Syimaútu - Soundscaping as Ryukyuan Reclamation and Indigenous Futurisms

The eighth 2026–2027 Indigenous Learning Forum presentation will take place April 15, 2027, at 3:00 p.m. ET on Zoom. This talk will be given in English with Spanish translation.

Se ofrecerá interpretación en español/inglés.

This event is free and open to all but registration is required. 

avery yara london is an Úcyinaancyu (Okinawan) and Ýambaruntu (Kunigami) researcher from Sacramento, California. As a board member of the Northern California Okinawa Kenjin-Kai (NCOKK), avery's research in Linguistics, International Relations, and Native American & Indigenous Studies centers oral histories and community-based ontologies in creating Ryukyuan language learning materials.

As digital media production becomes more accessible to Indigenous peoples across the world, ancestral voices shape the cyberspace. Within the Syimancyu (Ryukyuan) community of practice, youth use digital platforms like music streaming and social networks to talk story, build solidarity, and transmit culture. However, ruptures to shared physical environments like urbanization and displacement prevent Syimancyu from effectively reclaiming our heritage languages, which are epistemically and grammatically rooted in traditional sky, water, and land-based relationships. In this talk, I will demonstrate how the production of acoustic environments ("soundscaping") blends current and historical articulations of place, which empowers youth towards Indigenous Futurisms.