In partnership with Becky Bendixen, of NW Unangax Culture, the NW Indian College on the Lummi Reservation in Bellingham, WA, and the fluent knowledge of Iliodor Philemonof, Unangax Pribilof dialect speaker, we had 7 days of language revitalization play and learning. The age span was quite broad, from children age 9 or 10 to folks… Read more »

This September 23, 24, and 25, Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen will be holding a WAYK workshop at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming. Believe it or not, Latin still has a living tradition of daily conversational vitality, as carried through the centuries in the church and monasteries. Latin is the official language of the… Read more »

Here’s a bit of long-overdue news – we promised a group photo to the attendees of Vancouver, B.C.’s June WAYK conference hosted by Squamish Nation language instructor Dustin Rivers. Click on the picture to download a large-sized version of the image. Thanks for playing everyone!

Join us in Seattle for our next WAYK workshop. Registration costs only $125 – we won’t be pricing WAYK workshops this affordably for too much longer! Register now, and we look forward to seeing you there.

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As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the third, click here for the first and second videos) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Ww51iTRpk&hl=en_US&fs=1]

As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the second, click here for the first) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZF_EgUqNKc&hl=en_US&fs=1]

An ongoing issue of trying to share WAYK over the internet, is the paradox of it being so easy to learn in person, yet so difficult via video, podcast, and text. We’re making a special offer; every Thursday, we’ll have a few hour-long slots dedicated to tutoring folks struggling to learn the game via the… Read more »

As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the first) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3_KPcBmJbg&hl=en_US&fs=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zvGRVH7hJo&hl=en_US&fs=1] Scenes from a recent WAYK Chinuk Wawa Night. Note again the variety of conversation, from Novice to Advanced, and how different speaker-teachers wield (or don’t wield) sign language, depending on who’s involved, or on the lunatic fringe, of the conversation. The beginning, highly structured, novice-level WAYK conversations are there to teach technique use (“the… Read more »

Here’s a flyer you can distribute for our upcoming event in Bellingham, WA, August 24th-30th.

Here’s two videos from the Western Abenaki Language Camp, that took place this July 2010. It’s exciting to see adults and kids playing together, with a lunatic fringe that seems to occasionally shake their heads in amazement at the proficiency of the young players. Keep in mind that these folks pulled this game together all… Read more »

Youtube user westernabenaki has produced some great videos recently, applying WAYK to the Abenaki language. Another great example of someone we’ve never met or personally mentored taking the WAYK skillset and running with it! We get a thrill every time this happens. This first video is a Craig’s List song (yes, you can make CL… Read more »

For August and September, we have three different WAYK events coming up. We are actively seeking experienced WAYK players to back us up at these events, as we spoke about in the “Please Return WAYK Players”podcast. We place a priority on filling the workshops with Native American/First Nation attendees seeking to learn the WAYK method… Read more »

Save the Date! From August 24th through the 30th, in Bellingham, WA, Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen will be facilitating a week-long WAYK training and Unangax language revival event. If you are a WAYK player and would like to support Unangax language revival, along with honing your WAYK play to an unbelievable degree (7 days!… Read more »

42 minutes and 56 seconds. [direct download] Evan, Peter, and Lisa gather for another Chinuk Night debriefing conversation. 1. Technique “Same Conversation” Peter and Evan collaborated on the conversation of “sharpening tools” 2. Technique “Craig’s List” Peter and Evan created a new CL, “How Do They Move” 3. Technique “Where Are Your Keys?” Lisa tells… Read more »

1 hour, 7 minutes, 5 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “Tea with Grandma” Where do you start when you sit down with Grandma? 2. Technique “Start at the Beginning” 3. Technique “What is that?” 4. Technique “Hunting Party” Willem explains to the rest of the language hunters, not sitting with Grandma having tea, that they… Read more »

50 minutes and 43 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “the Meadow” 2. Technique “the Evaluation” We give attendees a blank piece of paper to (anonymously or not) give us feedback on the workshop experience. Because some attendees left earlier, we didn’t get feedback from them; we don’t know why they left. Next time we’ll put… Read more »