The University of Arizona Press
Rainforest Radio
Language Reclamation and Community Media in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Napo Kichwa communities in the Upper Ecuadorian Amazon find themselves doubly marginalized by settler colonialism and well-intentioned language revitalization projects.
In Rainforest Radio Georgia C. Ennis provides a comprehensive ethnographic exploration of Amazonian Kichwa community media, offering a unique look at how Indigenous broadcast and performance media facilitate linguistic and cultural reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This work offers a critical analysis of how standardized language revitalization efforts, like the imposition of Unified Kichwa, can inadvertently perpetuate linguistic oppression. Ennis follows producers, performers, and consumers to understand the role of media in language reclamation. Through extensive fieldwork, she provides vivid portrayals of community efforts to sustain the language and cultural practices of their elders amid environmental and social upheaval.
Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Rainforest Radio is an essential work for anthropologists, linguists, and social scientists interested in language revitalization, Indigenous media, and environmental justice. This book showcases the transformative potential of community-driven media initiatives, highlighting the innovative responses of Napo Kichwa activists to the unique challenges they face. It serves as a powerful model for those working on similar issues worldwide, demonstrating the critical role of community media in language reclamation and cultural sustainability.
“Rainforest Radio is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the intersection of language, culture, and the environment. Meticulously researched, beautifully written, and carefully argued, the book offers an original and important perspective on Indigenous language revitalization within the rich and complex ecological and social tapestry of the Amazon.”—Shaylih Muehlmann, author of When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
"This book provides a fresh and much-needed multimodal and multi-sited ethnographic perspective on the production and reception of Indigenous community radio in support of language and cultural reclamation and vitality. Ennis shares insights on how the Upper Napo Kichwa entangle media, Indigenous languages, and their daily lives to reveal the emergent relational subjectivities between community members and media while challenging the hegemonies of 'official status' language ideologies. Ennis invites the reader into intimate language domains to discern how community members adopt media in unexpected ways to create new vitalities of language, identity, and communicative practice. This book is essential reading for language researchers/advocates who are looking for fresh analytical frames for understanding how media and language are intimately tied to place-based social practices and relationships."—Bernard Perley, author of Defying Maliseet Language Death: Emergent Vitalities of Language, Culture, and Identity in Eastern Canada
