Recently, the staff of the Community Outreach & Public Programs Division attended a presentation at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman. It was called Culture in the Digital Age: An Interactive Process of Building Community and was led by Mr. Joseph Erb (Cherokee Artist). This was a great opportunity to learn about how the Cherokee (Tsalagi) people have partnered with Apple Computers in an interesting an innovative way – after much partnership, support and input from the Cherokee, all Apple computers now come equipped with Cherokee as an option for language/font.
Tribal members and students in the Cherokee immersion schools alike are using this technology to chat on the web in Cherokee, to video conference with each other as a way to stay connected, and to creat
e their own wonderful, community-driven videos – all in Cherokee!
At the presentation itself, Mr. Erb was able to connect with a Cherokee tribal member through video conference, so that he could provide an opening blessing in Cherokee from his home. Apparently, this interactive approach to language use, and the way it keeps the community connected, has been a great success and is creating a healthy environment for the Cherokee language to be perpetuated beyond class room settings. It was inspirational to hear about this project and the staff at Apple seems committed to continuing to support community and tribal efforts like this one. It was also inspirational to hear so much Cherokee being spoken (and sung) in one day!!
Posted on
Thursday, September 17, 2009
by Stacey Halfmoon