Practicing ‘language justice’ in our grantmaking is one way that funders can be more inclusive and address power relations in our work with partners. In an earlier article, we discussed why FJS believes that language justice matters. In this article, our South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) team reflects on how FJS has begun to integrate language justice approaches into our work over the past few years.

Convening language workers to build knowledge

One of our first steps was to enter into a conversation with movement activists who have experience in facilitating meaningful connections and communication between people. In 2022, we invited interpreters, translators, proofreaders, linguists, and communications specialists from the SSEA region, to come together in a series of online convenings. These language workers were already movement activists or deeply connected to feminist movements. 

This background allows them to understand the communities for which they are interpreting. We aimed to learn from their experience as feminist language workers and to build relationships with a group of specialists who understand our approach and the work of our partners. Additionally, we wanted to create a space for language workers to learn from one another. 

In planning the online meetings, we used a participatory methodology so that the language workers would have ownership of the convening process and to ensure that the conversations would be relevant for them. Interestingly, the importance of participatory planning emerged from the convenings as a key insight into how to implement a language justice approach.

The meeting participants emphasized that involving language workers as partners in project planning improves the quality of meetings.  Planning makes it possible to create written materials in relevant languages before meetings occur. It also allows interpreters and the participants for whom they will provide interpretation to meet together before the convening. This preparation enables interpreters to provide high-quality interpretation. 

After the meeting, interpreters can again speak with participants to receive feedback which can be shared with the meeting conveners. All of this contributes to a more accurate and nuanced interpretation. We acknowledge the reality that language workers who speak English and can engage directly with funders are in a privileged position (relative to the activists for whom they are interpreting). This makes it even more important that these language workers get to spend time with the people for whom they will translate both before they provide interpretation – to get to know the activists they are working with – and afterwards – to learn for the next time. 

Language workers also emphasized that their work must be recognized as a content work, and not seen as a transactional service. Language justice work is a discipline that must be integrated, and budgeted for, in project planning. Recognizing this work as a discipline results in creating respect for the work and paying language workers equitably.

Integrating interpretation into all of our partner meetings

Another step that we have taken is to offer interpretation in all of our SSEA partner meetings in the dominant local languages in our focus countries of Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (e.g., Thai, Nepali, Bangla, and Burmese, respectively). Offering interpretation allows FJS to do our grantmaking more responsibly and to engage with groups that we would not otherwise be able to reach, like the Southern Peasants Federation in Thailand (SPFT).  SPFT is a grassroots land and environmental rights organization based in Surat Thani, Thailand led by landless farmers who are seeking to ensure equitable and community-driven access to food, land, water, and natural resources for Thailand’s historically marginalized communities.

We have learned that offering interpretation facilitates grassroots participation. In the past, conducting meetings in English meant that we were only able to speak with our partners’ English-speaking staff – usually the director or other members of a group’s management team. Enabling wider participation in these meetings supports more robust learning for FJS’s staff.

Offering interpretation also sends an important signal that we are serious about shifting power. By making meetings more accessible, we show our partners that we are invested in supporting and learning from second-line leadership. The women’s rights group Badabon Sangho in Bangladesh is a powerful example of what we learn by offering interpretation in local languages. Badabon Sangho is led by rural fisherwomen and Dalit women seeking to advance their land and water rights.

Offering interpretation allowed us to hear directly from Dalit women who work on the frontlines to protect mangrove forests as a source of sustainable livelihoods and also as a source of protection from storms and tidal surges. Their defense of the environment is rooted in lived experience and has provided us with a deeper understanding of the group’s work and impact. 

Offering interpretation in dominant local languages has been an important step, but we know that it is not enough. We would like to offer interpretation in more local, ethnic, and Indigenous languages to make our conversations with partners (even) richer and more inclusive, and this will be a priority for us moving forward. Additionally, we aspire to accept applications in languages other than English to reduce the burden on partners, although we have not done this regularly to date.

Grantmaking to achieve language justice

We are also now bringing a language justice lens to our grantmaking. For instance, we encourage our partners to anticipate their needs for translation and interpretation and to include these costs in their proposed budgets.

We have also made grants to facilitate language justice in our partners’ work. Many of our partners in SSEA are working regionally, and regional work in Asia simply cannot be done without translation and interpretation. For instance, we made a grant to Intersex Asia, a regional network of intersex groups, to ensure that they could translate their documents into many different languages. This has contributed to building a broader understanding of intersex identity and issues throughout Asia. 

Bringing awareness to the connections between language and disability justice

We are also attentive to the intersections between language and disability justice. For instance, our grant to the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), a regional feminist movement organization, has enabled APWLD to incorporate sign language, transcripts, and support for personal assistants into its budgets and work to ensure that language justice approaches take into account the language needs of disabled activists. To ensure that spaces are inclusive of activists who are deaf and hard of hearing, it is important to provide sign language interpretation in various local languages and not only English Sign Language.

Prachi Patankar is a feminist activist, writer, and the Senior Program Officer, South and Southeast Asia at Foundation for a Just Society.

Phoebe De Padua is a Filipina community organizer and the Senior Program Associate, South and Southeast Asia at Foundation for a Just Society.