New Books in Language and Translation 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, Department head of Indigenous Studies and Cree–Anishinaabe scholar, discusses language loss and revitalization. She outlines linguicide’s impacts on law, nationhood, and worldview. She covers legal limits, interdisciplinary gaps, trauma’s role in learning, and how revitalization links to sovereignty. Technology and ethical research approaches also come up.
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Personal Introduction In Ojibwe And Family Languages
- Fontaine introduces herself in Ojibwe and shares her ancestry as Cree and Anishinaabe.
- She names her spirit name Wolf Sky Woman and notes family languages: Cree on her mother's side and Ojibwe on her father's side.
Linguicide Is Deliberate Cultural Destruction
- Linguicide is deliberate suppression of language, not an accidental byproduct of colonization.
- Lorena Sekwan Fontaine explains it included punishment in residential/boarding schools and systems that broke intergenerational transmission.
Genocide Law Marginalized Language Destruction
- International law prioritized physical destruction over cultural harms, narrowing recognition of language erasure.
- Fontaine notes Raphael Lemkin included cultural destruction, but the Genocide Convention excluded those dimensions and left language rights largely outside binding law.
