Chapter 10. The ethics of indigenous language revitalization

Abstract

The ethical issue we address in this chapter is the role of Indigenous language experts who do not live in the community where an Indigenous language is spoken. Specifically, we question the ethics as well as the ethical protocols for engaging in research with Indigenous language speakers in the context of language revitalization discourses. We suggest that any judgments or decisions made by non-Indigenous language speakers with regard to standardization, orthography, digitization, pedagogy, and advocacy must be regarded as attempts at cultural and linguistic appropriation. We suggest that archiving or documenting Indigenous languages is best considered linguistic taxidermy, another move of colonization that we call fina-colonialism. In short, with reference to the specific languages of Tokunoshima, Japan, we discuss the ethics of research that purportedly aims at decolonizing, but in which Indigenous language speakers are rendered exotic representations of their own identities, commodified according to cosmopolitan interests and global tastes.