Organization: Advocates for Indigenous California
Mission: The Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival is an organization devoted to implementing and supporting the revitalization of indigenous California languages. Its mission is to assist California Indians in language maintenance and renewal.
Activities: The Master Apprentice Language Learning Program is our core program. For the last several years we have had 12 Master Apprentice teams who are working on 12 distinct tribal languages. Teams attend two training workshops annually and are mentored by someone who has gone through the 3 year Master Apprentice program in the past, that works with the team and provides support for them. We have regional Master Apprentice Coordinators who work with the mentors and the teams to create a semi-annual report on the progress of all teams. The program directly affects 12 Master speakers, 12 apprentices, 12 mentors and 2 Coordinators each year. Indirectly, many more people are affected as the teams are language leaders that provide community language classes and language support in their communities. A subprogram of this is Family Language Program which is in development but consists of workshops for families using their heritage language within the home, and most of the parents are or have been participants of Master Apprentice or Breath of Life.
Language is Life Gathering. In odd years, the Advocates produces a weekend-long language gathering consisting of workshops, panels and youth activities presented by community members on topics pertaining to Indigenous languages. The services we provide include coordinating the gathering, presenting workshops, and offering scholarships for lodging on-site at the venue, with between 100-200 scholarships being granted. On average, this gathering brings 225-300 participants from throughout California and elsewhere.
Breath of Life Archival Institute for California Indigenous Language. In even years, the Advocates produces a one week long workshop at UC Berkeley for 50 California Indian participants who work on a one on one basis for a full week with a linguist or graduate linguistic student. Participants are given access to the university archives and shown how to utilize all the materials that are housed in the various collections. Each language's linguist helps participants decipher the language materials and complete a final project that is shared with the group at the end of the week. This Program serves about 60 California Indians directly and some 20 linguistics students and/or professors and between 5-10 volunteers.
NTEE category: Arts, Culture & Humanities
Secondary category: Education