Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival in Brazil adopts a declaration to create a sustainable network

Worldwide Youth <em>Uchinanchu</em> Festival in Brazil adopts a declaration to create a sustainable network

On July 28, at the Okinawa Kenjin-Kaikan, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the closing ceremony youth representatives read out the declaration of the 1st Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.


July 30, 2012 Akiko Yasuhara Correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo in Brazil

On July 28, the closing ceremony of the 1st Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival was held at the Okinawa Kenjin-Kaikan in Sao Paulo, Brazil. About 150 people participated in the festival from seven countries, discussing how to take advantage of the younger generation’s Uchinanchu network and expand the use of the Okinawan dialect.

At the closing ceremony, Minami Tamamoto the secretary-general of the Okinawa headquarters, Erika Tsukayama, the deputy secretary-general of the Okinawa headquarters, and Chuei Matsudo the head of the Brazilian branch, read out the declaration in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. Young people are going to create a database of information on Uchinachu all over the world and thereby facilitate interchange between generations to stimulate young people’s interest in Okinawan culture.

The declaration will be submitted to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima in August. The second festival will be held in the United States, in September 2013.

Summary of the declaration

Declaration summarized in the international conference of the 1st Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival in Brazil as follows:

Taking advantage of the sustainable network of Uchinanchu:

1) To create a support system for Okinawa Prefectural Government-sponsored students and Municipal Office-sponsored trainees in Okinawa and abroad;

2) To create a database of Uchinanchu information in Okinawa;

3) To hold the 2nd Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival in the United States.

Uchinaguchi promotion activities: To provide opportunities for exchange between the generations so young people can learn Uchinaguchi.

Creation of new culture: To ask Kenjin-Kai organizations abroad to support efforts to resume the Okinawa Prefectural Government program to dispatch of teachers from Okinawa to locations overseas and to provide opportunities for exchange between generations for young people in order generate interest in Okinawan culture.

(English translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey)

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