O’siyo. The Hopi Wellness Center is hosting a workshop on June 18, 2013, for 50 fluent Hopi speakers including parents and teachers. The participants will reach out to the communities and spread their knowledge of the Hopi language and culture to other members, especially to Hopi children.
Hopi children. Photo website Restoration.
Excerpt: Mesa Media hosts Hopi Language Workshop June 18, 2013, Navajo-Hopi Observer
“Mesa Media Inc. will play host to an instructors workshop at the Hopi Wellness Center in Kykotsmovi June 18, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for 50 fluent Hopi speakers, parents and teachers. The workshop will give participants five basic activities that they can use to teach younger generations in an effort to get more kids speaking Hopi.
Clara Dallas speaks Hopi as she teaches the names of Hopi food and ingredients at a recent workshop. Photo:Kristin Harned.
They are trying to mobilize people in communities and get them a little bit of the skills and jump start their creativity, because they are fluent speakers, and have them go out to the communities… The workshop will focus on teaching agricultural vocabulary, sentence structure and songs.
Anita Poleahla, Mesa Media’s President and Founder.
Mesa Media is a grassroots non-profit based out of Polacca, Ariz. founded by Anita Poleahla and the late Ferrell Secakuku. The organization’s mission is to keep the Hopi language vital and alive through media using song and audio and video recordings.
Ferrell Secakuku (1937-2007) (Mesa Media’s Co-founder.
Poleahla and Secakuku both believed that all Hopi people deserve to understand the richness of the Hopi language and its teachings and is one reason Mesa Media is trying to preserve and pass on the Hopi language.
Hopi Corn Grinding Song by Yellow Fox. Photo- Crossing Worlds Foundation.
Our elders share with us their teachings and want to help us learn. They are the keepers of our valuable knowledge and skills. They are the ones who know the importance of the language,” Poleahla said.
Hopi Butterfly Dance. Photo- Crossing Worlds Foundation.
The workshop is made possible by grants from the Christensen Fund, the Flagstaff Community Foundation (an affiliate of the Arizona Community Foundation) and the First Nation’s Development Institution (Native Youth Culture Fund).” Read more…
“For a person in danger of dying, the first job of medics is to get the heart beating again.For an endangered language,the first job is to get the native speakers speaking again.” ~Hinton 2001:13~ (From the Hopi website).
Kudos to the Hopi people, Mesa Media Inc., and all supporters of perserving Native languages!
For More Information on the Hopi Workshop Visit Mesa Media
