How to Join #IYIL2019

The United Nations declared this year as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, a year dedicated to increasing understanding, awareness, integration, collaboration, and cooperation in all areas related to Indigenous languages, whether that be digitally, culturally, pedagogically, or politically.

Do you want to get involved with the International Year of Indigenous Languages? Here are some easy initial steps!

• Share, share, share! There are still many people around the world who have not heard about this monumentous year. Tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, share it with the elders of your community. If you use social media, share images and/or videos about the year and what it means to you. Remember to use the official hashtags, #IYIL2019 and #IndigenousLanguages (along with the equivalent translation in any other languages!), and tag Wikitongues, so that we can repost!
• Join the Indigenous Language Challenge. The ILC is not a challenge in the traditional sense — there is no competition here. Do you remember the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral a few years ago to raise money to support ALS research? The Ice Bucket Challenge was not a challenge either, except possibly against yourself for fighting cold. It was called a challenge to raise awareness and bring a topic into our daily conversations. This is the same idea motivating the Indigenous Language Challenge! It’s a way to support Indigenous communities, learn to be a better ally, and work on a new language. So, choose a language (a lot of our volunteers have chosen a language indigenous to the area they are from), join the Facebook group if you’re on the platform, use the hashtags, and hop on in!
• Help us think of fun and creative campaigns to implement on various social media platforms throughout the year. Anything that you believe could gain attention!
• Connect us with your local news outlets to write blog posts, be featured on podcasts, and any other opportunities, to discuss our work, this coalition, and the year as a whole.

This year’s success depends on all of us “on the ground” — those of us who use social media regularly, engage with Indigenous communities, speaking an Indigenous language ourselves.

Happy #IYIL2019 to all of you!

If you’d like to donate to support the work of Wikitongues or if you’d like to get to know our work, please visit wikitongues.org. To watch our oral histories, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit wikitongues.org to submit a video.