Three Alaska Native women work to save their endangered language, Kodiak Alutiiq, and ensure the future of their culture | dG1fTlZBUDVYVDM0QTQ
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00This is Alaska, so you see it.
00:08Okay, who wants to be the tugukak?
00:11Whoo!
00:13Una tugukak, akumi!
00:16Okay, I teach a group of young learners.
00:21That's the right way, I think,
00:23is if you trick someone into thinking
00:26that they're just having fun.
00:30If I was still living like I did, I wouldn't be here.
00:35We've all come out of brushes with disaster.
00:40When I went to school,
00:43they didn't allow us to speak our language.
00:46They used to put their hand like that and they'd strap us.
00:50We used to be a lot of us before.
00:54At this point, we've got 41 speakers total.
01:00Babushka Sadie.
01:03Sadie's really shy.
01:06You know how like the elders were abused when they spoke?
01:10It still goes on for some people, and I'm one of them.
01:14I'm glad I'm learning.
01:16I am. I am.
01:18I am.
01:21They start wanting to teach our language.
01:24Wow, wow, wow!
01:27There's only a few of us who could do it.
01:31I want to do this.
01:33Between her and I, we're not giving up.