We Still Live Here Language Analysis

The movie “We Still Live Here” talks about the revitalization of the Wampanoag’s language. After long generations of resilience and courage, a cultural revival is taking place now. Toodie Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag who appears in the film, asserts that the Wampanoags are a strong people, their strength is coming from living in two worlds. The two worlds she is referring to are the modern world they are living now, the American way of life, the modern life, the world where they speak English and on the other hand, there is the world before the white man came to this land, the world of their ancestors, their native way of life, with its own special characteristics culturally, economically and even biologically. I would like to start by the Wampanoag’s world in the past. They were a big community

They did more than overcome death and genocides but they have victoriously kept their identity, their values and heritage alive and finally reviving their native language. Bringing their language alive again after many generations with no native speakers reflects how strong the Wampanoag are as a nation and a culture. It is actually a victory to their whole culture, because the language is not simply a group of words but as Toddie explains: “family and language and culture is all important, and it grounds you; it keeps you connected. I believe that when we lost connection with that language, we lost connection with everything else” (2011). Even though they have lost a lot of what they had before, they were strong to survive the fatal path of traveling from their old world where they have been the master of their lands for long years to the actual “American” world. They are strong because they did more than survive, they were able to keep their identity and to revive their language again after decencies. Now the Wampanoag’s language is being taught to kids