Note from Myles: This post is directed towards Alaskan readers of the WAYK blog. In 2014, 20 Indigenous languages were made official languages of the State of Alaska. For many Indigenous speakers and learners, this was an important shift in Alaska’s history. This act is just a small piece of a larger movement that is… Read more »
I would like to give a shout out to the Unangam Tunuu Speaking Listening Teaching Team (UTSLT) on St. Paul Island. 2017 was WAYK’s third year partnering with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, and I was brought here to be patient and supportive student for the UTSLT members. As a fellow Unangax̂, and… Read more »
When I sat down to write my blog reflecting on the summer of 2016, I knew it would be a difficult blog to write. I have never been someone who had just one favorite thing—my favorite color depended on my mood and my favorite books could probably be a library in and of themselves. So,… Read more »
One way to describe a summer with WAYK is that it provides the on-the-ground work experience that should be part of any training in language revitalization and documentation. In this blog I’ll describe it in these terms, mainly by contrasting it with the only other “official” training I’ve had, a masters degree at SOAS in… Read more »
With any intensive experience, there will be moments that really appeal to you and others that probably appeal to you less so. As a reflection of my time here this summer, and hopefully as some insight to interns that hope to apply for the WAYK Summer Intensive in the future, I hoped to share some… Read more »
December 21, 2018 – January 5, 2019 As APIA (the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association) continues their ongoing Unangam Tunuu revitalization project, members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team will travel with WAYK to St. Paul Island and Atka and return to Anchorage for 10 days of sessions in the winter of 2018. The WAYK team will continue to work… Read more »
I joined WAYK for the 2017 Summer Language Intensive on St. Paul Island, Alaska, because I wanted to learn more about the techniques involved and to learn more about approaches to Indigenous language revitalization. Visiting a remote island in the Bering Sea and its flora and fauna was a wonderful perk, too. After the summer… Read more »
When you work with Where Are Your Keys, a common question you encounter is “What do you actually do?” It’s a great question and I love to talk about my WAYK experience, but it is still also a tricky question to answer. The reason is that, in a lot of ways, to understand what we… Read more »
December 9, 2018 – December 20, 2018 As APIA (the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association) continues their ongoing Unangam Tunuu revitalization project, the WAYK team returns to Atka for 10 days of sessions in the winter of 2018, accompanied by members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team! During this visit, the WAYK team will provide additional training and support for members… Read more »
December 9, 2018 – December 19, 2018 In partnership with Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI, supported by ANEP and CBSFA) the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) the WAYK team returns to St. Paul Island for 10 days in the winter of 2018 accompanied by members of the Anchorage Unangam Tunuu team! During this visit, the WAYK team will continue to… Read more »
October 15, 2018-November 2, 2018 The WAYK team will be in Anchorage in October 2018. We’ll be visiting with WAYK players in the area as well as stopping by First Alaskan Institutes’s Elders & Youth Conference (October 14-17), the Alaska Native Languages Summer (October 17), and the annual Alaska Federation of Natives Conference (October 18-20). If you are interested in WAYK… Read more »
I first met Evan and Susanna at a handful of WAYK workshops, which were each about two to five days long: three workshops at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage and one at the Songhees Wellness Center in Victoria, BC. Because of my attendance at these workshops, I was lucky enough to find out… Read more »
Before I arrived at the St. Paul Unangam Tunuu Summer Language Intensive, I wondered what we would do on a typical day. I knew that there would be no teacher standing at the front of the room, no textbooks. How would we fill our time from nine to five? I discovered here a variety of… Read more »
Picture this: I grab a beautiful blue egg shell, a white feather, and two model birds, and join my group at a table in the back room for immersion time. Without any discussion or planning, we five young women blow up an imaginary immersion bubble to bid farewell to English – from here on out,… Read more »
Have you ever watched a master teacher at work? As a student teacher walking into a master teacher’s classroom for the first time, it is easy to have the misconception that the students are magically doing what they are supposed to be doing. The truth is that the teacher is using techniques to seamlessly facilitate… Read more »
August 20, 2018 – September 15, 2018 WAYK will return to Kodiak for another annual visit from August 20th-September 15th, 2018. The WAYK team will visit with the Tamamta Liitukut language team in Kodiak, Alaska to support them as they enter the third year of their five-year project (supported by an ANA Native Language Community Coordination Project). We… Read more »
2017 WAYK intern Mary Leighton explains Technique: Full Sentences, a simple trick for getting more language out of your immersion sessions.
My name is Timothy A. Zaochney and I’m from Atka, Alaska. I’ve been doing the Niiĝuĝim Tunuu language program for three years. I’m joining the team this summer in Anchorage as an APICDA intern. I got involved in the language program when Evan came down to Atka for the first time in 2013. I’m interested… Read more »
Hi, my name is Junior Golodoff. I’m from Atka, Alaska. This here is my third year with the Summer Language Intensive. I’m joining the team as an APICDA intern. What got me involved with the language is my friends because without them I probably wouldn’t be here. What got me interested in the language was that… Read more »
My first introduction with Unangam Tunuu came during the fall of 2015, when I heard of classes at the Aleutian Pribilof Island’s Association building here in Anchorage. The need for understanding the words and the sounds was something that I was excited about. The classes at that time worked with my schedule, so I continued… Read more »
