Mother Tongues Festival 2023 Highlights

Multilingualism should not be a concern of a few academics or policymakers, it is not an uncomfortable consequence of migration or colonisation, it is a reality that we are all living with, and this is why it needs to be spoken about.

The Mother Tongues Festival, taking place in Dublin every year around the date of UNESCO International Mother Language Day, is a celebration of our languages. An arts festival is the best way to engage everyone in pausing and thinking about our languages and the role they play in our lives. Participating in a multilingual festival can be transformational for a child who may think that they are the only one speaking a certain language, it can be inspiring for a teenager who has never seen a teacher or a role model who speaks their parents’ language or looks like them, it can be very emotional for a parent who feels lonely on the journey to multilingualism. Providing a platform for sharing these experiences through creativity is transformational for artists, too. Many of the artists we have worked with have told us that taking part in the festival and seeing the effects on the participants has shaped their understanding of their own practice.

The festival is a collection of moments, and each moment touches someone in ways we cannot predict. Because art, like language, can be subtle, it can tell you something you need to hear, without saying anything; it can stir emotions that are deeply rooted, but that you had suppressed, the same way you may suppress your accent or our language. Art can bring you into that space in which you meet with yourself, with your thoughts and emotions, with your language and your identity. This is why art needs to speak to multiple identities. This is the magic the festival aims to create.