CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITES TO LINGUISTIC PRESERVATION

PAUL GRISETA

DEC. 2022

History and Current Context of Bi-cultural, Bi-lingual Education in Ecuador

Ecuador is known for its rich and unique culture, traditions, and landscapes. All of the beautiful features that set Ecuador apart attract visitors from around the world to experience them. The Shuar indigenous people can be traced back 2,500 years ago. Indigenous groups like the Shuar community in the Morona Santiago Region of Ecuador have a profound history and language that helps to define its culture. A concern, however, both historically and in modern-day, has been preserving the Shuar language and culture due to the mark of colonization. In 1935, the first Christian missionaries to settle successfully in Shuar communities were the Salesians (The University of British Columbia). As they arrived in search of gold, the Salesians were not able to settle without a fight. While some welcomed them, many Shuar fought back or fled to areas of the Peruvian jungle. Nevertheless, the settlers successfully left their mark on the community, cultivated new crops, and introduced the Spanish language. At the beginning, the Salesians forcibly took Shuar children and sent them to boarding schools, but later many families voluntarily had their children attend them (The University of British Columbia).

Source: Maurizio Gnerre, Los salesianos y los shuar construyendo la identidad cultural

Image: Miguel Tankámash (left), first president of CONAIE y the Shuar Federation

This was an attempt by the government to Westernize the community and have them assimilate into the majority society. With the establishment of the Shuar Federation in 1964, these schools were eventually closed. Loss of language was also contributed to by the Ecuadorian Institute of the Agrarian Reform and Colonization (IERAC). In order to address land shortages, peasants were given land with the support of the government to contribute to the country’s economic system. This caused many Shuar to cede their land due to misinformation and persuasion, while others left to escape overpopulation (The University of British Columbia). The society that was onced based in autonomy was now hierarchical and forced to abide by Western customs. In order to help preserve the indigenous culture and language, the Shuar created the Shuar Federation Bilingual Distance radio station (SERBISH) in 1968 which allowed a political presence in the country.

This helped to provide a uniform education of the indigenous culture and language to be spread despite any distance. Before this, many students did not attend schools that had Shuar language education. By the late 1980s, over 4,000 students were enrolled at these schools and the government gave official recognition to SERBISH (The University of British Columbia). Despite this being used as a model for bilingual education in the Amazon region, there has still been a significant loss in the Shuar language that can be observed today. In a study performed in the province of Morona Santiago, it was found that 70% of the Shuar people speak Spanish, 17% their mother language, and 13% both. While in many ways, the Shuar culture is being preserved by the younger generations, such as with half of the younger population using traditional medicine and worshiping Shuar deities, many of them live in Westernized housing, and are not speaking the Shuar language because they were not taught it in school nor at home. (The University Of British Columbia).

Image: Radio Federación, first promoter of distance education as an alternative modality for some Amazonian provinces, P. Mateo Króvina Macas–Morona Santiago, cerca de 1970 (Source)

Challenges to Accessing Linguistic and Cultural Shuar Knowledge Within this Region of Ecuador

Image: Students from the school Velasco Ibarra, bilingual and bicultural curriculum.

One of the barriers to accessing linguistic and cultural Shuar knowledge within the Morona Santiago region of Ecuador is its geography and location. Because it is a more remote area, it is difficult for teachers to travel and teach the Shuar youth about their culture. Additionally, Internet and radio reception is a lot less reliable in these areas. In addition, those who live closer to city centers often attend public schools, where they are not exposed to their culture nor their language during the day. Spending almost every day for the majority of the day away from the language throughout one’s development years makes it difficult to build cultural ties. The lack of access to language education is perhaps the biggest issue regarding the preservation of Shuar culture. While many of the traditions and religious celebrations have been maintained well throughout its history, Shuar youth have unfortunately become increasingly ashamed and unwilling to speak the Shuar language, especially when their parents do not speak it either (The University of British Columbia). The unwillingness of the Shuar youth to engage fully with their language is a result of the colonizing history in the region and the different career paths that they were forced into due to the Westernization, beginning with the Salesians and eventually the Ecuadorian government as well. The role that the government played was by colonizing land in the Amazon region as it faced land shortages in the Andean region. Many Shuar were misled, persuaded, and coerced by the Ecuadorian government and ceded land to settlers, reducing the amount of Shuar in the region and leading to the diluting of their language and traditions over several generations (The University Of British Columbia).

Besides the Shuar language and Spanish, many Shuar have looked to another language as priority for economic reasons. Community tourism has become a significant part of the Ecuadorian Amazonian economy that supplements the everyday activities that the communities already participate in. Through the years, it has become increasingly important for visitors and locals in this region to be able to communicate with each other to enhance the experience for all parties involved. Because the language-learning is taking place primarily as a means to communicate with visitors, a popular approach among many members of the Shuar community to English-learning is English for Specific Learning (ESP) (Vintimilla-Coronel, Vega-Auquilla). As opposed to General English, ESP is focused on the learner’s need, relevant, successful in imparting learning, and more cost-effective. While it is more restricted in the language skills that are learned, it is more related to the appropriate disciplines that the learner is focused on. For instance, somebody who is educating a visitor on agriculture in their region likely does not need to know how to say “femur.” ESP ensures more efficiency and effectiveness for those learning the language for specific activities. In a study conducted by María Verónica Vinitimilla-Coronel and Melita Vanessa Vega-Auquilla, both of the Universidad Católica de Cuenca in Cuenca, Ecuador, the interest level of learning English for specific purposes among the members of the Shuar Musap Community in the Morona Santiago Region of Ecuador was studied (Vintimilla-Coronel, Vega-Auquilla). It was found that nearly 76% of surveyed participants had the possibility to speak with English-speaking tourists. Over 70% of the participants indicated some motivation to learn English, and 69% indicated a very favorable attitude toward learning English. The need and demand for learning English is, thus, certainly well-established in this community. Specifically regarding the participants’ purpose for learning English, over 90% of the respondents in the study indicated that they would like to learn vocabulary related to tourism, making ESP a suitable option for an approach to language learning (Vintimilla-Coronel, Vega-Auquilla). By understanding the reasons for which the Shuar people want to learn English and the methods that work best for them, one can apply the same methodology to the Shuar language. If thinking about learning Shuar through the same method as a General English seems impractical because of the lack of effectiveness and time commitment associated with it, perhaps a more specialized method of learning the language, similar to ESP, will better serve the younger generations based on their goals.

Image: Student from Shuar community participating English language workshops.

Challenges Related to Digital Access and Digital Literacy Within Indigenous and Rural Communities

An important factor to look at when navigating methods to educate indigenous youth and maintain Shuar culture in the 21st century, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, is communities’ digital access and digital literacy. Before the coronavirus changed the way that students learn, education across the world had already been evolving. In 2014, the community radio stations in the Ecuadorian Amazonian indigenous area took to the web to create blogs to complement the traditional radio transmission. Through these media, the Shuar have been able to transmit important issues in their native language to each other (RisingVoices). Since then, technology evolved tremendously, and its demand has increased perhaps even past its evolution with the coronavirus pandemic. With safety measures put in place to combat the pandemic, students and teachers became much more reliant on technology. Even major cities in countries like the U.S. had major struggles with this transition due to inequality of access. In New York City schools, the rate of students who were chronically absent rose about 5% from 2019 to 2020 (City of New York) . The effects in more remote, underserved indigenous communities was even more significant. While the United Nations declared access to the Internet a human right, in Canada, only 24 percent of indigenous households had access to quality, high-speed Internet in 2017 compared to 94 percent of all Canadians. For indigenous people, digital access in the 21st century is imperative to the survival of their culture and language.The Internet acts as a hub for adults and youth alike to be able to learn language skills, meet indigenous role models, and share their stories with each other as well as the world (Greenfield). While access to the Internet is undoubtedly beneficial to facilitating the interconnectedness of indigenous people, barriers exist that make it difficult for its benefits to come into fruition. The Shuar community in Ecuador is no exception to this. The Federation of the Shuar Nationality of Pastaza declared a state of emergency in education in 2021 (Veintie). The Shuar Federation, along with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the Confederation of Indigneous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazonian (CONFENIA) stated that intercultural bilingual schools in the Shuar territory lack adequate infrastructure, educational materials, and teachers, and the pandemic has only exacerbated this educational inequality. In addition to the quality of the infrastructure and resources in these bilingual schools being poor, many of the students and teachers do not have access to computers, mobile phones, or internet connections (Veintie). Without these necessities, virtual education is also made essentially impossible. The effects of this will be a decrease in not only general educational opportunities, but also the possibility for Shuar youth to learn their mother tongue and culture in a scholastic environment (Veintie).

Digital access and digital literacy go hand-in-hand. It is important to recognize digital access as both a symptom and cause of lack of digital literacy. Without access to the Internet, Shuar youth can not possibly learn the skills necessary to navigate digital tools. By that same token, if a community is not digitally literate, they likely will have less access to quality digital equipment. Digital literacy should ideally start at school, however, many places, such as the Shuar community as explained above, lack the proper infrastructure, technological equipment, and teachers who are also digitally literate. Public investments by the government would help to increase both digital accessibility and literacy (Bandura, Mendéz Leal).

In more rural indigenous communities, it is well established that lack of digital access is a barrier to digital literacy. But what about indigenous areas that are increasingly gaining quality internet access? Without proper internet training, it is easy for its use to be counterproductive and harm an already vulnerable community. An example of this is in Nunavut, Canada, where the entire government of Nunavut was shut down for three months because one person in the community clicked the wrong thing and fell into a phishing scam (DigitalNWT). During this time, it was difficult for sensitive data to be recovered and for new data to be stored, leading to the judiciary, medical records, and anything related to the government to have to be communicated via fax, phone, and voicemail (DigitalNWT). This example shows the importance of ensuring that digital access is no more important than digital literacy. The two must work together and while it will take time, for the safety of the indigenous communities, there must be effective formal training on the internet. When done correctly, digital access can serve a huge benefit to indigenous and rural communities for their everyday activities as well as maintaining a connectedness where culture and language can be shared, but precautionary steps are required to prevent these benefits from being outweighed by the risk (DigitalNWT).

Digitized and Digital Indigenous Knowledge and Language Resources can Impact Cultural Knowledge Transmission, Social Connection and Cultural Identity Among Indigenous Youth

If digital access and literacy are improved for indigenous communities, their youth can benefit significantly through technology. Around the world, technology provides students with accelerated learning opportunities, easy access to information, and fun ways to keep students engaged and practice what they learn outside of the classroom. It also enables students to learn about topics that interest them more deeply and opens the door to more career opportunities, such as in the STEM field (American University School of Education Online). This benefit also applies more specifically to indigenous youth and knowledge relating to their language and culture. Young adults in indigenous communities utilize computers and smartphone devices frequently, and particularly for rural communities who may not have access to many elders or teachers who can still speak the language, having access to tools from home can be a gamechanger in revitalizing endangered indigenous languages. Technology can help make learning not only more accessible, but also more engaging (American University School of Education Online). Moreover, for students who attend public schools where their indigenous culture and language is not taught about at all, technology devices can be their only exposure to their culture. Besides just access, there are several advantages that are offered only by technology that can enhance language learning. For all language learners, phrase-to-picture matching games are an excellent way for all people, but specifically young people, to retain knowledge (Garcia). Because Shuar is historically an oral language, visuals can help where letters fall short.

In addition to phrase-to-picture matching games, audio knowledge can also be a significant benefit to the Shuar community, particularly because of the primarily oral nature of their language. Native communities in North America have developed technological tools to help preserve older writings and audio recordings (Garcia). For example, the Lushootseed language no longer has first-language speakers, but with the assistance of FirstVoices, a suite of web-based tools to help Indigenous people archive language information, audio clips of words, phrases, songs, and stories can be uploaded. Certain recordings can be made private only to tribe members to protect sacred prayers or songs for the community (Garcia).

The Equitable Origin and Inveneo, which are non-profit organizations, are working to decrease the digital divide in developing countries such as Ecuador. They are helping to facilitate the installation of internet infrastructure and providing tools and training via e-learning to facilitate the network of Indigenous-led knowledge (Taborga). Not only will this, as explained above, increase accessibility and the possibility for indigenous youth to learn about their culture and language, those in more rural communities and who live away from the Shuar community can feel more entangled with other Shuar youth. In a world where everyone is connected, indigenous youth will feel a stronger sense of community and tradition with the development of more internet infrastructure and tools (Taborga).

In Nepal, cultural researcher Dr. Subhash Ram Prajapati noticed that his indigenous language, Newar, was not being studied or taught locally and feared it would die out. Because the language is not spoken at home often and is not taught in all national schools, similarly to Shuar in Amazonian Ecuador, he saw the need to create digital tools to revitalize his culture and language (Chambers). He founded the non-profit web portal nepalmandal.com, which has now grown to contain 25,000 articles and audiovisual resources on a variety of subjects, such as news, language, sports, etc. all in the Newar language. His passion also motivated him to launch the Nepalbhasa Learning Club, which is a Facebook community for the Newars that has over 4,300 members (Chambers). They regularly answer questions that any of the members have regarding the language, share music, and is serving as not only a remedy to the declining Newar language, but also as a way to foster a sense of community for many who may have not felt integrated into the indigenous culture beforehand because of factors outside of their control (Chambers). Meanwhile, closer to the Shuar community, the Northern Andean Kichwa community also has been working to preserve their language and culture through digital tools. There was a social media post calling members of the community to attend a three-day conference known as the Encuentro de Activistas Digitales de Lenguas Indígenas (Gathering of Digital Activists for Indigenous Languages), resulting in technological uses across the community such as YouTube videos, Wikipedia pages, the “Let’s speak Kichwa” Facebook page, and a united network of Kichwa speakers across the entire nation of Ecuador (Chambers). During the conference, the Activistas Digitales also worked to create and strengthen Kichwa.net, which is an open-access resource to learn Kichwa (Cantor). Creating similar tools to both the Newar and Kichwa communities will be vital to preserving the Shuar language and culture and utilizing various social media will help to create the same sense of community.

The main obstacle to creating the digital tools will be making the transition of indigenous language into western language structures. In North America, Aboriginal Peoples did not have written languages and relied on speech to pass down their history (Joseph). It makes sense for resources to, therefore, be primarily oral in nature. It can also be helpful for the Shuar youth to connect the Shuar alphabet, which is based on sounds and the Latin alphabet, to that of Spanish, since it is the other language that they speak (Omniglot). While Shuar does not fit into the written mold of western languages, such as Spanish, it makes sense given the context of the youth in Ecuador to learn the language this way.

Conclusion

As analyzed above, indigenous communities, particularly those in remote, rural areas such as the Shuar community in the Morona Santiago Region of the Amazonian Ecuador, face obstacles that other communities do not. Because of colonization and westernization, indigenous languages and cultures are at risk of dying out. Particularly with the youth who are becoming less and less exposed to their language and culture, it is imperative for the Shuar community to find ways to keep their traditions alive. In the 21st century, technology will play a significant role in these efforts. In order to best preserve the Shuar language and culture among all people, but especially the community’s youth, digital tools are of the utmost importance. While the tools are vital to keep the young people engaged and improve their access to materials, it needs to be done correctly to ensure that it is safe and does not, in turn, harm the community. Looking at other models such as the Kichwa in Ecuador and the Newar in Nepal, resources can be developed to preserve the rich culture that makes Amazonian Ecuador such a unique place.

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