Recent Development 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages Today, however, there is an increasing appreciation of the value and potential of traditional knowledge. A great deal of traditional knowledge, including customary laws and folklore, has been undermined and destroyed by colonizers and post-colonial states who imposed their own systems of law, knowledge and worldviews on indigenous people. Traditional knowledge and traditional resources have been managed by indigenous and local communities since time immemorial, using customary law embedded in spiritual cosmology. This realization has led to calls to governments to incorporate culture into the development of sustainable agriculture, food systems and related practices, policies and programmes that respect and support the well-being of Indigenous Peoples. It is now emerging that Indigenous Peoples’ overall health, well-being and cultural continuity are directly related to their ability to consume their traditional foods and continue their traditional food practices. When the language dies, that sense of community is damaged. Language, furthermore, is not only a communication tool, it is often linked to the land or region traditionally occupied by indigenous peoples it is an essential component of one’s collective and individual identity and therefore provides a sense of belonging and community. Most governments are aware of this language crisis but funding is often provided only for the recording of languages, while limited funds are diverted to language revitalization programmes.
While some Indigenous Peoples are successfully revitalising languages, many others are fighting a losing battle, where languages are simply no longer passed from one generation to the next. Roughly 90 per cent of all existing languages may become extinct within the next 100 years.ĭying languages, damaging communities. A great majority of these languages are spoken by indigenous peoples, and many (if not most) of them are in danger of becoming extinct. About 97 per cent of the world’s population speaks 4 per cent of its languages, while only 3 per cent speaks 96 per cent of them. Most of these languages are spoken by very few people, while a handful of them are spoken by an overwhelming majority of the world. It is usually estimated that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 oral languages in the world today. Due to the fact that they have been excluded from the decision-making and policy frameworks of nation-states in which they live and have been subjected to processes of domination and discrimination, their cultures have been viewed as being inferior, primitive, irrelevant, something to be eradicated or transformed.ĩ0 per cent of all languages will disappear within 100 years. The result has been that Indigenous cultures today are threatened with extinction in many parts of the world. However, Indigenous Peoples have continued to experience loss of access to lands, territories and natural resources. The importance of land and territories to Indigenous cultural identity cannot be stressed enough.
Indigenous cultures threatened with extinction.