Mapuche language recovery – Digitalization of Audio Records in Mapuzungun en Esquel

Mapuche language recovery – Digitalization of Audio Records in Mapuzungun


Employer:
Patagonia Volunteer
Function:
Mapuche language recovery – Digitalization of Audio Records in Mapuzungun


Job type:
Volunteer
Country:
Argentina


Industry:
Non Profit, Race and Ethnicity


Background Situation - The local linguist Antonio Diaz Fernandez, from the city of Esquel, Chubut province, in the Argentinean Patagonia, has spent 20 years studying the language of the Mapuche native people. The Mapuzungun (language of the earth) is currently an endangered language in several Patagonian regions, since after the so-called Conquest of the Dessert (Conquista del Desierto), the social pressure and marginalization to which the Mapuche people was subdued, drove them to stop teaching their own language to their children. Currently, only a small amount of older people speak Mapuzungun as mother tongue. Most younger Mapuche know only some words and phrases.

Together with this context of social marginalization, local and provincial authorities only carry out superficial language recovery policies, and though legislation has been passed for bilingual teaching (Spanish – Mapuzungun) in rural schools, neither the training of teachers nor the creation of didactic material has been encouraged or sponsored. Thus, there are very little possibilities of learning Mapuzungun.

The linguist Antonio Diaz Fernandez has gathered, throughout 20 years of field work in Mapuche communities, a very important amount of audio material in cassette format. In the current context of the loss of the Mapuzungun language, MAPU Association is cooperating with a project of digitalization, cleaning, and systematization of this valuable material, which once digitalized can be used didactic and educational purposes to spread and recover the language among the Mapuche and non-Mapuche community.

The main activity of this volunteering placement is to work on the digitalization, cleaning, cutting and systematization of the audio material, under the supervision of the linguist.

The aim of this volunteering placement is that you contribute to the recovery of the language of the Mapuche native people, the Mapuzungun.

For this volunteering placement you need to have some knowledge and/or experience in the use of sound edition software. Also you need to be flexible, proactive, creative and able to work in systematically and orderly.

To perform your volunteer work, you would need to pay a fee of 250 € to the MAPU Association. This amount includes your annual membership fee to MAPU Association (50€) and your one time volunteer placement organization fee (200€). Through your annual membership fee, which you will decide whether you renew the following year, and the payment of the organization of your volunteer placement, you will not only contribute to finance the MAPU Association projects, but you will also be able to keep volunteering, as a member of MAPU, in every available project in Patagonia which fits your profile without having to pay the volunteer fee again. Also, you will get help organizing your trip, finding an accommodation at a reasonable local price with a local host family and all the support you may need for this experience.


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