Latest news with #IndigenousLanguages
News.com.au
4 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
New workshop connects Spokane School with Central Australia in Alice Springs
'Proven' American methods of language learning are coming to the Red Centre capital to help keep some of Australia's dying languages alive. Hailing from Washington state, the Salish School of Spokane will be hosting a two-day workshop in partnership with the Pertame School and the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Alice Springs. Kicking off on Thursday and running until Friday, the workshop is offering the Salish School's 'proven method' of language learning, Pertame Language Nest co-ordinator Vanessa Farrelly said. 'The Salish School has a proven method of creating advanced adult speakers within just one year of training, who can then go on and be teachers in the Salish School of Spokane, a complete immersion school from preschool to grade 8,' she said. The Salish School will be bringing its fluency transfer system method of learning, which event spokesperson and past participant Samantha Armstrong said will be 'a significant moment for our language revival program.' 'Learning the first steps to creating new speakers of any Indigenous languages using the Salish Fluency Transfer System has ignited the fire within me,' she said. 'The Salish family's personal journey reconnecting and revitalising their mother tongue deeply resonated with me. Their words were our words. The two days of the workshop were interactive and were ran so effectively.' The Salish comprise of four groups of Indigenous Americans from the Pacific Northwest of America, with the Salish School working to keep their Indigenous languages alive. The workshops will cover the Salish journey, their curriculum, and the practical applications which can be put on Indigenous languages around the globe. 'Australia has one of the fastest rates of language extinction in the world' Ms Farrelly said. 'It is critical that our Australian endangered language groups come together and look to Indigenous peoples globally to learn from the most successful pathways to grow new fluent speakers. 'It is a matter of urgency, while we still have our precious few Elders speakers with us.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Latin American countries to launch own AI model in September
By Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO (Reuters) -A dozen Latin American countries are collaborating to launch Latam-GPT in September, the first large artificial intelligence language model trained to understand the region's diverse cultures and linguistic nuances, Chilean officials said on Tuesday. This open-source project, steered by Chile's state-run National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) alongside over 30 regional institutions, seeks to significantly increase the uptake and accessibility of AI across Latin America. Chilean Science Minister Aisen Etcheverry said the project "could be a democratizing element for AI," envisioning its application in schools and hospitals with a model that reflects the local culture and language. Developed starting in January 2023, Latam-GPT seeks to overcome inaccuracies and performance limitations of global AI models predominantly trained on English. Officials said that it was meant to be the core technology for developing applications like chatbots, not a direct competitor to consumer products like ChatGPT. A key goal is preserving Indigenous languages, with an initial translator already developed for Rapa Nui, Easter Island's native language. The project plans to extend this to other Indigenous languages for applications like virtual public service assistants and personalized education systems. The model is based on Llama 3 AI technology and is trained using a regional network of computers, including facilities at Chile's University of Tarapaca and cloud-based systems. Regional development bank CAF and Amazon Web Services have supported it. While currently lacking a dedicated budget, CENIA head Alvaro Soto hopes that demonstrating the system's capabilities will attract more funding.
CNA
5 days ago
- Science
- CNA
Latin American countries to launch own AI model in September
SANTIAGO :A dozen Latin American countries are collaborating to launch Latam-GPT in September, the first large artificial intelligence language model trained to understand the region's diverse cultures and linguistic nuances, Chilean officials said on Tuesday. This open-source project, steered by Chile's state-run National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) alongside over 30 regional institutions, seeks to significantly increase the uptake and accessibility of AI across Latin America. Chilean Science Minister Aisen Etcheverry said the project "could be a democratizing element for AI," envisioning its application in schools and hospitals with a model that reflects the local culture and language. Developed starting in January 2023, Latam-GPT seeks to overcome inaccuracies and performance limitations of global AI models predominantly trained on English. Officials said that it was meant to be the core technology for developing applications like chatbots, not a direct competitor to consumer products like ChatGPT. A key goal is preserving Indigenous languages, with an initial translator already developed for Rapa Nui, Easter Island's native language. The project plans to extend this to other Indigenous languages for applications like virtual public service assistants and personalized education systems. The model is based on Llama 3 AI technology and is trained using a regional network of computers, including facilities at Chile's University of Tarapaca and cloud-based systems. Regional development bank CAF and Amazon Web Services have supported it. While currently lacking a dedicated budget, CENIA head Alvaro Soto hopes that demonstrating the system's capabilities will attract more funding.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
Language revitalization linked to better Indigenous health, says UBC research
New research to come from UBC highlights the positive link between Indigenous language revitalization and the health and wellbeing of First Nations communities. (Courtesy: MoA) Editor's note: This story mentions suicide. If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health there are a number of ways to get help, including by calling or texting Suicide Crisis Helpline at 988. A list of local crisis centres is also available here. Indigenous communities have long touted the wellness benefits of speaking and sustaining their ancestral languages, and now there's evidence that supports it – courtesy of new research from the University of British Columbia. The review, led by a UBC team and assisted by the University of Toronto and the University of Sydney, saw researchers analyze more than 260 studies from Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand for references of language use being connected to better health. The most surprising element of the findings wasn't that there was a connection between the two but the extent of that connection, with various aspects of health shown to be benefitted by First Nations members conversing in their own language. 'I think a lot of people are aware that there is a link between the two at some capacity, but there hasn't really been a thorough review to see what this link really is, how prevalent it is, what it means exactly,' said Julia Schillo, a PhD student in the department of linguistics and co-author of the study. 'I hear a lot about how language revitalization has been important for First Nations people for things like trauma healing and for mental health, but there were so many articles talking about how it played into things like physical health and diet and spiritual well-being, too,' she said, noting how around 78 per cent of the material discussed a positive correlation. Stronger educational performance, greater social connection and, in some cases, lower suicide rates, were also found to be directly connected to the use of Indigenous language. Many of the findings, particularly from studies in Australia and northernmost Canada, showed how there are typically better outcomes when health services are offered in First Nations languages, with patients more likely to better understand their treatment plans, and feel more comfortable and respected in a medical facility. Likewise, there were worse health outcomes reported when patients weren't able to receive health care in the language they needed. 'There were some reports of issues with people receiving health care without being able to provide informed consent, or translators not being called even when they were available,' said Schillo. The research process had been lengthy and involved Schillo and the study's lead author Louise Harding searching a number of databases, pulling around 10,000 potential articles and going through the summaries of those articles for relevant information. That search was then narrowed to 1,000, then a few hundred. Schillo hopes it will be the first of many studies into the relationship between health and Indigenous language use, as further research is needed to truly understand the finer elements, like the potential confounding variables. 'Socioeconomics, English language, fluency, things like that that need to be looked at in more detail to actually get a solid picture of what's going on here,' she said. Mark Turin, an anthropologist, UBC associate professor and co-author of the study, said the next step should be two-fold. First of all, there needs to be 'grounded, site-specific, ethnographically informed and culturally rich studies' of the specific Indigenous communities who have established language programs. Turin said he would also like to see a pivot towards research that focuses more on the strength and resilience of First Nations communities. 'Some of the formative research has been about negative associations, whether through causation or correlation, namely a decline in Indigenous youth suicide being related to language transmission and cultural continuity,' he said. 'This is extremely important research, but also really painful because of the devastating effects of suicide in Indigenous communities.' For further research and efforts to revive Indigenous language to get underway, however, funding, of which there is little, is required. 'Right now, so much language revitalization work is being done on short-term funding grants that are not guaranteed to be renewed,' said Schillo. 'That interruption undermines the long-term investment that it could provide to people's health.'
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
‘It's a big relief for every family on the reserve': Muscowpetung opens new daycare
The new Lil Knowledge Seekers Daycare has opened at Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation. Parents are feeling at ease now that a new daycare has opened on Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation. On Monday, the community opened its doors to the new facility – Lil Knowledge Seekers Daycare – inviting families and people for a tour and community barbecue. 'It's a big relief for every family on the reserve and for the working moms, for myself too because I have a little one that will be joining us here at the daycare,' shared Jessica Keepness, a parent and the director of Lil Knowledge Seekers Daycare. 'It's about time. We haven't had a space of our own, and now we have a space that we can call our own.' The daycare will provide a safe environment for toddlers, incorporating cultural activities and teaching Indigenous languages such as Saulteaux and Anishinaabe along the way. 'It's exciting to be able to bring these little things that communities have had for so many years back into our community,' said Chief Melissa Tavita. 'It's exciting for us even though we're kind of late to the game, it still means a whole lot to have this in our community.' Muscowpetung daycare The new Lil Knowledge Seekers Daycare at Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation will incorporate cultural activities and teach Indigenous languages to toddlers. (Sierra D'Souza Butts) For more than a decade, families have been travelling outside of their home community seeking alternatives for childcare. With many parents working on the reserve, Tavita said the new space will fill a gap in the community, while opening up new job opportunities. 'We've been waiting for this for a very long time. Some of our people don't have the means to have daycare in our community,' she shared. 'Now, we're able to provide that for our community. It's something that's important and something that's needed because this is the first step before going into school.' Although the project has been years in the making, due to COVID-19 disruptions and other challenges, leaders shared their enthusiasm for the next generation of Indigenous youth. 'We didn't grow up with this type of facility when we were young,' shared Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Vice-Chief David Pratt. 'Our daycares were kôhkom's yard or hanging out at kôhkom's or whoever's house. Hanging out with their parents, or one parent worked and the other parent did babysitting duties, but now we have a facility that's able to provide and meet the needs of our families so that's important.' In addition to the daycare, a separate building is being planned by the nation's council to provide a culturally rooted space for children - with hopes of someday launching a pre-school.
