A/HRC/48/75 traditions of native peoples, and, in 2020, a meeting on ancestral practices and knowledge on the cultivation of quinoa took place, with the aim of revitalizing ancestral knowledge and developing a catalogue of practices.131 56. Historically, laws and policies of many States prohibited the use of indigenous languages and sought to suppress customs and traditions, as a means of undermining indigenous political institutions and individual and collective identities and of assimilating indigenous peoples into the dominant culture. Indigenous languages represent an inherent part of identity and promote the maintenance and transmission of indigenous peoples’ knowledge and traditions. Languages contain within them the tools to express indigenous collective juridical and political methodology and organization. In many cases, indigenous peoples have maintained their traditions orally, embedded in their languages. An opportunity for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in the United States, has been the process of relating the human rights affirmed in the Declaration by translating it into the Muscogee language, which helps to relate international human rights to concepts in tribal worldviews and ceremonial life. 57. El Salvador has established an early language immersion programme, called Cuna Nahuat, in the municipalities of Izalco, Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Santa Catarina Masahuat, aimed at indigenous children, which is attended by older indigenous women Nahuat speakers, called nantzin.132 In New Zealand, the reforms highlighted in the study conducted by the Expert Mechanism, on language and culture, including support for Māori education and a Māori television service, have meant that many New Zealanders are getting better at pronouncing Māori words. Self-determination, or its analogue in New Zealand tino rangatiratanga, has been central to all those reforms, reforms sought and controlled by Māori. 133 Argentina has been promoting the creation of a body of translators for the 17 languages of the indigenous peoples there, to be involved in various areas, including legal, health, education, culture, social, university, sports, gender, youth, children and politics. 134 In Australia, projects such as the rediscovering indigenous languages project have engaged with First Nations to make documentary sources available and to develop programmes and resources to facilitate the revitalization of First Nations languages. 135 58. The importance of indigenous languages was recognized and celebrated internationally during the International Year of Indigenous Languages, following the concern that at least one indigenous language dies every two weeks. The International Year was followed by a commitment to begin the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, 2022–2032. 59. There are many expressions of culture for indigenous peoples, and that includes the arts and sports and traditional games. For Māori in New Zealand, activities that were suppressed by missionaries from the early 1800s have been making a revival in waka ama, Māori martial arts, the use of the taiaha and patu and kapa haka. Elite Māori athletes are important role models for young Māori, promote healthy lifestyles and help to combat negative stereotyping of Māori. In Australia, the National Rugby League has played a leading role in reconciliation. The Arctic Winter Games is a high-profile, circumpolar sport competition for northern and Arctic athletes. The Games celebrate sport and social and cultural exchanges. The Games include many of the same games as the Winter Olympics and feature Arctic sports, such as dog mushing and snowshoeing, and traditional Inuit games, such as the ear pull, one-foot high kick, kneel jump, airplane and knuckle hop. 60. In Viet Nam, two famous traditional sports in the Mekong Delta are boat racing in Soc Trang and Tra Vinh provinces and ox (bull) racing in An Giang province. The Khmer Krom had organized the boat racing and ox racing themselves during their cultural festivals 131 132 133 134 135 Submission from Ecuador. Submission from the national human rights institution of El Salvador. Presentation made by Andrew Erueti at the expert seminar convened by the Expert Mechanism in February 2021. Submission from Argentina. Kirsten Thorpe and Monica Galassi “Rediscovering indigenous languages: the role and impact of libraries and archives in cultural revitalisation”, Australian Academic and Research Libraries, vol. 45, No. 2. 17