| Description |
Language is a powerful aspect of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Along with oral traditions and expressions, language is recognized as crucial vehicle for manifestation of ICH.1 It is the gateway to a people’s culture, value systems, and worldviews. Linguistic diversity is correlated with multifarious and unexhaustive dimensions of diversity, including biological, species and ecological diversity. Despite unrelenting colonial attempts at their annihilation, Indigenous Peoples occupy about 22 per cent of global land mass where they continue to exercise their rich traditions and stewardship of nature. With their global population of about 500 million, Indigenous Peoples constitute perhaps the greatest human demographic showcase of the world’s cultural diversity, unlike any other civilization. Indigenous Peoples have retained an untapped capacity to continue to contribute as inventors, re-inventors, speakers, and custodians of a significant portion of the world’s estimated 7000 languages. Revival of Indigenous languages is an acknowledged aspect of Indigenous resurgence.2 This contribution calls attention to the untapped potential of Indigenous languages and oral traditions as vital tools for mitigating current ecological crisis. |
