No Cornish language TV station broadcasting on a regular basis exists as of today, and this is what the
Cornish Language Fellowship, or Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, is seeking to change. The group is launching
a campaign to crowdfund an “on line, sustainable” TV with regular output, for which they are seeking to raise 6,000 sterling pounds.
The base for this television already exists:
Pellwolok an Gernewegva,
a voluntary service that has some programs available on YouTube. But
they lack basic resources, such as a small study to produce regular
programs and to train volunteers in audiovisual contents.
Campaign drivers believe having audiovisual content is essential to
ensure the survival of that Celtic language, spoken in Cornwall by more than half a thousand people.
Pellwolok an Gernewegva – the Cornish Language Television service
Kowethas
an Yeth Kernewek, the Cornish Language Fellowship, has created this
Crowdfunding opportunity in support of the provision of a sustainable
internet-based television service in Kernewek, the Cornish language.
Kernewek
has been without its own bespoke service ever since the revival of the
language began. The only opportunities for creating and dispersing
programmes has been through BBC South West and ITV. Neither of these
services are focused solely on Cornwall, and any Kernewek programming
has been rare and as an occasional stand-alone production.
Pellwolok
an Gernewegva has been established as a first step in addressing this
lack of content and in providing speakers, learners and the wider
cultural community with an online channel which produces regular output
in Kernewek.
This service has been running over the past year and a
half on a completely voluntary basis and now produces a series of
walking shows, the first chat-show and a monthly news magazine. It is
watched by Cornish speakers in Cornwall, of course, but also in other
parts of the UK, Europe and around the world.
Our aim is to
attract funding and thereby set up a small base studio which will allow
us to include more volunteers in the project and offer them training in
media skills. From this, we want to develop a Kernewek output which
improves fluency and offers learners and children the essential
programme material they need to grow them in the language.
This
channel could become a content production house in the way that many
developed in the 1980s and 90s in Wales. There is also the possibility
that we could convert this content into shows for use in other minority
languages and thus generate a revenue stream. This is now a real
possibility because the internet allows such content to be dispersed
more easily from Youtube and Facebook via Smart TV apps.
Kernewek,
one of Britain’s indigenous languages, is recognised by UNESCO as being
‘critically endangered’. The number of speakers is, however, growing at
a significant rate, and by supporting this project you can play your
part in taking the language a further step away from the danger zone.
You
will be helping to provide a public service and helping to underwrite
Cornwall’s distinctiveness. Above all, this is about Cornish being a
modern language with a secure future, spoken by a growing community of
all ages.
Take your place in history and support us.
