Talk Story Sessions and Workshops

Following a format introduced at the ICLDC 2017, we are including a 90-minute block on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to be dedicated to two alternative conference activities: Workshops and Talk Story sessions.  
                                
Talk Story Sessions
Introduced at ICLDC 2017 in response to participant feedback, ICLDC 2019 will again have “Talk Story” sessions. These discussions will be led by an expert discussant and limited to 20-30 attendees per session. Each Talk Story will be repeated on three days of the conference, allowing ample opportunity for conference attendees to participate in the Talk Story sessions of their choice. Talk Story sessions are meant to be fully interactive for participants, rather than a one-directional presentation of information. This format may be particularly appropriate for discussion of the challenges of technology and its role in language reclamation and language documentation.
                    
Workshops
We also welcome proposals for Workshops on topics broadly relating to language and technology, particularly where it impacts communities. Each 90-minute workshop will be held twice over three days of the conference, allowing multiple opportunities for interested attendees to participate. Workshops will accommodate a larger number of participants and are intended to be more presentational and instructional in style than the Talk Story sessions. Appropriate workshop topics will be related to the conference theme and may include instruction in use of software tools, development of new software tools, development of web technologies, novel methods for digital hardware tools, etc.

​In the past, conference guests have registered for Talk Story and Workshops ahead of time however this year attendance will be open until presentation rooms are filled.

Talk Story Sessions:
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 Connecting technology and language revitalization from a community-based perspective
This Talk Story session will create a collaborative learning space for attendees to engage in open dialogue about their experiences using technology in a community-based setting for language revitalization and maintenance. A live demonstration of FirstVoices.com, First Peoples’ Cultural Council’s online language archiving and learning resource will also be provided.
Presenter(s): Britt Dunlop and Kyra Fortier
Britt Dunlop
First Peoples’ Cultural Council
Language Programs Associate
Kyra Fortier
Decolonizing Indigenous Language Technologies:
Centering Communities and Their Languages in Technology
Presenter(s): Dr. Wesley Leonard, Dr. Megan Lukaniec , and Adrienne Tsikewa
Talking about child language documentation: Experiences, barriers, methods & outcomes
Presenter(s): Dr. Barbara Kelly 
Ideologies about Hawaiian Language Revitalization and Reclamation
Despite the many successes of the Hawaiian language revitalization movement, learners continue to face negative comments. This talk story session will discuss possible motivations behind these comments, efforts to normalize Hawaiian language use, and the realities of raising Hawaiian-speaking children.
Organizer(s): Dr. Katie Drager and Haʻalilio Williams-Solomon
Presenter(s): Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl  and Haʻalilio Solomon
Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl is originally from Maui and now splits her time between there and Aotearoa New Zealand. She holds both an undergraduate and a maters degree in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) from UH Mānoa, where she also worked as a lecturer. Her master's work focused on the use of the nominalizing particle ʻana by native speakers on Ka Leo Hawaiʻi. She is part owner of the clothing company Kealopiko, where she works to normalize ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi through fashion. She is also a translator in training at Awaiaulu. Hina has spoken primarily ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to her two daughters, 5 & 7, but Te Reo Māori (Māori language) and English are also spoken in her home.
Haʻalilio Solomon is an Instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa at the Hālau ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi ʻo Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language.  He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Linguistics. He is an avid translator for ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi under Awaiaulu and Hoʻopulapula, and his studies involve language documentation and revitalization, as well as linguistic ideologies and attitudes surrounding ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. He speaks several other languages as well, and his multi-lingualism shapes his pedagogical approach as well as his academic endeavors, many of which involve the documentation of the languages spoken in Polynesia.
Leveraging technology to recirculate songs in endangered languages
The objectives of this talk story session:
  1. Discuss best-practice techniques for recording, documenting and archiving songs in endangered languages;
  2. Share examples of how technology has been effectively used to recirculate archival Indigenous songs, and;
  3. Encourage dialogue on issues and solutions in relation to online and peer-to-peer song-sharing.
Presenter(s): Dr. Clint Bracknell, Dr. Linda Barwick, Dr. Linda Payi Ford, Emily Ford and Chloe Ford
Clint Bracknell is a Wirlomin Noongar from Western Australia’s south coast, a musician, composer and Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University. Dr Bracknell leads an Australian Research Council project aiming to recirculate and reignite performance of old Noongar songs, having been involved in Noongar language revitalisation with the Wirlomin clan (wirlomin.com.au) since 2010.
Linda Barwick is Associate Dean (Research) at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney and has extensive experience working with Aboriginal communities on song and language projects. Since its inception, Professor Barwick has helped develop the cross-institutional research infrastructure facility PARADISEC (the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures).
Linda Payi Ford identifies as Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu, from Kurrindju, on the Finniss River, in the Northern Territory and is currently a Principal Research Fellow at Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University. Dr Ford is a mother, an academic, a researcher, an educator and a practitioner of Indigenous traditions. Dr Ford’s daughters Emily Ford and Chloe Ford are research assistants on the Australian Research Council project New Ways for Old Ceremonies.
Immersing Our Homes and Relationships: A discussion of the successes and struggles of heritage language transmission
This Talk Story space serves to inform and empower second-language speakers to create, sustain and expand immersion moments throughout their homes.  We will discuss what realities of language transmission we face as we raise our children in Seneca and Mohawk language, then reflect on the action and resources needed to ultimately raise future first-language speakers in our communities. ​
Presenter(s): Whitney Nephew, Kawenniióstha Nicole Martin, and Yeya’tón:nis Alexis Martin.
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Whitney Nephew is a Cayuga descendent from the Seneca-Cayuga of Oklahoma, and lives with her husband Jordan Garrow (Seneca, Bear Clan) and daughter, Mira, on the Cattaraugus Territory of the Seneca Nation.  Whitney is in her third year studying  Onödowa'ga:' / Seneca language with the Deadiwënöhsnye's Program, a fully-immersed setting.  She has committed to parenting exclusively in Onödowa'ga:' since Mira was approximately nine months old.
 
Mira Garrow is the daughter of Whitney Nephew and Jordan Garrow, and is a descendent of the Seneca Nation.  Her home is on the Cattaraugus Territory of the Seneca Nation, where she is acquiring both English and Seneca language.  Mira will turn three in May 2019, and enjoys swimming, drawing, singing, taking care of her pets, and cooking delicious fake food.
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Kawenniióstha Nicole Martin is of the Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan.  She was raised on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Southern Ontario.  She grew up in community in an English speaking home, receiving formal teachings in grade school.  After entering motherhood, a revelation was prioritizing life choices, and creating a circle of language support in the community for self & daughter.  A former Mohawk language student then teacher, she is currently working beside community members in the Seneca Nation with revitalization efforts.
Yeya’tón:nis Alexis Martin is the daughter of Kawenniióstha, raised on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.  She attended Kawenni:io immersion grade school beginning at age three.  Currently residing with her mother on Ohi:yo’, the Allegany Territory of the Seneca Nation.  She is a Senior in high school, and is in her second year of learning a sister language of the Haudenosaunee- Seneca.
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Workshops:


Rapid Word Collection Workshops: Why & how to do them
Presenters build on experience conducting a 2015 Rapid Word Collection (RWC) workshop to explain using FLEx https://software.sil./fieldworks/ to gather words for a dictionary. Install FLEx before you come. Workshop outline: 1) expected results, 2) roles and logistics, 3) group semantic domain word collection, 4) debrief, Q&A, referrals to lexicography resources. 

Presenter(s): Dr. Brenda Boerger and Jeremiah Aviel
Brenda Boerger is the Language and Culture Documentation Services Coordinator for SIL International and has twice received Documenting Endangered Languages Fellowships—in 2010 to work on a grammar of Natügu [ntu], spoken in the Solomon Islands, and in 2015 to work on a Natügu dictionary. She is passionate about including “culture doc” such as ethnobotany and ethnomusicology as part of any “language” documentation project she undertakes. 
Jeremiah Aviel is a linguist and wilderness survival trainer for clients of all ages. He volunteers part time with Boerger in Language and Culture Documentation. His experience includes documentary fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. He is passionate about the connections between language and identity and himself has heritage roots in Mi’kmaq [mic], Irish [gle], and Hebrew [heb]. 
Introduction to Mukurtu CMS: Connecting and Sharing Cultural Collections and Language Materials
Presenter(s): Dr. Kimberly Christen, Michael Wynne and Alana Pollack
Michael Wynne is the Digital Applications Librarian at Washington State University, where he provides support and training for Mukurtu CMS, and helps run community-oriented digitization and digital preservation trainings. Michael is a graduate from the iSchool@UBC, where he completed the First Nations Curriculum Concentration.
Alana Pollack was born and raised on Oʻahu and graduated from Mills College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the Center for Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she serves as a graduate assistant in the Department of Linguistics and is the Hub Manager for the Kaipumakani Project.
Kim Christen is the Director of Digital Initiatives for the College of Arts and Sciences and the Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University. She is thefounder of Mukurtu CMS an open source content management system and community digital access platform designed to meet the needs of Indigenous communities. She is also the Director of the Sustainable Heritage Network, and the co-director of the Local Contexts initiative, both aimed at providing educational resources for stewarding digital cultural heritage and supporting Indigenous communities in the management of intellectual property.  
Bloom: Now Communities Can Create Their Own Books
Come see how to easily make books in local languages using the free, award-winning Bloom software (bloomlibrary.org). Learn to adapt from thousands of existing freely-licensed books as well as make original titles. We will produce paper booklets and electronic talking books, plus learn about available print and video training materials.
Presenter(s): John and Suzanne Hatton 
Accelerating the analysis of your audio recordings with Untrained Forced Speech Alignment
Presenter(s): Dr. Ronaldo Coto-Solano, Dr Sally Akevai (Ake) Nicholas, Dr. Samantha Wray, and Dr. Tyler Peterson
Transcription Acceleration for Language Documentation with ELPIS
In this workshop we will use Elpis, an open source speech to text system, to train language models and obtain automated first-pass transcriptions for languages with low quantities of data. This workshop is suitable for linguists and language workers, no machine learning experience is required.
​Presenter(s): Ben Foley, Daan van Esch, and Nay San
Ben Foley is project manager of the Transcription Acceleration Project (TAP), an initiative of the ARC-funded Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. TAP brings cutting-edge machine learning technology within reach of people working with some of the world's oldest languages, by optimising workflows and supporting the development of new transcription tools. Foley's experience working in Indigenous language resource development over twenty years has resulted in language app development and websites galore, including an Indigenous sign-language site and a national Indigenous language map site.
Nay San is a PhD student in linguistics at Stanford University and is interested in leveraging computational methods for the documentation and linguistic analysis of endangered languages, particularly of those in Australia. Before Stanford, he worked on describing vowel variation in Kaytetye and automating data processing tasks for producing a dictionary of Warlpiri.
Daan van Esch is a Technical Program Manager in the Speech & Keyboard group at Google in Mountain View, California. He's worked on internationalization in this group for about six years now, and his work has been focused around building data-driven machine-learning pipelines to bring the magic of language technology to users everywhere. In addition, he is interested in helping the language documentation community apply state-of-the-art computational methods in order to accelerate annotation and transcription work across many languages.
How to Make a 'Mother Tongues' Digital Dictionary
In this hands-on workshop, participants will be walked through each of the steps needed to create an online digital dictionary for any language using the Mother Tongues platform of open-source tools. Participants will be asked to prepare their data before we meet and will leave the workshop with their very own online dictionary.
Presenter(s): Dr. Mark Turin and Aidan Pine
Mark Turin is an anthropologist and linguist, and works at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he teaches in the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program and the Department of Anthropology. For over twenty years, Mark’s regional focus has been the Himalayan region (particularly Nepal, northern India and Bhutan), and more recently, the Pacific Northwest. Mark is very privileged to have had the opportunity to work in collaborative partnership with members of the Thangmi-speaking communities of eastern Nepal and Darjeeling district in India since 1996, and since 2014 with members of the Heiltsuk First Nation through a Heiltsuk Language Mobilization Partnership in which UBC is a member.
My name is Aidan Pine. I'm a settler of European ancestry born in Victoria, B.C. I fell in love with language revitalization work as a way of combining my interests in language, linguistics, anti-colonial/decolonial methodologies, and computer science.
Currently, I am a full-time application development specialist working on the Indigenous Language Technology project of the Canadian National Research Council, the founder and lead developer of Mother Tongues, and part-time technology consultant for the First Nations & Endangered Languages Program and Linguistics Department at the University of British Columbia.
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Support for the 2019 ICLDC Workshops and Talk Story Sessions is provided by the National Science Foundation under grant BCS-1745711. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.