"Our elders used to say they were surviving. But now we get to say we are thriving.”

#Navajo #Diné
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/apr/06/navajo-nation-the-fight-for-cultural-survival-photo-essay

Navajo Nation: the fight for cultural survival – photo essay

Rick Findler, photographer and Joan Wakelin bursary recipient, speaks to Navajo communities attempting to save a language and traditions that are being diluted by modern life

The Guardian
@RadicalAnthro 63 years ago was 1963, 18 years after the war when the US used Navajo language in their codes. It is appalling to think that such evil practices continued after a war in which the Navajo played such an important role.
@ArchaeoIain such a horrible contradictory history, with residential school torture and suppression of mother tongue, alongside recognition of the entire culture and language as precious resource to be used as weapon of war (as if the US owned it!).