‘We are Indigenous people, not primitive people.’: the role of popular music in Indigenous language revitalization in Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indigenous languages in Taiwan are experiencing various degrees of language endangerment. Reversing language shift, however, faces difficulties due to the minority status of the languages. This study identifies two Indigenous singer-songwriters who released popular music sung in their endangered Indigenous languages as micro-level language planning actors and investigates their language activism. Drawing on the framework of strategies in language activism, this study analyses their grass-root initiatives in language activism by examining their public discourse about their ideologies and actions. This study finds that through strategic creating and representing, the musicians aimed to encourage Indigenous youth to use their ethnic language, develop their confidence through popular music, and shift the image of Indigenous languages from traditional, inferior, and underprivileged to international, modern, and confident. Moreover, this study found that, unlike previous studies, the Taiwanese musicians employed various connecting strategies to create a sustainable virtuous cycle to motivate Indigenous people to revitalize their languages. Furthermore, their strategies consider language ecology and aim to connect non-Indigenous Taiwanese with their initiatives to create a friendly societal environment for the Indigenous people. The findings contribute to the development of a repertoire of strategies in language activism and have practical implications for Indigenous language revitalization.