Supporting Indigenous Language Revitalization
Hello and welcome!
I am passionate about language and language learning, with a particular focus on Indigenous language revitalization and documentation. My extensive expertise in applied and theoretical linguistics and many years of experience working with Indigenous communities give me a unique skill set to support language documentation and revitalization projects.
I am available to talk about your language project.
(See this recent article about my work here)
Past and current projects are drawing on my linguistics training and highly flexible style in a variety of settings, both academic and in community. I am grateful to the individuals whose generosity in sharing their knowledge has been teaching me most of what I am able to use in my work today. Working with community members, language champions, and Elders is my ‘happy place’.
Current projects:
Indigenous Language Curriculum Support: I support an Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System (ILFTS) network spearheaded by Salish School of Spokane. In Canada, this system is often referred to as “Paul Creek”. In that role I help communities to implement the ILFTS curriculum and support immersion teaching.
The Stó:lō Shxwelí Halq’eméylem Language program at Stó:lō Nation where I have been working since 2017 has also adopted the ILFTS curriculum, and is currently teaching the first level to community members with great success. My current role there also includes transcription, analysis and work with archival materials, as well as curriculum development and teacher training.
Language database: Together with database specialist Yuval Hager, I co-developed a website and database , which is geared towards making legacy, teaching, and dictionary materials accessible and useful to community members in an engaging way, all while ensuring community data sovereignty and ownership. This database can support the creation of an ILFTS curriculum, and also has been adopted by other communities. Please reach out if you would like to learn more.
I also currently support several other Indigenous communities and First Nations schools with language planning, reclamation, curriculum development, and teaching, and co-authored an Indigenous language expenditure needs model for Self-Governed Indigenous Governments (see a briefing document on the model here ).
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to get references from community partners regarding my work.
Past Roles:
Indigenous Language Coach: From 2019-2021, I worked for First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) as a language coach, supporting First Nations Language teachers in BC in their classrooms. Support ranged from increasing the teachers’ own oral proficiency, helping them increase their students’ language use in the classroom, to lesson and language planning.
Data Visualization: I have been an affiliated member of the iLab team at the University of Calgary, working on a data visualization project for Canadian Open Energy Data. For this work, I have used my linguistics expertise to advise on textual data. I have also been involved in an interview project that aimed to get an understanding of the public’s information needs with respect to Open Energy Data.
I was born in Bavaria, in a little mountain town in the south of Germany. In my twenties, I moved to Washington State, where I attended the University of Washington to complete a double BA in Spanish and Linguistics. I loved exploring human language so much that I went on to graduate school at the University of British Columbia in BC to pursue that passion and get a Ph.D. I now work as a linguistics and language consultant from my home in the Kootenay region in the interior of BC, where I live on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Sinixt.
My work is informed by a keen interest in continued growth, accountability, learning, and getting out of my comfort zone. Read here for a recent article about my work.
When I am not digging deep into language research, you can find me on the mats practicing Aikido, rollerskating, or hiking with my partner and kids. I love language, and love connecting with people!