We have taken part in two conferences in the past year. In March 2023, we presented at the 8th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (ICLDC), with a talk entitled An Open Access Toolkit for Collaborative, Community-Informed Dictionaries. The presentation outlined our Dictionaries Knowledgebase in the context of language justice. A recording of our presentation can be found on ICLDC’s Youtube Channel.

Mark and Christine held a very successful roundtable in June of 2023 on Relational Lexicography: New Frameworks for Community-Informed Dictionary Work with Indigenous Languages at the 24th Biennial Dictionary Society of North America Conference (DSNA) which was held between May 31 and 3 June in Boulder, Colorado. The roundtable brought together Indigenous language champions with anthropologists and linguists who are actively collaborating on dictionary projects for First Nations languages in British Columbia and Quebec, Canada. In this roundtable, we highlighted the specific needs and strategic goals that speakers of Indigenous languages have for their dictionary projects and reflected on the challenges that communities face in realizing these goals. The panel featured Mandy Na’zinek Jimmie [Nłeʔkepmx Nation] (University of British Columbia – Okanagan), Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins (University of Victoria), H̓ḷagṃ̓iɫ Frances Brown [Heiltsuk First Nation] (Haíɫzaqvḷa Initiatives Director, Bella Bella), Megan Lukaniec [Huron-Wendat Nation] (University of Victoria), John Lyon (University of British Columbia – Okanagan), Kathleen Michel [Upper Nicola Indian Band] (En’owkin Centre & University of British Columbia – Okanagan),  Mark Turin (University of British Columbia – Vancouver), and Christine Schreyer (University of British Columbia – Okanagan). 

The roundtable was very well received both from the in-person feedback and commentary during and after the roundtable, as well as in final reflections about the conference. In particular, outgoing president Ed Finegan’s mentioned our roundtable in his keynote address “A Life in Lexicography”, when he said, “I envy the many participants at this Boulder conference creating dictionaries of North American Indigenous languages in the framework of relational lexicography” and specifically mentioned roundtable participant Kathleen Michel’s comments. Kathleen Michel’s comments were also specifically highlighted in conference organizer Orin Hargreaves Conference Report in the society’s fall newsletter. Here he writes, “For me, the standout memory of the conference was feeling like I needed a box of Kleenex while listening to Kathy Michel’s moving testimony about the challenges and obstacles that she and her community face in trying to preserve what is left of the once vibrant native language of the Upper Nicola Band”. It is our hope that future DSNA conferences will continue to have conversations about the importance of Relational Lexicography and sustained engagement around dictionaries of Indigenous languages.