Hostname: page-component-6565fbc58-bfzr4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-13T11:34:39.601Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward Linguistic Justice for Indigenous People: A Response to Charity Hudley, Mallinson, and Bucholtz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Alice Gaby  and
Lesley Woods
Alice Gaby*
Affiliation:
Monash University
Lesley Woods*
Affiliation:
Australian National University
*
Gaby, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia, [Alice.Gaby@monash.edu]
[Lesley.Woods@anu.edu.au]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Charity Hudley, Mallinson, and Bucholtz's (2020) target article details the urgent need for linguistics as a field to develop its theoretical, analytical, and political engagement with issues of race and racism. We agree with Charity Hudley et al.'s assertion that the ‘hegemonic whiteness’ of linguistics as a field ‘has been profoundly damaging both for linguistic scholarship and for linguistics as a profession’ (p. e211). In this response, we wish to expand upon this point specifically in regard to how linguists and linguistics relate to Indigenous peoples and their languages. We outline key respects in which academic linguistics has, or might be seen to have, perpetuated harm against Indigenous peoples. We also outline strategies for mitigating harm and supporting the language work done by members of Indigenous communities.

Keywords

language documentationlanguage revitalizationIndigenous languagesfieldworkcolonizationmetalanguageintellectual property

Information

Type
Perspectives
Information
Language , Volume 96 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. e268 - e280
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the many people with whom we have discussed the ideas in this response, and whose insights have informed the account put forward here. In particular: Jeanie Bell, Vicki Couzens, Sharon Edgar-Jones, K. Travers Eira, Margaret Florey, Ebony Joachim, Felicity Meakins, and Jakelin Troy. We would especially like to acknowledge both the direct and indirect contribution of Indigenous linguist Jeanie Bell, who has been a champion for Indigenous people's rights in the field of linguistics for many decades.

References

Adams, Rodney. 2020. The revitalisation of Indigenous sign languages. Foundation for Endangered Languages Conference, FEL-XXIII 2019, University of Sydney, to appear.Google Scholar
ALS (Australian Linguistic Society). 1984. Linguistic rights of Aboriginal and Islander communities. The Australian Linguistic Society Newsletter 84(4), October.Google Scholar
Baldwin, Daryl, Hinton, Leanne; and Pérez-Báez, Gabriela. 2018. The Breath of Life workshops and institutes. The Routledge handbook of language revitalization, ed. by Hinton, Leanne, Huss, Leena, and Roche, Gerald, 188–96. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781315561271-24.Google Scholar
Battiste, Marie. 2008. Research ethics for protecting Indigenous knowledge and heritage: Institutional and researcher responsibilities. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies, ed. by Denzin, Norman K., Lincoln, Yvonna S., and Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, 497–508. Los Angeles: Sage.10.4135/9781483385686.n25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bear Nicholas, Andrea. 2011. Linguicide: Submersion education and the killing of languages in Canada. Briarpatch Magazine, March 1, 2011. Online: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/linguicide.Google Scholar
Bell, Jeanie. 2012. Australia's Indigenous languages. Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians, ed. by Grossman, Michele, 159–70. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Bell, Jeanie. 2013. Language attitudes and language revival/survival. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 34. 399–410. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2013.794812.10.1080/01434632.2013.794812CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Lou. 2019. Sovereign language rematriation. Lin Onus Oration, University of Melbourne, October 17.Google Scholar
Berez-Kroeker, Andrea L., Gawne, Lauren, Kung, Susan Smythe, Kelly, Barbara F., Heston, Tyler, Holton, Gary, Pulsifer, Peter, Beaver, David I.; et al. 2018. Reproducible research in linguistics: A position statement on data citation and attribution in our field. Linguistics 56. 1–18. DOI: 10.1515/ling-2017-0032.10.1515/ling-2017-0032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botha, Rudolf. 2016. Language evolution: The windows approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316471449CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary. 2020. Sociolinguists trying to make a difference: Race, research, and linguistic activism. The Routledge companion to the work of John Rickford, ed. by Blake, Renée and Buchstaller, Isabelle, 242–50. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Charity Hudley, Anne H. 2013. Sociolinguistics and social activism. The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics, ed. by Bayley, Robert, Cameron, Richard, and Lucas, Ceil, 812–31. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Charity Hudley, Anne H., Mallinson, Christine; and Bucholtz, Mary. 2020. Toward racial justice in linguistics: Interdisciplinary insights into theorizing race in the discipline and diversifying the profession. Language 96(4). e200–e235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christen, Kimberly A. 2012. Does information really want to be free? Indigenous knowledge systems and the question of openness. International Journal of Communication 6. Online: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1618.Google Scholar
Couzens, Vicki, Eira, Christina; and Stebbins, Tonya. 2014. Tyama-teeyt yookapa: Interviews from the Meeting Point Project. Melbourne: Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.Google Scholar
Couzens, Vicki, Gaby, Alice; and Stebbins, Tonya. 2020. Standardise this! Prescriptivism and resistance to standardization in language revitalization. Dynamics of language changes: Looking within and across languages, ed. by Allan, Keith, 37–55. New York: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-6430-7_3.10.1007/978-981-15-6430-7_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Jenny L. 2017. Resisting rhetorics of language endangerment: Reclamation through Indigenous language survivance. Language Documentation and Description 14. 37–58. Online: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/151.Google Scholar
Davis, Jenny L. 2018. Talking Indian: Identity and language revitalization in the Chickasaw Renaissance. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
De Korne, Haley. 2017. The multilingual realities of language reclamation: Working with language contact, diversity, and change in endangered language education. Language Documentation and Description 14. 111–35. Online: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/154.Google Scholar
Eira, Christina. 2007. Addressing the ground of language endangerment. Working together for endangered languages: Research challenges and social impacts—Proceedings of the XIth FEL Conference, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26– 28 October 2007, ed. by David, Maya Khemlani, Ostler, Nicholas, and Dealwis, Caesar, 82–90. Bath: Foundation for Endangered Languages.Google Scholar
Eira, Christina. 2008. Linguists and communities: Discursive practice and the status of collaborative language work in Indigenous communities. Language and Intercultural Communication 8. 278–97. DOI: 10.1080/14708470802303108.10.1080/14708470802303108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fre, Zeremariam. 2018. Knowledge sovereignty among African cattle herders. London: UCL Press.10.2307/j.ctv3hvc5nCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grounds, Richard A. 2007. Documentation or implementation. Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine 31(2). Online: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/documentation-or-implementation.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 2002. ‘Expert rhetorics’ in advocacy for endangered languages: Who is listening, and what do they hear? Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 12. 119–33. DOI: 10.1525/jlin.2002.12.2.119.10.1525/jlin.2002.12.2.119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, Leanne. 2010. Language revitalization in North America and the new direction of linguistics. Transforming Anthropology 18. 35–41. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-7466.2010.01068.x.10.1111/j.1548-7466.2010.01068.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, Leanne (ed.) 2013. Bringing our languages home: Language revitalization for families. Berkeley, CA: Heyday.Google Scholar
Ingram, Rebekah, and Horn-Miller, Kahente. 2020. The Ahsentati three-sided model: A wholistic approach to language loss and revitalization using the Haudenosaunee ash basketry example. Foundation for Endangered Languages Conference, FEL-XXIII 2019, Sydney, to appear.Google Scholar
Climate, Karuk Projects, Change. 2016. Chapter one: Traditional knowledge, knowledge sovereignty and climate change as strategic opportunity. Karuk Climate Change Projects. Online: https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/chapter-1-traditional-knowledge-knowledge-sovereignty-and-climate-change-as-strategic-opportunity/.Google Scholar
KLRC (Kimberley Language Resource Centre). 2010. Whose language centre is it anyway? Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia's Indigenous languages, ed. by Hobson, John, Lowe, Kevin, Poetsch, Susan, and Walsh, Michael, 131–45. Sydney: Sydney University Press. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/6930.10.30722/sup.9781920899554CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, Wesley Y. 2011. Challenging ‘extinction’ through modern Miami language practices. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 35. 135–60. DOI: 10.17953/aicr.35.2.f3r173r46m261844.10.17953/aicr.35.2.f3r173r46m261844CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, Wesley Y. 2017. Producing language reclamation by decolonising ‘language’. Language Documentation and Description 14. 15–36. Online: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/150.Google Scholar
Lokosh, (Joshua D. Hinson). 2019. Nanna ittonchololi' ilaliichi (We are cultivating new growth): Twenty years in Chikashshanompa' Revitalization. Norman: University of Oklahoma dissertation. Online: https://hdl.handle.net/11244/323267.Google Scholar
Marmion, Doug, Andriolo, Alexandra, Simpson, Kylie, Murphy, Emma, Parn-cutt;, Amy and Gaby, Alice. 2020. Paper and talk: The Australian Breath of Life pilot project. Foundation for Endangered Languages Conference, FEL-XXIII 2019, Sydney, to appear.Google Scholar
McCarty, Teresa L. 2018. Community-based language planning. The Routledge handbook of language revitalization, ed. by Hinton, Leanne, Huss, Leena, and Roche, Gerald, 22–35. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781315561271-4.10.4324/9781315561271-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDougall, Debra. 2012. Stealing foreign words, recovering local treasures: Bible translation and vernacular literacy on Ranongga (Solomon Islands). The Australian Journal of Anthropology 23. 318–39. DOI: 10.1111/taja.12003.10.1111/taja.12003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meakins, Felicity. 2010. The importance of understanding language ecologies for revitalisation. Reawakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia's Indigenous languages, ed. by Hobson, John, Lowe, Kevin, Poetsch, Susan, and Walsh, Michael, 225–38. Sydney: Sydney University Press.Google Scholar
Michaels, Eric. 1985. Constraints on knowledge in an economy of oral information. Current Anthropology 26. 505–10. DOI: 10.1086/203312.10.1086/203312CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez Báez, Gabriela. 2016. Addressing the gap between community beliefs and priorities and researchers' language maintenance interests. Latin American contexts for language documentation and revitalization, ed. by Báez, Gabriela Pérez, Rogers, Chris, and Labrada, Jorge Emilio Rosés, 165–94. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perley, Bernard C. 2011. Defying Maliseet language death: Emergent vitalities of language, culture, and identity in eastern Canada. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1df4g4t.10.2307/j.ctt1df4g4tCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perley, Bernard C. 2012. Zombie linguistics: Experts, endangered languages and the curse of undead voices. Anthropological Forum 22. 133–49. DOI: 10.1080/00664677.2012.694170.10.1080/00664677.2012.694170CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perley, Bernard C. 2013. ‘Emergent vitalities’ as antidote to ‘zombie linguistics’: A rejoinder to Joshua Nash. Anthropological Forum 23. 114–19. DOI: 10.1080/00664677.2012.750234.10.1080/00664677.2012.750234CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revilla, Marissa. 2019. Mexicans are speaking up to save ancestral languages. Global Press Journal, October 3, 2019. Online: https://globalpressjournal.com/americas/mexico/mexicans-speaking-save-ancestral-languages/.Google Scholar
Rigney, Lester-Irabinna. 2001. A first perspective of Indigenous Australian participation in science: Framing Indigenous research towards Indigenous Australian intellectual sovereignty. Kaurna Higher Education Journal 7. 1–13.Google Scholar
Roche, Gerald. 2020. Abandoning endangered languages: Ethical loneliness, language oppression, and social justice. American Anthropologist 122. 164–69. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13372.10.1111/aman.13372CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seyfeddinipur, Mandana, Ameka, Felix, Bolton, Lissant, Blumtritt, Jonathan, Carpenter, Brian, Cruz, Hilaria, Drude, Sebastian, Epps, Patience L.; et al. 2019. Public access to research data in language documentation: Challenges and possible strategies. Language Documentation & Conservation 13. 545–63. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24901.Google Scholar
Singer, Ruth. 2014. Open access and intimate fieldwork. Endangered Languages and Cultures, March 14, 2014. Online: http://www.paradisec.org.au/blog/2014/03/7940/.Google Scholar
Stebbins, Tonya, Eira, Kris; and Couzens, Vicki. 2018. Living languages and new approaches to language revitalisation research. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Thieberger, Nick, and Musgrave, Simon. 2007. Documentary linguistics and ethical issues. Language Documentation and Description 4. 26–37. Online: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/048.Google Scholar
Treloyn, Sally, and Charles, Rona Googninda. 2014. How do you feel about squeezing oranges?: Reflections and lessons on collaboration in ethnomusicological research in an Aboriginal Australian community. Collaborative ethnomusicology: New approaches to music research between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, ed. by Barney, Katelin, 169–86. Melbourne: Lyrebird.Google Scholar
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. 1999. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Warner, Sam L. No'eau. 1999. ‘Kuleana’: The right, responsibility, and authority of Indigenous peoples to speak and make decisions for themselves in language and cultural revitalization. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 30. 68–93. DOI: 10.1525/aeq.1999.30.1.68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, David. 1992. Linguistic research under Aboriginal control: A personal account of fieldwork in Central Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics 12. 171–200. DOI: 10.1080/07268609208599475.10.1080/07268609208599475CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, Lesley. 2017. Ethics in linguistic research and working with Indigenous communities: Redefining collaborative linguistic research: Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives. Melbourne: Monash University M.A. thesis.Google Scholar
Zepeda, Ofelia, and Hill, Jane H.. 1991. The condition of Native American languages in the United States. Diogenes 39. 45–65. DOI: 10.1177/039219219103915304.10.1177/039219219103915304CrossRefGoogle Scholar