Nipmuc Language Preservation, David White
Series: We Shall Remain
From: Native Public Media
Length: 00:05:00
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Piece Description
The piece will profile David White—a member of the Nipmuc tribe who is waging a battle to revive his people’s language. He coached extras and actors in Nipmuc for the first film in the WE SHALL REMAIN series. White didn’t grow up speaking Nipmuc because it fell out of use a hundred years ago. But as a young man he started taking lessons from an elder who had revived the language. When the elder died, he entrusted the language’s future to David, who now travels across Massachusetts to teach it to members of his tribe. The story will profile White as he balances his day job as an electrician with his mission to single-handedly save his people’s language from extinction. Along the way, it will examine the peculiar challenges posed by reviving a moribund language (for instance, having to rely in part on records and dictionaries preserved by white colonists).
Intro and Outro
INTRO:This month, in conjunction with the PBS series We Shall Remain, we’re reporting on contemporary issues facing Native American communities. Today we look at [insert story description here].
OUTRO:We Shall Remain airs on PBS Stations nationwide on Mondays, April 13 through May 11.
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Emily Corwin
Posted on April 21, 2009 at 10:43 AM | Permalink
Simple, informative, and more
I could say that this piece is simple and informative––and stop there. It is more than that, however, because its simplicity masks a more significant accomplishment. As David White shares his experiences learning and teaching the Nipmuc language, Arun Rath demonstrates that Native America is not an artifact from the past, but a living growing part of America. Informed, conscientious productions like this have the potential to change popular narrative in a powerful way. Get this baby on the air!