Kuiussi Suyá speaks on cultural survival

Kuiussi Suya, Ngojhwere. Photo by Miguel Oliveira

Our people, our language, our culture Kuiussi Suyá, chief of the Suyá of the Xingu Park, Brazil will speak on the endangerment of the culture and language of his people. This is a rare opportunity to hear this charismatic and forceful speaker. The Suyá have sent out of Brazil only once before, and never outside of the America's. Lecture dates and location...

Suyá representatives

Three representatives of the Suyá/Kisedje people will be attending these lectures.

Kuiussi Suyá

Kuiussi Suyá (pictured) is the main chief of the Suyá/Kisedje people, one of the most important indigenous leaders of the Xingu Park and one of the best known of all Brazil. He is in his 50s. He was a friend of the famous Vilas Boas brothers and was involved with them in the founding of the Xingu Park.

Nhokhomberi Suyá

Nhokhomberi Suyá is the official translator of the Suyá/Kisedje and is the son-in-law of Kuiussi. He is also an employee of Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)

Kamani Trumai

Kamani comes to serve as go-between between Kuiussi and Nhokhomberi. As Kuiussi's son-in-law, Nhokhomberi is not allowed to address Kuiussi directly. Kamani, who is half Suyá/Kisedje and half Trumai, was chosen (as all three were) by the Suyá/Kisedje community to make this trip. He is also an employee of the FUNAI.

The documentation of Suyá Today, there are only 378 Suyá living in the Amazon's Xingu Park under the protection of the Brazilian government. This is a major documentation of the endangered Amazonian Suyá language, and the first full documentation project for any Ge language. The Suyá community leadership are expected to be involved in the entire project.

Ngojhwere village. Photo by Miguel Oliveira

The documentation of Suyá is currently being coordinated by Professor Daniel L. Everett of the University of Manchester department of linguistics.

Among the kinds of documentation to be produced will be reference and pedagogical grammars, a dictionary, a community-approved orthography, and a large text collection. It will also include studies of the ethnography of communication, prosody, and information structure in the language, providing a model for future studies of Ge and Amazonian languages.

Lecture time

7pm, Tuesday 3rd May, 2005
The Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
map and directions

A reception will follow.

Further Lectures

4th May 2005, 4pm, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

4th May 2005, 7:15, Universität Leipzig, Institut für Ethnologie, Leipzig

5th May 2005, 7pm, Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig (Ethnographic Museum), Leipzig

10th May 2005, 4pm, University of Manchester, Schuster Building, Rutherford theatre, Manchester

Acknowledgements

This lecture series is sponsored by:

The Economics and Social Research Council

http://www.esrc.ac.uk

The Arts and Humanities Research Board

http://www.ahrb.ac.uk

The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project

http://www.hrelp.org

The University of Manchester

http://www.man.ac.uk/

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

http://www.eva.mpg.de