Living-Language-Land – 2020 – 2022

Living-Language-Land is a digital project co-produced by Neville Gabie and Philippa Bayley. Funded by the British Council in the lead up to the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow

living-language-land is a journey through endangered and minority languages that reveal different ways of relating to land and nature. We’re sharing 26 words in the run-up to COP26 to give you fresh inspiration for tackling our environmental crisis.

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The languages we speak shape how we understand the world around us, including our connections to land and nature. But as fast as we’re losing species from our planet, so we’re losing languages that offer different ways of seeing. What connections, ideas and wisdom are we losing as those languages are lost? What powerful strategies for sustainable living might they offer, to help look afresh at our environmental crisis? living-language-land invites you to see beyond the confines of your own language as we journey through endangered and minority languages that reveal different ways of relating to our planet.

Together these words form a rich word bank that offers a fresh, evocative perspective on our environmental crisis – one that’s beyond the scope of the Western-dominated conversation.

The project is a COP26 British Council Creative Commission. The project team comprises artist Neville Gabie (UK), creative producer Philippa Bayley (UK), partners Cesar Sánchez León of Pedagogías Ancestrales (Muisca, Colombia), artist and academic Virginia Mackenny (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and linguist and Khwe language expert Matthias Brenzinger (South Africa/Namibia). and many contributors from around the world – to whom we express our deep thanks.

Living Language Land – COP26 – 3rd Nov 2021, Glasgow

Living-Language-Land was invited to present the project in the Green Zone at the COP26 Summit.