Indigenous languages are an invaluable heritage that must be protected, along with the rights of native peoples. This is why the UN declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
A language can also "go extinct" just as animal and plant species do. This happens the moment the last person capable of speaking it dies. For example, when Marie Smith Jones died in January 2008, the indigenous language of the Eyak, a people of southern Alaska, disappeared with her. The death of an individual like Udach' Kuqax'a'a'ch' (Jones's indigenous name) is not only a loss at the human level, but also at the cultural one.
To prevent cases like this from continuing to repeat themselves, the United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages, with the aim of preserving them by protecting the rights and wellbeing of those capable of keeping them alive.
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Indigenous peoples are the native inhabitants of a place; they perpetuate ancient traditions and ways of life while at the same time adapting to modernity, yet maintaining social, cultural, economic and political characteristics distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. We are talking about 570 million people spread across 90 countries.
At the heart of the uniqueness of the world's five thousand indigenous peoples are their languages, which define the social and cultural identity of these communities and allow them to pass down customs, knowledge and their history. They are precious sources of information about ecosystems: through them, ancient knowledge about the use of plants and natural elements is transmitted. Indeed, indigenous peoples are at the forefront of safeguarding the 80 per cent of biodiversity that remains, so protecting their territories and their bond with them is in the interest of the entire planet.
Important tools already exist to support indigenous struggles not only in defence of the environment but also of their rights. Every 9 August, the World Day of Indigenous Peoples is held, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994 with the aim of celebrating their diversity and shedding light on the violations and injustices they continue to suffer after centuries of colonisation and genocide. Indeed, indigenous peoples make up 5 per cent of the world's population but 15 per cent of the poorest people: they are among the most vulnerable and least protected groups in the world.
To this was added in 2007 the adoption, again by the UN, of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which enshrines their right to self-determination and to be free from all forms of discrimination, particularly in the exercise of their customs and in the expression of their identity. In 2016 another important piece was added in this regard when the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. An "action plan" was established with the Unesco agency leading the coordination of bodies engaged in awareness-raising and safeguarding activities.
Of the 6,700 languages spoken in the world, the vast majority are indigenous. A language goes extinct every two weeks, and with the growing number of people who speak dominant languages — such as English, Chinese and Spanish — at the expense of the spread of lesser-known ones, it is estimated that between 50 and 90 per cent of the world's languages could disappear by the end of this century. We are witnessing an inexorable loss of the cultural heritage of native peoples, and all that remains is to act in an attempt to save it.
Indigenous languages play a fundamental role in people's daily lives, in the defence of human rights, in peace processes and in sustainable development. Losing them would mean permanently erasing alternative visions of the values, philosophies and ways of life of dominant cultures. We may not realise it, but the language we speak defines who we are, our way of understanding and relating to the world. And in an increasingly interconnected world, where differences are suppressed to make way for globalisation, defending the uniqueness of indigenous peoples and their languages is the key to preserving our richness as human beings.
