraints of funding, and the need for knowledge transfer that is aligned with Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Dr. Ronald E. Ignace was honoured to deliver a keynote during the conference, where he shared his journey of advancing language revitalization efforts that ultimately led to the national movement that saw the passage of the Indigenous Languages Act in 2019. He spoke candidly of the decades-long fight to bring Indigenous languages out of shadows and into the light—pointing out that languages carry not only identity and culture, but important perspectives and solutions for the economy and climate change. He shared about the mandate and evolving work of the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, which promotes Indigenous languages and supports the efforts of Indigenous Peoples in revitalizing their languages. He talked about the key activities and work happening to advocate for systemic change at all levels of government.
As the conference came to a close, Dr. Mary Therese Perez Hattori spoke to the audience about how the battle for language reclamation sometimes starts a long way from home—particularly for diaspora populations. But the common work being done in schools, living rooms, and meeting halls everywhere makes it clear that the movement of revitalization is no longer alone. It’s global, more visible than ever, and building in momentum.
The Commission was grateful to be a part of the global discussion on navigating the realities in diaspora communities and advances strategic goals to build, share, and learn alongside Indigenous Peoples worldwide —most especially during the United Nations’ International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032). The ICLDC, being a gathering place for international dialogue, was a special opportunity for the Commission to learn from Indigenous educators, researchers, and leaders.
