Language and culture students in Basque Studies at Boise State, along with Nere Lete and Ziortza Gandarias Beldarrain from the Department of World Languages, participated in the worldwide Korrika 2022 by organizing their own event on campus. Korrika means “running” in the Basque language.
The Alfabetatze Euskalduntze Koordinakundea (Basque Language Literacy and Language Teaching Collective) organized the 10-day event that not only intends to raise funds to support the teaching of the Basque language but also encourages all speakers of the language to recommit to Basque, a less commonly taught and minoritized language.
Thousands of runners of all ages from the Basque Country and the Basque Diaspora run one-kilometer-long relays in a popular race that meanders through Basque Country covering more than 1,242 kilometers. A designated runner, most often representing a group that supports the Basque language, carries the lekukoa (baton) that passes from hand to hand symbolizing the Basque language as a collective patrimony. In addition to Boise State, other universities and cities outside the Basque Country joined this initiative: Paris, Helsinki, Berlin, Cork (Ireland), Sydney, Buenos Aires, Mexico D.F., Tokyo, Uruguay, Medellin (Colombia), Santiago de Chile, Poznan (Poland) and New York to mention a few.
Interviews with Lete and Gandarias Beldarrain appeared in the Berria newspaper and the NAIZ radio station, media outlets in the Basque Country.
