New Books Network Lorena Sekwan Fontaine and Adam Muller eds., "The Erasure and Revitalization of Indigenous Cultures and Languages" A Special Issue of Genocide Studies International" (Vol 16, No 2)
Mar 21, 2026
Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Cree and Anishinaabe scholar and head of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba, discusses language loss and revival. She outlines linguicide as a colonial strategy and explores legal limits and interdisciplinary blind spots. Conversation highlights links between language recovery, healing, and nation rebuilding, and calls for Indigenous-led research and renewed priorities for revitalization.
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Linguicide Was A Deliberate Colonial Tool
- Linguicide was often deliberate, not accidental, and aimed to destroy community foundations beyond speech.
- Lorena Sekwan Fontaine explains colonial punishment, residential schools, and policies targeted language to erase worldviews, laws, and ecological knowledge.
International Law Marginalized Language Harm
- International law prioritized physical destruction and often excluded cultural or linguistic harms from genocide definitions.
- Fontaine notes Raphael Lemkin originally included cultural destruction, but the Genocide Convention narrowed recognition and left language erasure insufficiently addressed.
Revitalization Restores Cultural Life
- Language revitalization is framed as restoring cultural life, not just preserving vocabulary or grammar.
- Articles link revitalization to healing, reclaiming identity, ancestral knowledge, and reconstitution of nations, per Fontaine's summary.
