As part of LocalLing, Bénédicte Pivot from Université de Paul-Valéry Montpellier spent a month at Universidad de Caldas in Colombia, exploring language policy, identity and culture through critical and decolonial perspectives.

Her secondment brought together teaching, research and community engagement. She exchanged knowledge with university staff and students on the transmission and revitalisation of indigenous, minority and heritage languages, delivered training sessions on qualitative fieldwork methods and gave the inaugural keynote lecture at the 6th International Conference on Sociolinguistics and Interculturality.

A field visit to an indigenous community offered an opportunity to learn about ongoing work with indigenous teachers on language documentation, grammar development and teaching materials for community schools. Further meetings with researchers from other Colombian institutions explored opportunities for future collaboration on Indigenous language revitalisation, including through artistic practices such as music, dance and murals.

These activities opened up discussions on the gap between the symbolic recognition of indigenous cultures and the practical support needed to sustain their languages, while strengthening connections for future comparative research and collaboration.

Many thanks to Universidad de Caldas and our colleagues Germana Carolina Soler Millán and Guillaume Bruno Roux for their collaboration and for making this exchange possible!