Speaker Bios and Presentation Descriptions
Welcome Address
Ms Jeannette Stewart, Founder Translation Commons, Google Nest i18n Program Manager
Jeannette Stewart is a strategic leader and has worked with mainstream brands helping them achieve global growth, business revitalization and transformation. Currently she is leading international launches for Nest cameras at Google. She founded Translation Commons, an online volunteer-based public charity aiming to offer and share tools and resources and to facilitate community initiatives. The Language Digitization Initiative creates resources specifically for Indigenous communities to enable their languages online. She is the former CEO of CommuniCare, a life-science translation company with offices in London, Paris, Athens, Budapest and Los Angeles. Jeannette has been involved in high-profile projects such as the Genome Project and prototyping the online Unified Submission Process for the European Medicine Agency. Jeannette has founded, served on the board of directors, moderated, and volunteered in various educational and health charities.
Dr. R. Siva Prasad, Former Professor of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad (India)
Dr. R. Siva Prasad is a retired professor of Anthropology at the University of Hyderabad, and currently an Honorary Professor in the Center for Digital Learning, Training and Resources (CDLTR) there. He has both teaching and research experience of more than 40 years, during which he guided research students in diverse areas. He is actively associated with UNESCO-IFAP programmes. He is a member of the Information Ethics Working Group (IEWG) of UNESCO-Information for All Programme (IFAP). His current areas of interest are AI ethics, different aspects of marginal and indigenous communities, including indigenous knowledge systems, languages, education, and conflict management.
Panel Discussion: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages and Culture
Dr. Udaya Narayana Singh, Professor, Amity University Haryana, Gurgaon (India), Chair-Professor in Linguistics, Culture Studies and Translation, Singh is a Chair-Professor and Dean (Faculty of Arts), Amity University Haryana. He was the Director of CIIL, Mysore, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Singh had set up the National Translation Mission and taught at the Universities of Hyderabad, Delhi, South Gujarat, and MSU-Baroda. With seven collections of poems in Maithili and Bangla, six books of essays, and twelve plays, he translated many books and published 250 research papers and created 545 documentaries on the language, literature, and culture of Bangla, Tamil, Kannada, and Marathi. A poet-invitee at the Frankfurt Book Fair (2006), London Book Fair (2009), and Leader of Cultural Delegation of Writers to China (2007), Singh visited and lectured in Australia, Andorra, Bangladesh, Belgium, Caribbean Islands, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, UK, and the USA, and received several grants. He received many honors, including the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award 2017 for poetry.
Mr Ravi Rebbapragada, Executive Director, Samata (India)
The founder and Executive Director of Samata a grassroots NGO, who has been living and working with Adivasi people in the eastern Ghats of India for the last three decades.
Samata Judgement – A landmark from Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India delivered the Landmark Judgement on eleventh of July 1997.
( AIR 1997, SC page No 3297, In Samatha Vs State of AP & Others)
The court decided on the issue of whether the state government has the right to lease lands in V Scheduled areas ( designated Indigenous areas as per the Constitution of India) of Andhra Pradesh to other than tribal persons ( Individual or corporate ) and ruled in favor of tribal people.
Gatut is an associate professor at Universitas Negeri Malang; he is an expert on teaching Indonesian for foreigners.
Title:
Bringing Knowledge to the Indigenous People: Translations into Indigenous Languages in Indonesia
Brief Description:
This presentation will discuss practices of translations into indigenous languages of Indonesia. This translation practice aims to bring knowledge outside the indigenous culture and knowledge. Examples are translations of Covid19-related materials into indigenous languages and translations of STEM-themed children stories into indigenous languages. These practices exemplify how translations help indigenous people to access knowledge from other cultures in their own indigenous languages.
Cultural Performances from Indigenous Communitie
23 years old from Sikkim , currently pursuing modeling
Title:
Song that describes Tamang culture and tradition.
Brief Description:
Ammai la Jan khailla is a song which describe our culture, traditional well
Hesel Saru has written many poems in Mundari language. She has represented Mundari literature in many renowned national and international stages. Her poetry revolves around the subject of Indigenous culture, language and identity. She has also been teaching Mundari to the college students in her hometown Khunti.
Title: Urum
Brief Description:
Urum is a poem in Mundari language which talks about the cultural and linguistic identity of the indigenous peoples.
Theme: Indigenous Languages; Spotlight South and South-East Asia
Dr. Jandhyala Prabhakar Rao, Professor of Linguistics, University of Hyderabad, India Member (India), UNESCO-IFAP Bureau Convener, Consortium on Global AI Ethics Network for Social Good (GAIEN4SG)
Awarded Honorius Causa from Krasnoder State University, Russia and also Honorary Professor Medal from Kazan State University, Russia. Research areas of interest include Linguistics, Translation Studies, Foreign Language teaching, Digital Learning and Higher Education in India with special focus on Internationalization of Higher Education. Have more than 60 International and National Publications and edited ten books (eight International and two National). Member of many International and National Committees and Editorial Boards of academic journals.
Tejas Pande, Lead, Strategic Communications and Design, Anamaya, the Tribal Health Collaborative
Tejas is a cultural producer with a background in information design. He works on projects related to information design, visual cultures, urban policy and environmental research, development communications, and exploring the blurring boundaries between content shared on social media and consumer’s perceptions of truth.
Title:
Increasing Access to Health Information by Translating Literature and Media into Indigenous Languages of India: Aashwasan Campaign and Beyond
Brief Description:
In addition to physical and infrastructure difficulties, the continued use of official/state languages for sharing health information acts as a barrier to accessing healthcare in tribal districts across India and makes people reluctant to access healthcare services. We observed this in the context of tribal communities seeking care for tuberculosis (TB). This prompted Anamaya, the Tribal Health Collaborative to implement an active case finding campaign in 174 tribal districts across India called the ‘Aashwasan Campaign’ with the union ministries of health and tribal affairs.
Our team worked closely with community influencers including traditional village heads, Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs), and health workers to raise awareness about TB detection and treatment amongst tribal communities in languages widely spoken/read by communities in chosen districts. Buoyed by the success of translations under the Aashwasan Campaign, the team is building a reliable network of translators across regions to ensure the maximum possible translation of key health messages in tribal languages. It has been supported by the government and donors through dedicated financial support and wider dissemination and adoption amongst their service delivery networks.
Dr. Ganesh Birua, Efforts to revitalize the language and script, Individual, Ho tribe
My name is Ganesh Birua, I belong to the Ho tribal community of Odisha state, India and I am a postgraduate student. I love creating online content and it’s my hobby. Since 2017, I am working for the Ho language script Warang Chiti Project 2030. Now I am working as a young language activist and I am the first person to use the internet in my village.
Title:
Journey to digitize your language.
Brief Description:
I came to know about the internet when I stepped out of the village for higher education. For the first time, in 2013, I found out about our script Warang Chiti on Facebook. I was excited to learn our script and immediately tried to search on Google, but I could not find any Warang Chiti-related content. Since then I started creating online content in my own language.
Hero Patrianto, Language Agency of East Java Province
Hero Patrianto is a linguist at Language of East Java Province; currently he is a PhD student at the Victoria University of Wellington where he is conducting comparative research on 4 languages of Indonesia.
Title:
Bringing Knowledge to the Indigenous People: Translations into Indigenous Languages in Indonesia
Brief Description:
This presentation will discuss practices of translations into indigenous languages of Indonesia. This translation practice aims to bring knowledge outside the indigenous culture and knowledge. Examples are translations of Covid19-related materials into indigenous languages and translations of STEM-themed children stories into indigenous languages. These practices exemplify how translations help indigenous people to access knowledge from other cultures in their own indigenous languages.
Awaludin Rusiandi, Language Agency of East Java Province
Title:
Bringing Knowledge to the Indigenous People: Translations into Indigenous Languages in Indonesia
Brief Description:
This presentation will discuss practices of translations into indigenous languages of Indonesia. This translation practice aims to bring knowledge outside the indigenous culture and knowledge. Examples are translations of Covid19-related materials into indigenous languages and translations of STEM-themed children stories into indigenous languages. These practices exemplify how translations help indigenous people to access knowledge from other cultures in their own indigenous languages.
Dr. Alam Khorshed, Director, Bistaar: Chittagong Arts Complex (Bangladesh)
Alam Khorshed (B. 1960), a Mechanical Engineer turned writer, translator, and cultural curator, is the Founding Director of Bistaar: Chittagong Arts Complex established in December 2014 after successfully running another unique socio-cultural organization named Bishaud Bangla in Chittagong for nine years. He completed an Arts Management Fellowship program offered by the Goethe Institute in association with ARThink South Asia, India, and British Council in the year 2012. He has authored more than twenty-five books in Bengali, mostly works of translation and literary essays. He is now engaged as a full-time writer, translator, critic, and arts organizer.
Title:
A brief description of Chakma literature and is translation
Brief Description:
This short presentation will briefly touch upon the language and literature of Chakma people, the largest indigenous tribe of Bangladesh living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. It will also attempt to highlight the state of its translation into other languages, particularly Bengali, and the problems and challenges of doing so in a more widespread and sustained manner. Last, but not the least, I will attempt to offer some recommendations and way-out in overcoming these drawbacks and shortcomings.
Dr. Samar Sinha, Sikkim University
Samar Sinha teaches linguistics in the Department of Nepali, Sikkim University. With specialization in signed linguistics, he obtained his Ph.D. from the Center for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on descriptive-cum-theoretical study of “A Grammar of Indian Sign Language.” He is interested in features (the atomic elements of linguistic structures) and their relation to architecture and modality in syntactic theory, primarily driven by the data from signed languages, Nepali language varieties and endangered languages. He collaborates with speakers of endangered languages of the Himalayas to document and describe their languages, writing systems and institutions, and with writers on translation. Currently, he heads the Center for Endangered Languages and Sikkim’s Endangered Language Documentation Project at Sikkim University. He is a founding member and currently, assistant treasurer of the Formal Studies in the Syntax and Semantics of Indian Languages Society (FOSSSIL), India.
Title:
Indigenous Languages of Sikkim and North Bengal
Brief Description:
In Sikkim and Darjeeling, within ethnicity the issue of language is embedded and has been a defining factor. The indigenous communities and their “endangered” languages with depleting linguistic diversities, lack of documentation, lack of public discourse on the issue of language endangerment, and the National Education Policy 2020 require a language policy geared towards empowering the region’s endangered languages and their indigenous speakers. This talk argues for the participatory approach to language related issues.
Mr. Gunjal Ikir Mund, Anamaya : Tribal Health Collaborative
Gunjal has been actively working on documenting, translating and digitizing indigenous languages of central India. His works include creation of Asur-English-Hindi dictionary, documentation of Asur folklore, translating texts into Mundari language, creation of audio-video content in/about indigenous languages, working on text to speech software.
Title:
Challenges, Implications, and Ethical Considerations in Translating Cultural texts & Knowledge-based literature of/into endangered Indigenous Languages of Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh: A case study of Asur, Mundari and Tangam languages
Brief Description:
This research abstract examines the multifaceted challenges, implications, and ethical considerations associated with translating tribal oral languages into English and knowledge-based literature into indigenous languages. Tribal oral languages are integral to the cultural heritage of indigenous communities, embodying centuries of history, traditions, and indigenous knowledge. However, as globalization and modernization encroach upon these communities, preserving and understanding these languages becomes imperative. At the same time, it is equally important to usher in other existing and novel knowledge among the indigenous communities through their own native language. The study delves into the primary limitations encountered during the translation process, highlighting the profound impact on cultural context, linguistic structure, and idiomatic expressions. Translating tribal languages into English often results in a loss of cultural nuance and authenticity, raising concerns about the accurate representation of indigenous beliefs, worldviews, and spiritual concepts. While on the other hand translating into indigenous languages requires profound understanding of the worldview entailed by the concerned languages, collaborative effort and optimum utilization of resources.
Mr. Yadaiah Gangadevi, Koyathorebata, Koya indigenous tribe, Andhra Pradesh
I am Yadaiah, a social worker and language pedagog working in the NGO sector for the past 30 years. My encounter with the Koya community started 2 decades back, when I went to work on a drop out education program for the youth. After which, I have collaboratively started a community based organization, “Koyathorebata” which is working towards promotion and propagation of literature in Koya language (a dialect of Gondi). The Koya literature is being gathered in the Telugu script, which is the official language of the state. More than 200+ poems, stories, riddles, and proverbs were developed in Koya. More than 20 first generation writers have emerged now. These youth are the torch bearers for the community in times of distress. As the entity of the Koya is threatened due to the displacement of 200 Koya villages owing to the Polavaram dam, the language revitalization is leading to an increase in the resilience levels of the community.
Title:
Empowering Koya community especially children and youth through propagation of literature in Koya language
Brief Description:
Language plays a vital role in strengthening the cultural entity of communities. Our community based organization, “Koyathorebata” , has been working towards promotion and propagation of literature in Koya language (a dialect of Gondi) for the past two decades. The youth have emerged as successful agents and have been carrying out the process. As a result of which we have more than 20 successful poets and writers from the Koya community. These people are now the youth leaders who are fostering the strength of their community in times of distress. On one side displacement caused by a huge upcoming Polavaram dam project, which is displacing more than 200 homogenous Koya villages to be resettled at different rehabilitation colonies. At this juncture, the Koya youth have decided to protect their language and ethnicity, as the only tool to confront the catastrophe. The state government has not recognised their language yet, owing to the lack of script. The Koya literature is being gathered in the Telugu script, which is the official language of the state. All this effort was continued under the aegis of Koyathorebata, currently supported by Samata, India. The youth leaders are traveling to other states and reciting the literature in Koya thereby setting a benchmark example for other indigenous communities to protect their language.
More and more people and organizations are talking and reciting Koya poems / rhymes in their meetings. This year it was observed that at more than 30 places ‘Koya Language Day “has been celebrated.
Maya Khemlani David, Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Received the Linguapax Award for research on language maintenance and revitalisation. Has published widely on minority languages in Malaysia and has focussed on the Sindhi Hindu community in diaspora.
Title:
Digital productions of Malaysian Indigenous Communities
Brief Description:
Youth today gravitate to digital media and in this 8-10 minute presentation I plan to exhibit their work and their focus on land and language rights
Mr Dev Kumar, Chairperson, Indigenous Television (Nepal)
Mr Dev Kumar Sunuwar is a chairperson of Indigenous Television, Nepal’s, indeed Asia’s, first and only multi-lingual Indigenous Community Television, which was one of the official media partners of the International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019. He has written extensively on international human rights and issues concerning indigenous peoples in various media and journals. For a decade, he was also extensively engaged with UN Human Rights mechanisms and systems for bringing their attention to the concerns of indigenous peoples.
Blessing and presentation of the Sunuwar digitization efforts
Development of different technologies for the preservation and promotion of Indigenous languages. His presentation will focus on the use of different social media, modern media, and technologies for the preservation and promotion of Indigenous languages, particularly the Sunuwar languages of Nepal.
Closing Address
Mr Tex Texin, Globalization Architect, Board of Advisors, Translation Commons (USA)
Mr Tex Texin is an industry thought leader specializing in software globalization services. Tex has contributed to several internationalization standards and open source software and has been an advisor to several globalization non-profits. He is an advisor to Translation Commons where he has been architecting their Language Digitization Initiative, bringing the languages of indigenous communities to digital systems. Tex is also a Senior Internationalization Architect for Medable, globalizing their Decentralized Clinical Trial platform to over 60 countries. Before joining Medable, Tex, and his consulting company XenCraft, helped numerous companies create global products and guided companies in taking business to new regional markets. Tex is a popular speaker at conferences around the world. Tex is the owner/author of the popular, instructional I18nGuy.com site.
Special Thanks
Dr Saumya Sharma, Freelance Researcher with Canvas (India)
Saumya has a total of 17 years of experience, the last 12.5 years in qualitative research. Currently working as freelance researcher for Canvas8. She has worked across diverse set of categories – education, e-commerce, media, social media, journalism, grassroots. Saumya is an expert ethnographer and specializes in traditional, visual and mobile ethnography. In 2021 she was awarded the ‘Leading Innovator of Visual Ethnographic Research’ at the APAC Business Awards. She is also a guest lecturer and mentor for ethnography and qualitative research, for individuals and groups based in India and abroad
