‘One language dies with its last speaker about every two weeks' according to Resurgence magazine.If this statement is enough to make you sit up and ask a few questions - like how is this even possible - you're not alone. Paul Rankin was so troubled by the disappearing languages that he started the international non-profit organisation Living Cultural Storybases (LCS) to help keep them alive.
For many cultures much of their traditions and stories are only passed down the line by verbal means. Equipped with technologies of the digital age like handheld cameras, teams from the LCS reach out to indigenous communities and provide them a new means to capture their long told stories and unique expressions of culture.
The LCS projects aim to ‘support living networks of spoken stories and songs for the communities themselves to celebrate, share and re-interpret their cultural knowledge in the changing world.' Tribe's people of Peru and Mali have so far chosen to participate in the project, taking up the opportunity to record their stories as photography exhibits and radio broadcasts.
It's a nice change that technology be used to keep cultural diversity alive rather than amalgamating us together, as globalisation usually nudges us towards.
