{"id":4634,"date":"2021-07-13T01:05:04","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T01:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2021-07-14T16:24:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T16:24:22","slug":"natalie-diaz-and-the-mojave-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/natalie-diaz-and-the-mojave-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie D\u00edaz and the Mojave Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"While Natalie D\u00edaz is known internationally for her poetry, she is also passionate about preserving the Mojave language. D\u00edaz’s work with the Mojave language comes from both a desire to preserve and to better understand it. The Poetry Foundation’s biography of D\u00edaz<\/a> includes a quote from the poet explaining how language impacts her work. She shared with PBS that, “for me writing is kind of a way for me to explore why I want things and why I’m afraid of things and why I worry about things. And for me, all of those things represent a kind of hunger that comes with being raised in a place like this [Mojave land].” Preserving the language brought D\u00edaz to the Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program. She views this work as integral to the future of the Mojave people<\/a>. Among her contributions is the securing of funding such as the Master Apprentice Program grant from the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival for the project. In addition to funding, trust has been an integral piece of the project. D\u00edaz untangles this concern in a 2013 Tribal College Journal Web Exclusive:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cShame [D\u00edaz explains] was one of the great weapons of the government. We all know the stories of how our elders were beaten if they spoke their language. Our program decided early on never again to make language a source of shame. The door to our class is open to all community members, no matter what their language level. This has led to a rapid growth in learners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme of navigating language and the individual’s connection to it is integral to D\u00edaz’s artistic process. A 2020 Guardian profile and interview<\/a> observed that D\u00edaz’s work is the result of “tensions between her three languages: Mojave, Spanish and English.” Preserving the Mojave language is a high priority made even more pressing by the limited number of speakers. As part of preservation efforts, speakers teach in daycare centers and schools, and the language is also taught in high schools so that it is omnipresent in the community. D\u00edaz works closely with Hubert McCord, one of only four tribal elders fluent in the language as of a 2012 PBS News Hour feature entitled “Mojave Tribal Leader Hubert McCord Sings”<\/a>. The story includes a short video of McCord singing to a group of Mojave teens sharing a moment of both linguistic and physical cultural memory on a boat ride on the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz’s hope for the Mojave language is not to put it away on a shelf after the “dictionary\/encyclopedia<\/a>” including language, songs, and history has been created. Instead, she hopes that it will become an integral piece of everyday life<\/a> and be used in text messages and social media. According to D\u00edaz<\/a>, \u201cif we want the language to survive we have to be able to use it everyday, saying what we want to say, so we\u2019ll be creating words now. Sometimes when we do it, our elders look at us like we are nuts, or they\u2019ll say, \u2018There\u2019s no word for that,\u2019 and we\u2019ll say, \u2018Well we want one, we need one.\u2019\u201d D\u00edaz’s choice of words is particularly poignant considering the definitions of want<\/em> and need<\/em> in Mojave that she presents in her 2020 Guardian Interview<\/a>; “In Mojave, our words for want and need are the same\u2013\u2013because why would you want what you don\u2019t need? For me, that\u2019s true desire. Desire isn\u2019t frivolous, it\u2019s what life is.”<\/p>\n

\n

Note: Poet Natalie D\u00edaz will be visiting Rutgers!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Natalie D\u00edaz is known internationally for her poetry, she is also passionate about preserving the Mojave language. D\u00edaz’s work with the Mojave language comes from both a desire to … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cookreads","category-rugrat","category-summer-tales"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNatalie D\u00edaz and the Mojave Language - Books We Read<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/natalie-diaz-and-the-mojave-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Natalie D\u00edaz and the Mojave Language - Books We Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While Natalie D\u00edaz is known internationally for her poetry, she is also passionate about preserving the Mojave language. 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