Lily Gladstone did something super cool at the 2024 Golden Globes
On January 7, 2024, American actor Lily Gladstone did something really cool.
She had just won a Golden Globe for her performance in Scorsese’s latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon.* And when she came up to accept her award, she began her speech in Siksiká, the language of the Blackfeet.
Lilly Gladstone at the Golden Globes podium. Photo by Sonja Flemming / CBS from the Tom and Lorenzo website.
My 5th principle of inclusive language is “Prevent erasure.”
In my book, The Inclusive Language Field Guide, I spend some time looking at the erasure of Native history here in the US. But I didn’t have space to go into the erasure of Native American languages.
Why are almost all of the original languages of the US endangered in some way? (In 1491, there were more than 300.)
Because of the purposeful actions of the US government. Along with the general cultural push towards English as the only appropriate language for people living on this land.
Including abducting Native children, forcing them to attend residential schools where they were severely punished for speaking their home language, and adopting them out to European American families.
This is not ancient history. This is as late as the 1970s.
Purposefully preventing the transmission of language and culture to the community’s children.
Not only removing Native languages from public spaces but also from private ones.
I once talked with an elder who said, “Sometimes when we speak [our language], I can still taste the soap they used to wash out my mouth when I spoke it with my cousin at school.”**
Did you know any of this happened? I sure didn’t until grad school, and even then, I only learned because of my specialization in endangered languages.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone on the Golden Globes carpet. Photo by Alberto Rodriguez / Getty Images via the Tom and Lorenzo website.
Last night, Lily Gladstone brought Siksiká back to the public space.
“One of the first things we're taught is you say your name, you say where you're from and you say hello to everyone — hello, my friends,” Gladstone said. “So it was one of the more natural things I can do in the moment.” ***
She took Blackfeet culture and language to the stage. She said (here in translation): “Hello my friends/relatives. My name is Piitaaki (Eagle Woman). I am Blackfoot. I love you all.”
This is an example of language revitalization. Pushing back from the corner your language has been backed into. Bringing it back into spaces, or into new spaces, where it should belong.
I want to also point out the ally work done by Leonardo DiCaprio during the press tour and awards season. Apparently DiCaprio hates and avoids the red carpet. But he has consistently attended and stood next to Gladstone on the film’s various red carpets, meaning that a photo of him would also be a photo of her.
This is great ally work, and a way to take your power and use it to amplify someone from a marginalized group who otherwise wouldn’t get that kind of attention.
I was super excited to see this unapologetic integration of Native language and culture into a European American-dominated ceremony. And industry.
I will leave you with these questions:
1. How is your workspace when it comes to languages that aren't the dominant language where you live?
2. Who can and cannot speak their home languages at work?
3. Why?
*This was the first time the award in this category was given to an Indigenous woman.
** If you read my work, you’ll know that I talk a lot about the “flavor” of words. Well, for this elder, the “flavor” of his first language wasn’t a social science concept but the literal flavor of the soap used as punishment.
*** Quote and translation from today.com, specifically from this article.
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