We’ve had a very busy and exciting Autumn this year at ELAR! From Language Documentation Training in Brazil to Film premiers in Paris, today on the ELAR blog we will share all we’ve been up to these past few months.

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In October 2019, Mandana Seyfeddinipur ran an intensive 2 week long intensive training in both the University of São Paulo and the Universidade Federal do Pará in Belém, Brazil. 

In both Universities, Mandana focused on training in language documentation and grant writing, and participants got the chance to independently film around their campus as practice. As we can see from the photos, it was a huge success!

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On the 12th October 2019, we collaborated with Native Spirit for their 13th Film Festival. A packed day with incredible films and speakers, including beautiful textile displays.

We had a number of live performances, such as spoken word Poet Zena Edwards played her !Xuma mouthbow from the Kalahari desert while singing Afro Blue, as a tribute to her Grandfather. We also had Laura Sampson – London-based storyteller-promoter who co-hosts Film & TV radio show Shoot the Breeze on Resonance 104.4FM. Then, we had a speech by our very own Sophie Salffner from ELAR on the importance of Language documentation, as well as Eduardo (Xiquipiltzan) Santiago-Jimenez‘s moving speech about his recordings of his mother speaking Nusavi, an endangered Mixteco language from Mexico. His recordings will soon be up on ELAR’s catalogue – stay tuned!

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On the evening of the 25th October 2019, we had a Wine & Cheese night, where the new cohort of the Language Documentation and Description course at SOAS came along to meet all of us here at ELAR! Everyone had specific interests and skills, and we are very excited to see what great work they’ll do over the course of the degree.

Please continue reading Part 2 of this blog to learn about the Language and Music Symposium, the ‘Decolonize the Internet’ event, the Workshop on Persephone (the new transcription tool), and the film showing of ‘Last Whispers’ in Paris!