About

Statement of intent and approach

living-language-land is about offering a platform to minority and endangered language-holders to share a word and story that reflects a relationship to land and nature. It is about enlarging the lexicon we can all draw from in reflecting on those relationships. 

Contributions have been invited from around the world, acknowledging that only a tiny fraction of minority and endangered languages can be represented in this project. All contributions have been created by communities themselves, and all contributors have received some compensation to support their wider work. All contributions are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted. Attribution to the authors is essential – thank you.

We acknowledge the enduring privilege resulting from colonial practices, and take responsibility for decolonising our thinking. We have used wide consultation and continuous self-reflection to bring this project forth in a way that aims to respect all peoples and knowledges. Please let us know what you think.

Who is behind the project?

living-language-land was devised by Neville Gabie and Philippa Bayley (UK) in close collaboration with our partners Cesar Sánchez León (Colombia), Virginia MacKenny (South Africa) and Matthias Brenzinger (South Africa/Namibia). 

Daniel Tarazona (Colombia) and Clementine Humphrey (UK) are supporting our social media. The website was designed by Axis Graphic Design and Leanda Ryan.

Find out more about our contributors, collaborators and connectors.

living-language-land is funded by the British Council under the COP26 Creative Commissions programme.

How can you get involved?

If you are inspired by the project, we’d love you to reflect on the words, talk them over in your groups and networks, and bring them into your own lives and creative work.

You might want to:

  • Bring the words into a reading group, or creative group
  • Bring the words alive with students in your classroom or group
  • Organise similar-themed activities, to explore words in the minority and endangered languages around you, or words that relate to land and nature that are being lost from any of the world’s languages

Please reach out to us via our contact form or on social media if you want to suggest something, or invite us to speak about the project.

Tell me more!

Listen to our COP26 Green Zone presentation from 3/11/21. See where else the project has been featured and please help us spread the word(s)!

English (UK)