Sunaŵi

"to think one's thoughts, to ponder, to think in existence" — Owens Valley Paiute

AI & Indigenous Language Revitalization Workshop

When
June 8–10, 2026
Where
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
Supported by
National Science Foundation

About the Workshop

Sunawi brings together Indigenous language teachers, linguists, archivists, and AI researchers to explore how artificial intelligence can be developed and applied responsibly in endangered language contexts.

While AI tools have shown real promise for supporting language documentation and revitalization, they also raise important ethical and practical questions about consent, ownership, accuracy, and long-term accountability.

The goal of Sunawi is to create space for cross-disciplinary dialogue that surfaces shared concerns, highlights best practices, and helps define what responsible AI engagement should look like in this area.

Key Themes

  • Ethical AI development for endangered languages
  • Community data sovereignty and consent
  • Best practices for cross-disciplinary collaboration
  • Actionable recommendations for the field

Workshop Format

Three days of dialogue, discovery, and direction.

Talks & Tutorials

Presentations from researchers, practitioners, and community members sharing their experiences, challenges, and innovations at the intersection of AI and language revitalization.

Panels

Moderated discussions bringing together diverse perspectives — from computational linguists to community language teachers — to explore shared challenges and opportunities.

Breakout Sessions

Small-group working sessions where participants collaborate on developing actionable recommendations, guidelines, and other workshop output documents for the field.

Schedule

A tentative schedule — talk titles and details are still being finalized and subject to change.

Day 1 — Monday, June 8

9:00 AM
Opening Remarks
Jared Coleman
9:15 AM
Talk 1: A view on AI & Indigenous Languages from the Advancing Indigenous Language Technologies Working Group
Amy Fountain
9:45 AM
Talk 2: Whose Data, Whose Voice? Exploring Indigenous Sovereignty from a Choctaw Perspective
Jacqueline Brixey
10:15 AM
Coffee Break
10:30 AM
Tutorial: LLM-Assisted Rule-Based Machine Translation
Jared Coleman
11:00 AM
Talk 3: Beyond Data Scarcity: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Language NLP
Emily Prud'hommeaux
11:30 AM
Panel 1: Concerns & Hopes
Helema Andrews, Jacqueline Brixey, Citlali Arvizu, Jay Prakash Thakur, Kiana Maillet
12:30 PM
Lunch Break
2:00 PM
Breakout #1: Concern Mapping
3:30 PM
Coffee Break
4:00 PM
Plenary Cross-Pollination
5:00 PM
Adjourn for the Day

Day 2 — Tuesday, June 9

9:00 AM
Talk 4: Manuscripts, Microfiche, Typewriters, Databases and LLMs: Language and Technology at the Myaamia Center
Hunter Lockwood
9:30 AM
Talk 5: AI for Endangered Language Documentation and Preservation
Antonios Anastasopoulos
10:00 AM
Talk 6: Agentic AI Systems for Developing Language Education Tools
Khalil Iskarous
10:30 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM
Talk 7: The AmericasNLP Shared Tasks: Results, Artifacts, and Future Directions
Abteen Ebrahimi
11:30 AM
Talk 8: Between the Academy and the Community: Are Our Contributions Doing What We Think They Are?
Belu Ticona
12:00 PM
Panel 2: Community & Capacity Building
Kristine Hildebrandt, Ben Ankiel, Lisa Mae Brunson, Melissa Floca, Daniel Bögre Udell
1:00 PM
Lunch
2:30 PM
Breakout #2: Drafting Recommendations
4:00 PM
Coffee Break
4:30 PM
Plenary Cross-Pollination
5:00 PM
Adjourn for the Day

Day 3 — Wednesday, June 10

9:00 AM
Final Breakout Presentations
10:30 AM
Coffee Break
10:45 AM
Panel 3: Future of the Field
Raina Heaton, Khalil Iskarous, Luis Barragan
11:45 AM
Closing Remarks
12:15 PM
Adjourn

Confirmed Participants

Abteen Ebrahimi
University of Colorado Boulder
Alejandra Gaeta
Autry Museum
Amy Fountain
University of Arizona
Antonios Anastasopoulos
George Mason University
Belu Ticona
George Mason University
Ben Ankiel
NVIDIA
Ben Frey
University of North Carolina Asheville
Brent Scarcliff
Tongva Language Committee
Chad Hearrell
Comanche Nation
Chris Aplin
Ethnomusicologist / Researcher
Citlali Arvizu
Tongva Language Committee
Daniel Bögre Udell
Wikitongues
Emily Prud'hommeaux
Boston College
Harold Torrence
University of California, Los Angeles
Helema Andrews
Salt River Pima-Maricopa
Hunter Lockwood
Miami University
Jacqueline Brixey
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jay Prakash Thakur
Microsoft
Jessica Kendall-Bar
UC San Diego
Jessica Krim
JSK Consulting
John David Dioniso
Loyola Marymount University
Jordan Kellerstrass
Loyola Marymount University
Katie Wilson
Serious Moonlight Consulting
Kiana Maillet
CSU San Marcos
Kira Toal
Loyola Marymount University / Georgia Tech
Kristine Hildebrandt
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Lisa Mae Brunson
Wonder Women Tech
Luis Barragan
Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Communities
Mairead Sullivan
Loyola Marymount University
Melissa Floca
San Diego Supercomputer Center
Mónica Cabrera
Loyola Marymount University
Nicolas Rosenthal
Loyola Marymount University
Nicole Murph
Loyola Marymount University
Pamela Munro
UCLA Linguistics
Patrick Cox
Subtitle Podcast
Paul Kroskrity
UCLA Anthropology & American Indian Studies
Pedro Ramonetti
UC San Diego
Raina Heaton
Oklahoma University
Ray Huaute
UCLA
Ray Toal
Loyola Marymount University / Undivided
Rolando Coto Solano
Dartmouth College
Tiffany Carmen Ku
University of Southern California
Tiffany Wright
Comanche Nation

Organizing Committee

Jared Coleman
Chair
Loyola Marymount University
Tainã Coleman
San Diego Supercomputer Center
Bhaskar Krishnamachari
University of Southern California
Khalil Iskarous
University of Southern California
Glenn Nelson
Owens Valley Career Development Center

Student Volunteers

Thank you to our student volunteers for their help in making this workshop possible.

Lauren Campbell
Loyola Marymount University
Matthew Dietsch
Loyola Marymount University
Jason Lopez
Loyola Marymount University
Stephanie Job
Loyola Marymount University

Contact

For inquiries about the workshop, participation, or any other questions, please reach out to the organizing committee.

Email: jared.coleman@lmu.edu