language as preservation, language as renunciation

 "At the age of eighty-five, Marie Wilcox is the only remaining fluent speaker of Wukchumni, a dialect of the Tule-Kaweah language from the Yokuts tribal group, which originated along the Tule and Kaweah Rivers of Central California. For twenty years, Marie documented her language—word by word—in the form of a written and spoken dictionary, the first work of its kind in the Wukchumni language. Now Marie and her daughter, Jennifer Malone, alongside other family members, are embarking on an ambitious project of language revitalization... the dictionary has become an inspiration to other Native communities working to revitalize their own dying languages."

this 9-minute doc made me feel so many things (but mostly adoration for mighty marie). our biggest debt is to preserve and protect those who were here FIRST, whose lands were appropriated and cultures decimated for the sake of colonists laying claim.