This installation is brought to you from a Korean-Japanese fusion cafe on a street next to one of the most eclectic, curious, and busy college campuses I have ever seen: UC Berkeley. I am here, stimulating my taste buds as much as my ears; there are just as many, if not more, languages in the air as there are regional cuisines on Telegraph Avenue. I am constantly being happily surprised by the diversity around every corner!

More on the college life later. Now, we are going to talk about the universal languages of art and love--and how artists have been using medium to combat the language endangerment of Australian Aboriginal tongues.

I still vividly remember the night I learned about how art can help raise awareness for endangered languages. It was right after the sun had set; I had walked from Bronte Beach to Bondi Beach in Sydney, and we were meeting a lady who was the head of an Australian photography festival. In our initial circle of introductions, I mentioned that I would be studying linguistics in college. Immediately, the lady perked up and told me about two artists who had been invested into helping preserve Aboriginal languages. The first is Chris Rainier, who calls his agenda the "race against time." The second is Liz Thompson, who wrote books upon books (and directed an award-winning documentary) based on Aboriginal storytelling and the importance of preserving their languages. Both are also photographers.

Chris Rainier is a renowned photographer. He studied as artist and photographer Ansel Adams' final assistant. On Adams' deathbed, he asked the question "Where has all the time gone?" and made the remark "I barely got started…." This moment would be the inspiration for Rainier.

Time, the only unstoppable force in the world, is a big reason for language change--and language death. No matter what efforts are made to resist change, time will always pull through and impose all sorts of change on the world. Just as a glacier will move and melt with time, languages will inevitably morph in shape and sound. Without care to the preservation and continuation of it, though, languages will easily fade with time.

When Adams passed away, Rainier was determined to set foot on a race against time. He has now spent over thirty years dedicated to preserving the traditions of cultures found on the cusp of change. Language and culture preservation initiatives of Rainier's (that he either directed or co-directed) include Last Mile Technology Connect, Enduring Voices Language Preservation Project, and National Geographic Society Cultures Ethnosphere Program.

Rainier is proof that you don't have to be a *~professional linguist~* to be actively involved with preserving endangered languages. Anyone with a global interest and a heart to create change for the good can do it. Rainier spent his childhood among indigenous cultures all over the world, from Australia to Africa. Though he got his formal education in photography, the focal point of his art was directed at languages. He learned that art is a monumental social tool in shaping the public's perspective on issues such as cultural conservation. His work is just as much anthropological as it is artistic photojournalism; he worked for National Geographic--as well as TIME Magazine, International Red Cross, and the United Nations.

He has traveled around the world and covered stories from the corners of human existence, but his heart lies in the place he calls home: Australia. Here is a quote from Rainier:

"Growing up in Australia, my father had often spoken of this exotic land north of us where there were still cultures with one foot in The Garden of Eden. I first had the opportunity to go there in 1985 and I fell in love with it. It epitomised so much of what my mission was about. There is this amazing moment in human evolution right now where we still have a number of places around the Earth where people live in a very traditional way. That may not last forever. I feel a strong obligation to document, archive, preserve and maintain that for future generations."

This is where Rainier's Last Mile Technology Connect Program comes in. Last Mile is an initiative to equip indigenous cultures with modern technology to record and pass down their languages and stories in settings where it is otherwise difficult to do so. Rainier doesn't impose the technology on people; rather, the program provides help if--and only if--the people of the culture ask for it first. That way, Rainier can ensure that the technology is wanted by those who will use it. There are some cultures that are not interested in preserving their own language, and while that is heartbreaking to me, it is our duty to respect the wishes of the culture. If the very people of the culture do not want to be using the technology, who are we to tell them what we think they should do?

That being said, there are a large number of cultures who do actively seek out the Last Mile initiative and use the provided technology to record their language down. Rainier has said the following on those who have asked for help:

"That's where Last Mile is working: in that space where people are asking for some help. We offer cameras, computers, tablets, smartphones, and a little training in storytelling. Around 80 per cent of the 6,000 languages spoken in the world are traditional. Mainstream languages are just the tip of the iceberg. But, of those 6,000 languages, most are oral. Storytelling is the transmission vehicle."

Rainier walks a cultural tightrope between preserving cultures and changing them with new high-tech means. Though his heart is in the right place, he must be extremely careful when introducing technology into a space where it was not previously used.

In the next section, we will cover the work of Liz Thompson and her efforts to preserve traditional cultures and languages!