Wales has embarked on a year of listening to indigenous languages and the land. Led by Wales Arts International, the international agency of Arts Council of Wales, and supported by the Welsh Government, Gwrando is a theme for the first year of the UN Decade of Indigenous Languages in Wales and is focused on nurturing the art of listening to endangered languages and communities and to engage with the wisdoms they carry about protecting the land they inhabit.
A conversation starter by poet and founder of the Peace Academy Mererid Hopwood calls on us to listen to the linguistic landscape of the world and in particular “to listen to the new possibilities and old wisdoms that are found in the linguistic diversity of the world."
The deliberate choice of the word landscape and the connection between language and the environment is a call to action – and to listen to the diversity of languages for the same benefits that are appreciated in the diversity of species within the natural world.
Launching on Summer Solstice, an auspicious day for indigenous cultures world-wide, Wales Arts International are pleased to announce our new Gwrando / Listening Fund – an opportunity for artists in Wales to take part and help shape Wales’ call to action to protect the world’s endangered languages by listening to and engaging with indigenous artists across the globe.
Inspired by the work of artists in Wales and around the world such as ShoShona Kish and Gareth Bonnello, Gwrando is a learning journey that will include an opportunity for artists based in Wales to listen and share the learning and engage with indigenous practice around the world through creative means. Lead by Wales Arts International the programme will be co-designed by participating artists, and will create spaces and opportunities to listen to indigenous thought leaders and artists from around the world.
The fund will open in late summer 2022, and Wales Arts International will hold the first workshop in September, ahead of the deadline in the autumn. Through facilitated workshops, these group sessions will be co-designed to support artists to engage with indigenous groups or individuals, ensuring that they are respected, promoted and supported meaningfully. The artists will contribute towards shaping a manifesto of commitments by artists in Wales towards protecting indigenous languages and cultures.
The Wales Arts International team and partners will be learning along with the artists and will be looking at tools and protocols set by indigenous partners designed to create safer and more equitable spaces. We expect to re-learn about our own histories with indigenous cultures around the globe by listening to and engaging in creative conversations with artists and thought leaders from indigenous communities. We want to listen to artists and indigenous groups in territories as far and wide as Canada, Uganda, Pakistan or Australia, where Wales has left a footprint as part of the British Empire’s colonial project. We expect the journey to lead to a change in artistic practice and to de-colonise future investment.
More information on the Gwrando / Listening fund and programme will be available soon.
The Decade follows the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019, which saw Wales Arts International playing a key part in delivering a programme of activities with support from the Welsh Government. These activities included: the UK live premiere of acclaimed indigenous singer Jeremy Dutcher hosted by Neuadd Ogwen in Bethesda, a symposium and workshop for musicians and poets from Wales and Canada, an international delegation at the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst, and more.
With a decade of action ahead, there is an opportunity for Wales to continue its learning around the challenges Indigenous languages face wherever they are in the world, by connecting people through language and culture across a longer period.
This first year - Gwrando - is about listening and learning.
Eluned Hâf, Head of Wales Arts International said: "Listening to indigenous languages is also listening to the land and learning from the indigenous wisdom connected to land. In addition to inequalities already created by colonialism, climate emergency brings further injustice for thousands of endangered language speakers and communities who are not only facing the loss of land and home but also the loss of their identity, language, and culture. With our global footprint comes a global responsibility to protect the cultural diversity of this planet. In Wales we are attuned to the connection between language loss and protection of the land. We want Wales to be a linguistic sanctuary that supports, protects and promotes linguistic diversity and indigenous cultures. We will use our relative cultural privilege and the duality of our colonial past to frame this journey.
We are aware there may also be arts and culture collaborations already underway between Wales and indigenous groups or individuals, that will contribute towards our listening journey. Please email info@wai.org.uk using the subject ‘Gwrando’ to tell us more about your work.