Developing decolonial language awareness: an exploration of Indigenous countertexts and youth language reclamation in land-based education

• Phyak, Prem ^[1]
  1. [1] Columbia University

     Columbia University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Language awareness, ISSN 0965-8416, Vol. 35, Nº. 1, 2026, págs. 340-362
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1080/09658416.2025.2580330
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In this article, I propose and discuss decolonial language awareness (DLA) as a framework for understanding and countering the erasure of Indigenous languages in the context of textual modernity. DLA is conceptualised through three interrelated dimensions: decolonial praxis, relational thinking regarding humans and land/nature, and language reclamation. Drawing on data from an ongoing community-based participatory action research (C-PAR) project with the Yaakthung (Limbu) community in eastern Nepal, I explore how Indigenous youth developed DLA as they engaged in land-based education to unpack linguistic and epistemic erasure; reclaim land-as-text, embodying human-nature relations; and create countertexts that embodied Yaakthung epistemologies and oracy practices, and challenged dominant language ideologies. Findings from a collaborative analysis of field notes, audio recordings, and photographs demonstrate that DLA challenges textual modernity, which views a text as a standardised and written form of communication, and incorporates ideological resistance, multispecies relationality, and survivance through countertexts. The study calls for a shift in language awareness research towards decolonial perspectives that centre land, more-than-human relations, and community-based knowledge systems.

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