Meet Claudia Esau from Upington, South Africa.
Claudia is from the N/uuki-speaking San Peoples in South Africa. Claudia has partnered with Cultural Survival to put together an audio dictionary of 1,000 N/uuki words.
For the last six years, Claudia has been actively involved in the reclamation of the language of her people. Together with her grandmother, Katrina Esau— the last fluent N/uuki speaker, Claudia has been hard at work on collaborating with the University of CapeTown’s Language Department and the Pan South African Language Board with projects that aim to revitalize N/uuki, which is on the brink of going silent.
Claudia’s task is a difficult one. She is married with two children and has the added responsibility of being one of the closest relatives to the last remaining fluent speaker of an ancient language. Claudia and her grandmother live in a humble abode, with ten other family members, in Rosedale, Upington, in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
“With this project, I am confident that my grandmother's language will not die out because hearing it on the radio is super important. I have also learned to write the language now. I have always known the basics but now I am learning more about writing the language…”
Radio Riverside, a Cultural Survival grant partner, is situated in the same vicinity where Claudia lives, and at this community radio station, Claudia and her grandmother have been using recorders to alphabetically document N/uuki words by recording the sounds. The project also includes radio interviews which spread awareness of Indigenous languages to listeners.
Cultural Survival is supporting the recording of the N/uuki audio dictionary through our Indigenous Community Media Fund, which provides opportunities for Indigenous radio stations to strengthen their broadcast infrastructure and systems and creates training opportunities in journalism, broadcasting, audio editing, technical skills, and more to Indigenous community radio journalists around the world. In 2021, the Indigenous Community Media Fund supported 57 media projects in 23 countries totaling $340,500. Indigenous media is essential in promoting Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous rights.
Have you heard? Cultural Survival, Sobreviencia Cultural, the Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Clinic at Suffolk University Law School, and Asociación de Abogados y Notarios Mayas just won an international legal suit against the Guatemalan government in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in telecommunications laws, violating their right to freedom of expression. Join Cultural Survival in celebrating our recent victory for Indigenous media rights by making a financial year-end gift today!
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