Premio Ostana 2019
La Chambra d’oc is a cultural association that
works in the field of promotion and enhancement of the
less widely used languages in the world.
In particular, it operates in Italy, in the Piedmont
region, for the protection of the Occitan and
Franco-Provençal languages, implementing Law 482/99
“norms to protect historical linguistic
minorities”.
The Occitan language is the ancient Lingua d’oc,
which has seen its greatest splendor in the twelfth
century through the poetry of the troubadours,
widespread in all the courts of Europe. Through the key
words of the troubadours (words like the word
“convivencia” or “the art of living
together in harmony”) the foundations of European
culture and ethical values have been laid. This language
is today widespread in three states: France, Spain and
Italy.
The Chambra d’oc association operates in the field
of language promotion through international projects
such as the “Ostana Prize, Writings in Mothers
Languages”, the creation of the documentary film
“Bogre – traveling on the trail of Catari
and Bogomili”, territorial projects of network
such as “Chantar l’uvern”, publishing
in language, training of operators and linguistic desks.
The main objectives are the protection, promotion and
enhancement of the Occitan language and culture in
Italy.
The awareness of the importance attributed to
linguistic-cultural diversity in international
strategies has led the small community of Ostana, a
small municipality in the Alps, to try to make a
contribution for the recovery and revival of its native
language and to implement an occasion where the language
can be practiced whereby the entire linguistic heritage
can return to being the centre not only of the attention
and of cultural research, but of the entire
community’s life as well. nThat is why since 2008
the municipality of Ostana has been promoting an event,
the “Ostana Prize: Writings in Mothers
Languages”, aimed at supporting and letting others
know about the native languages of the world and not
just its own. A commitment that arose from the history
of the city and from its administration, starting from
the request and then the application of the national law
that protects the minority languages in Italy.
The “Ostana Prize: Writings in Mothers
Languages” is in fact a celebration of the
cultural biodiversity of humanity. The common goal is to
listen to the sound of indigenous uncommon languages
that nevertheless want to live, and through them
discover the past and present stories of the peoples who
speak them. The native languages represented at the
Premio Ostana have the common characteristic of being
unfortunately relegated to a condition of unequal
opportunities compared to the dominant language of their
reference states, and for this reason each of them
incarnates a specificity and biodiversity to defend,
preserve, protect and describe.
While it is true that each linguistic-cultural area has
its own specifics, it is equally true that problems and
difficulties are often common, and strategies and plans
can be common to deal with.
Born with the desire to know and make known writers,
filmmakers, musicians from different parts of the
planet, it has become a formidable opportunity to meet
and exchange experiences for dozens of authors who in
Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and in Oceania
illustrate and make the language of their community
alive with their creative work.
In Ostana, 33 mother tongues have alternated over the
course of 10 years, in each edition there has been the
presence of an indigenous language.
The guest languages were the following: Friulian,
Slovene, Cimbra, Sudtirol, Armenian, Sardinian,
Tibetan, Tutunakú, Rromani, Galician, Maori, Basque,
Saami, Kurdish, Cheyenne, Corsican, Hebrew, Catalan,
Maltese, Yoruba, Shuar, Frisian, Grika, Huave, Breton,
Romancia, Innu, Mazzateco, Nynorsk, Amazigh-kabyla,
Kurdish, Gaelic, Occitan.