Revitalizing Iskonawa Vocabulary

Iskonawa revitalization efforts have emerged from grassroots initiatives led by youth, building upon earlier work and approaching language revitalization holistically. These efforts are closely tied to ethnic identity reclamation, land sovereignty, and cultural initiatives aimed at increasing visibility in a context dominated by larger Indigenous groups. One of the key grassroots organizations, the Organización para el Desarrollo y Bien Común del Pueblo Iskonawa (ODEBPI), was founded in 2021. Earlier, in 2019, group of women artisans established the Asociación de Artesanas Iskonawa Pari Awin. Across these initiatives, there is a growing recognition of the ancestral language as essential to strengthening Iskonawa identity, particularly as a key marker of their cultural distinctiveness.

Within these initiatives, a range of culturally based activities have taken place, in which people have remembered and used Iskonawa words in meaningful cultural contexts. This project highlights the terms that are reemerging through Iskonawa revitalization efforts, emphasizing their contexts of use to make visible the work of those reclaiming a language considered endangered. The value of these words within their cultural settings offers a way to approach the richness of the Iskonawa vocabulary—not merely as a list of dictionary entries, but as a living language still actively embedded in Iskonawa culture today.

Abuelo y nieta transcribiendo una narración Iskonawa

A Cultural Approach to Language

This exhibition presents a Cultural Guide to the Iskonawa Language Collection housed in the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America. It is designed to facilitate access, navigation, and use by the Iskonawa people and others interested in a culturally grounded approach to language. The exhibition is the result of the project "Revitalizing Iskonawa Vocabulary: Bridging Language Archives to a Digital Exhibition," supported by the 2024 LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship–AVAnnotate Project Fellowship.