ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν
WORKING WITH AKA (HRUSSO) INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY
FIRST STEPS (1999-2015)
My association with the Aka (Hrusso) people and their language began in 1999 when I was a Jesuit trainee at the newly established St. Xavier’s School in Palizi, Arunachal Pradesh. I was fascinated by the complex sounds and the rhythmic beauty of Aka (Hrusso), the language of Palizi village, and began learning it. Soon, I was involved in the publication of the first-ever printed book in the language.
The Aka people received the first book with great enthusiasm. Subsequently, with the help of many Aka friends and collaborators, I designed Hrusso orthography, wrote textbooks, songs, stories, and prayers, and promoted Hrusso literacy among children and adults.
HRUSSO LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION
(2015-2020)
I documented Hrusso Aka language with a team of enthusiastic Hrusso native speakers and with the help of an Individual Graduate Scholarship grant from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) . We now have more than 150 hours of spoken language data in the form of audio and video files, archived at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR). Over 20 hours of this data has been richly annotated and is being continually being curated and updated. Besides being a repository of the Hrusso collective cultural memory, the documentary data has proved invaluable in our efforts to revitalise the language. The archive can be accessed using the following link: https://www.elararchive.org/uncategorized/SO_fd174d12-6d28-43c3-8da7-84a1533a982e/
THE HRUSSO LITERATURE TEAM (2017-2021)
The Hrusso Literature Team was formed in 2017 under the aegis of the Hrusso apex council for disseminating the newly approved orthography and to create new literary works in the language. I was asked to lead the team till the members were sufficiently trained.
HRUSSO LANGUAGE ACADEMY (2021- )
In a meeting held at Bhalukpong in August, 2021, members of the Hrusso Literature Team formed a new body, the Hrusso Language Academy with Mr. Dorjee K. Jebisow as its Chairman and Ms. Hema Delusow as the general secretary. I currently serve as the Academic and Research Guide to the Academy whose mandate is to plan and execute language promotion, curriculum development, teacher training, literature development and all such language-related initiatives.
