Mother Tongue Media connects and cultivates a multilingual community of cultural organizations, media-makers, and their audiences through year-round collaborative efforts, outreach, and public engagement activities that are dedicated to amplifying mother tongues through a variety of digital media.
We aim to:
- Link the diverse, international community of filmmakers, media specialists, scholars, and cultural activists working in Indigenous media through research, outreach, and engagement activities.
- Collaborate with local and international communities, organizations, and coalitions that are defining and developing film and media practice in mother tongues, developing and sharing online resources that promote their exchange.
- Amplify Indigenous and community-based filmmakers and curators, promoting and circulating their work.
Our colleagues at the Center’s Language Vitality Initiative support the vitality of Indigenous and minoritized languages and their communities.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge with respect the Piscataway people on whose traditional territory the Smithsonian stands and whose relationship with the land west of the Chesapeake Bay continues today.
The banner image is a mural painted by Fabián Calderón Sánchez, inspired by traditional Maya graphics, at Servicios Universitarios y Redes de Conocimiento (University Services and Knowledge Networks) in Oaxaca City, Mexico.
Events
Mother Tongue Film Festival
The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world over multiple days of free screenings and presentations in Washington, D.C. The festival is a public program of Recovering Voices, a pan-institutional collaboration.
Founded in 2016, the annual festival coincides with International Mother Language Day on February 21. A number of films remain available to view on the website throughout the year.
InDigital Conference
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage co-organizes this biennial academic conference that invites researchers, trainers, and Indigenous media-makers to share experiences and discuss the developments in Indigenous media across the Americas. To date, it is the only conference of its kind in the United States.
Films d’Auteur / Langues Ancestrales
Recognizing film as a transformative tool for linguistic empowerment and cultural self-determination, the Center partnered with the Festival of Indigenous Australian Cinema and the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac to present a first-of-its-kind film festival in Paris, France, as one of the flagship events of the first International Year Indigenous Languages.
Indigenous Cinema ’22
For the second year, Amalia Córdova curated an online series of short and feature films from the Americas for New York University’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, with the theme “Images to Postpone the End of the World.” The series ran November 11 to December 12, 2022.
Festival Videos
When the Mother Tongue Film Festival went digital in 2021 and 2022, events were livestreamed and recorded to share with an international audience. Watch more filmmaker roundtables and panels on our YouTube channel.
Media Playlists
To introduce new audiences to creative efforts in Indigenous digital storytelling, as well as emerging educational and collaborative projects, we invited Indigenous media collectives and organizations to create media playlists. Our interns also compile music videos and short films screened at the Mother Tongue Film Festival. Find out how to propose your own playlist.
“The Indigenous Voice Is the Voice of Today”: Indigenous Latin American Hip-Hop
Music VideosTen official music videos give an overview of the youth-led language reclamation movement from Chile to California.
Animating the Mother Tongue: An Indigenous Language Playlist
AnimationTwelve short films introduce young viewers to Native languages from Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States.
Language Builds Legacies: Historical Picks from the Mother Tongue Film Festival
ShortsThese ten shorts feature ancestral tales from the United States, Guatemala, Chile, Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Papua New Guinea, Mexico, and Panama.
Sakha Cinema: Worldviews from Northeastern Siberia on Film
Features & ShortsSeven films offer an overview of “Sakhawood,” the small yet vigorous filmmaking industry in the Republic of Sakha, Russia, many drawing from regional myths and legends.
How FicWallmapu Expands Access to Indigenous Cinema from Chile and Beyond
Shorts & AnimationThese five videos, presented at FicWallmapu, are available in their entirety with English subtitles.
Ten Years of Mother Tongue: A Music Video Retrospective
Music VideosExploring ten themes of creative fusion, these songs convey the Mother Tongue spirit by melding culture, time, and genre to offer viewers glimpses into different ways of being.
Articles
Through Folklife Magazine, we have drawn from Mother Tongue Film Festival offerings to reflect on the communities and efforts behind the films. We have also published many articles relating to language as cultural heritage—from video games to hip-hop—and share some of the live discussions on Native American language and media representation that take place at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
By Maddie Van Oostenburg
We reflect on the testing voyage that is the return home and seek to inspire inquiry into the concept of home itself.
By José González, Maddie Van Oostenburg
We reached out to directors of several 2022 selections to ask their thoughts about how film connects us to the past.
By José González, Maddie Van Oostenburg
The term “legacy” rings differently in the consciousness of each individual and in each cultural tradition.
By David Hernández Palmar
The celebrated Peruvian filmmaker passed away in November 2021 at the age of thirty-four.
By Maddie Van Oostenburg
For six years, the festival has advocated for the preservation and celebration of language and takes concrete action in this quest of advocacy.
By Maddie Van Oostenburg, Mariel Tabachnick, Maya Sanchez
Storytelling provides the vital opportunity to understand elements of our history we most deeply resonate with.
By Maddie Van Oostenburg, Mariel Tabachnick, Maya Sanchez
Mother Tongue interns survey the team on the criteria for selecting films for the festival.
Films d’auteur/Langues ancestrales took place in Paris, France, November 28–December 1, 2019.
By Emma Cregan
Elizabeth LaPensée creates video games inspired by her Indigenous heritage to help heal intergenerational trauma.
By Angelo Baca
What’s in a name? It’s an important part of our identity, our existence, connecting us to the cultural and social realms we come from.
By Michelle Mehrtens
“I used to get sent home on Columbus Day because I pissed off the teachers, I guess,” Simon Moya-Smith laughed.
Collaborators & Sponsors
Support the Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Cultural Vitality Program, educational outreach, and more.