FIT Webinar: Indigitalization: The (un)colonizing of computer practices in Indigenous language and culture

Speaker:

Date:

Jon Corbett

20th July 2024
6 pm to 8 pm Paris (UTC+2)
12pm to 2pm New York
12am to 2am (21st July) Beijing
2am to 4am (21st July) Sydney

Register Now

Description:

This webinar, “Indigitalization: The (un)colonizing of computer practices in Indigenous language and culture”, explores how technology plays a role in untethering Indigenous languages and culture from the grand narrative of a Westernized world view that sees itself as the sole creator and proprietor of all modern technology, specifically computer technology. This talk, offered by Prof. Jon Corbett, explores the (un)colonization of computer hardware, and stories the development of a physical keyboard for the nêhiyaw orthography (i.e. Plains Cree), designed and built from nêhiyaw cultural knowledge.

Speaker’s Bio:

Jon Corbett is an Assistant Professor with Lived Indigenous Experience in the School of Interactive Art & Technology at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, Canada). His research focuses on Indigenous forms of expression through “Indigitalization”, which he describes as a computational creative practice that braids together Indigenous and decolonial computing practices facilitated through traditional and computer-based expressive media art forms.

International Translation Day 2024

Celebrating and Protecting the Art of Translation

Translation, an art worth protecting.

The poster is available for download under Creative Commons licence.
Share or print the poster for use in your ITD celebrations.
Hi-res (pdf) :: Hi-res (jpg) :: Lo-res (pdf) :: Lo-res (jpg) ::Email (jpg)

You can also celebrate with FIT at our ITD webinar, to be held on 27 September 2024. More details will be available soon.

Inspired by issues surrounding copyright, this year’s International Translation Day (ITD) theme embraces the recognition of translations as original creative works in their own right, owed the benefit of copyright protection under the Berne Convention. As the creators of derivative works, translators have fought to protect their moral rights to be credited for their translation work, control any changes to that work, and receive appropriate remuneration. Protecting these simple things will ensure a sustainable future for translation professionals and the historic art of translation itself.

Copyright-related issues extend far into all areas of the profession, including the use of translations in the cultural sector, literary translation, publishing and legal translation. With the development of AI and the expansion of the digital sphere, the implications of copyright for translators, interpreters and terminologists have increased exponentially. Attribution of translation in the digital sphere is more and more crucial, in addition to allowing translators to receive recognition for their efforts, it clearly signals the source of a text, identifying it as human rather than AI generated content.

ITD has been an important date celebrated in the FIT calendar for over 35 years, with FIT Council creating an annual theme as the basis for the celebrations. Since 2017, 30 September has been internationally recognised as International Translation Day, a day to be celebrated across the entire UN global network. It honours the contribution of professional translators, interpreters and terminologists in connecting nations, and fostering peace and global development and emphasises translation’s important political and cultural role in multilateralism and multilingualism.

The theme of ITD 2024 calls for us to protect translation as an art, protect copyright and related rights, and protect our livelihoods, thereby ensuring the future and sustainability of our profession. So, let’s celebrate our creativity, longevity and unity on September 30, to mark International Translation Day 2024. 

Join us in celebrating Translation as an art worth protecting.

International Translation Day

Each year, translators, interpreters and terminologists celebrate International Translation Day on 30 September, the feast of St. Jerome. A unifying theme is chosen each year and a competition is held to design a poster for FIT members to print and use to promote the day and join together in celebrating our professions.

In 2017 we achieved an historical milestone for all professional translators, interpreters and terminologists, with the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopting Resolution A/RES/71/288, recognising the role of professional translation in connecting nations, and fostering peace, understanding and development. In the same resolution, the United Nations General Assembly declared 30 September to be UN International Translation Day, celebrated across the entire UN network.

Themes and posters of previous years

ITD 2023: Translation unveils the many faces of humanity

FIT Webinar: The Translation Industry By Numbers: Between Growth, Transformation, and Reinvention

Speaker:

Date:

Gabriel Karandyšovský

Friday, May 10th, 2024
1 pm to 2 pm Paris (UTC+2)
7am to 8am New York
7pm to 8pm Beijing
9pm to 10pm Sydney
Recording will be made available to all registrants.

Register Now

Description:

Numbers don’t lie: The language industry continues growing, and the demand for language services is at an all-time high. And yet, we find ourselves in a peculiar moment of the industry’s growth trajectory, with professionals and companies wondering how their future will look, with AI especially being seen as the great disruptor coming for our jobs. Perhaps surprisingly, localization managers on the client-side report that AI is driving renewed interest in languages from their companies. Is there hope that AI is not on the hunt for our jobs after all? AI will continue to shape our industry, so how do we reinvent the rules of the game to enable us to continue growing personally and professionally? In this one-hour session, we’ll talk about the global state of the industry in 2023/2024, the transformation we’re undergoing. We will also shed light on what is the reality of those first in line tasked with bringing AI in localization to life — the localization teams — and discuss prospects for future reinvention, in a world where human and machine thrive alongside each other.

Speaker’s Bio:

Gabriel is an independent industry researcher, consultant, and former COO of a global market research firm. With over a decade in the language industry, Gabriel has worn many hats, from onboarding new clients as a business developer to hands-on work on projects in 100+ languages, from deconstructing industry trends to advising clients on how to talk to global audiences.

The webinar will be conducted in English only and will last one hour (45 minutes of presentation and 15 minutes of Q&A). A recording will be made available to registrants after the event.

The Role of Indigenous Language Translation in the Midst of Climate Change: Negotiating displacement, loss of land, language and culture

In this Decade of Indigenous languages, to draw the world’s attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and celebrate them, we are pleased to present a global panel discussion, around indigenous language translation in midst of climate change.

On November 25, 2023, the FIT Indigenous Languages Standing Committee hosted a webinar titled The Role of Indigenous Language Translation in Midst of Climate Change: Negotiating Displacement, Loss of Land, Language and Culture.

Losing indigenous languages means a loss of cultural diversity, and the centuries-old knowledge contained within them, which could solve the current global challenges around climate destruction and biodiversity loss. Much of historical learning and knowledge about the planet is indigenous knowledge, therefore translation, interpreting and terminology for indigenous languages is key to unlocking that crucial knowledge.

Very few, less than 2%, of indigenous languages have any real presence online, this means millions of indigenous languages speakers and signers are excluded from full participation in aspects of society and it shows the need for the intentional development of a truly multilingual digital landscape.

This is why the SDGs are part of the solution: the SDGs bring to the forefront the importance of people in the future of the planet.

Sustainability and climate action are not as much about saving the planet as they are about saving the people, and that includes our land, our languages, and our cultures.

We thank our invited speakers Wayne Jackson, Marilyn Shirt, Ksenia Dubrovskikh, Olga Latysheva and Sibusiso Biyela and the indigenous language interpreters Maya Lyutyanskaya and Tina Wellman who made the event possible.

You can watch the recording of the event on YouTube

Our Presenters:

From Canada

Elder Wayne Jackson: From Goodfish Lake First Nations Treaty Six Territory, Alberta, Canada. Instructor, resource developer and Director of Nehiyawe Cultural Institute in Edmonton, Alberta. He will present on: “nipiy ê-pimâcîhikoyahk”: How water sustains us and gives us life in relation to language and culture.

Dr. Marilyn Shirt: From Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta is the Team Lead (Dean) for the Indigenous Language program at University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’įnistameyimakanak Blue Quills (UnBQ). She will present on the Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Language Revitalization and Translation.

From Russia

Ksenia Dubrovskikh: Lecturer of Translation and Applied Linguistics at NArFU named after M.V. Lomonosov, Arkhangelsk. She will focus on Climate ChangeDiscourse and its Anthropomorphic Specifics.

Olga Latysheva: Deputy Director of the Ethno-Cultural Centre of the Nenets Autonomous District. She will focus on: Translation of Nenets Folklore and Climate Change Evidence in Oral Texts of the Nenets People.

From South Africa

Sibusiso Biyela: Science and research communicator at ScienceLink based in South Africa who has done extensive research on the Zulu Royal Family and the KwaZulu Natal province. He has done much work documenting the lifestyle of Indigenous tribes in South Africa. He will present on Applying the Principles of Science Communication and Decolonization in Translating the Science of Climate Change into African Languages.