The Government of Navarra, the Basque Government, the Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities and the City Hall of Etxarri Aranatz have presented a new campaign of the “Arnasa Gara” initiative. The “Arnasa Gara” initiative aims to empower and recognize the municipalities and their inhabitants who are breathing centers for the Basque country. In the presentation ceremony, the Councilwoman of Citizen Relations, Ana Ollo, stressed the need to “preserve, protect and strengthen the 14 places they breathe” in the Foral Community.

Thanks to a strong community of speakers, the municipalities that can live naturally in Euskera have the denomination of respiratory zone, that is, the presence of the Euskera in the villages where they breathe and the citizenship does so in their day to day. That's why there's a space to breathe, because the Basque can breathe freely in those spaces, with intensity. However, this does not mean that there is no concern about the linguistic habits of the population in the respiratory areas. The aim of the initiative is precisely to reflect on the linguistic habits of the population in the respiratory areas.

The presentation took place last Thursday at the town hall of Etxarri Aranatz, in the respiratory area. The Minister for Citizen Relations of the Government of Navarra, Ana Ollo, the Minister for Culture and Linguistic Policy of the Basque Government, Bingen Zupiria, the President of the Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities, UEMA-Municipalities Euskaldunes, Iraz Lazkano, and the Mayor of Etañxarri were present.

The localities of the Foral Respiratory Community are as follows: Arbizu, Areso, Arantza, Araitz, Baztan, Bera, Basaburua, Etxalar, Etxarri Aranatz, Goizueta, Igantzi, Larraun, Leitza and Lesaka. Some of them are integrated into UEMA (Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities).

Eight videos, eight weeks

This initiative also aims to highlight the importance of the respiratory spaces in the revitalization of the Basque country. To this end, eight videos have been published showing 8 situations related to linguistic habits in the municipalities of Euskaldunes and in the respiratory zones. Thus, each of the videos shown on the web www.arnasagara.eus represents a situation and the campaign aims to carry out a work to raise awareness about these situations through social networks. Among other things, interviews will be held with the referees of the respiratory centers (actors, musicians, athletes) to reflect on the subject. The campaign, which will last for eight weeks, between 22 March and 16 May, will focus on an issue to be discussed every week.

The main support of the campaign is eight short videos of one minute each, and the speeches that are produced in the form of a sketch are aimed, above all, at the population of respiratory areas or very euskaldunes. In any case, “Arnasa Gara” also intends to reach people living outside the respiratory areas to value and recognize the knowledge of the reality of the respiratory centers and the importance of these peoples in the survival of the Basque country.

The initiative will be dynamic, especially because it will be developed through social networks and aims to promote interaction between citizens. In this sense, each week, draws will be held among users who closely follow the contents that will be presented on social networks during the campaign. The “Arnasa Gara” campaign will also be released through the “Once a Day” game and for a week the users of the popular app will also have to answer some questions about the respiratory areas.

“Arnasa Gara” will be continued after eight weeks, as the UEMA members will also present audio-visual and reflect sessions in workshop format. Likewise, the videos will be used in the didactic units that are prepared to work the contents of sociolinguistics and linguistic ecology in the schools of the municipalities members of the UEMA.

Cooperation

The Councillor for Citizen Relations of the Government of Navarra, Ana OLLO, explained that “the objective of the Government of Navarra is to highlight the importance of respiratory spaces and strengthen the Basque community. To some extent, we all have the need to analyze our linguistic behavior and become aware of our behavior.” “In the municipalities of Euskaldunes the Basque Country is transmitted naturally, from one generation to another, making an important contribution to the diversity and culture of this people. As part of our efforts to protect and publicise Nafarroa’s heritage, we consider it important that the respiratory areas are also taken into account, and that is what this campaign is about,” he added.

In this sense, the Executive has recalled the I Strategic Plan of the Basque Country, ended in 2019, which “has as its axis the improvement of the situation of the Basque Country and the strengthening of the awareness and use of the Basque Country”, and mentioned the II Strategic Plan that the Government is working on: “We will take into account the strengthening of the use of Euskera in the municipalities of Euskaldunes or in the respiratory centers of Euskera, so that Euskera remains the element that shapes the social life of these counties.”

The Minister of Culture and Linguistic Policy of the Basque Government, Bingen Zupiria, explained that the initiative presented is “a program that intends to continue to raise awareness and take care of the importance of the respiratory zones in the process of revitalizing the Basque Country. As stated in the Strategic Agenda of the Basque Country, one of the functions of the Vice-Ministry of Linguistic Policy is to ‘Care for, strengthen and disseminate the spaces and functions that Euskera has as its usual language, to guarantee the transmission of the Basque language on its knees and strengthen the social referentiality. In short, it is not a question of broadening the knowledge of the Basque Country, simply, but of creating vasco-speaking people’. And for us, this program is the way to achieve that goal.” Furthermore, Zupiria has underlined the cooperation between the different institutions in the field of language policy.

For her part, UEMA President Iraitz Lazkano stressed that “the recognition of the respiratory areas and the consolidation of the respiratory areas is something that is at the base of the nature of UEMA”, so the ‘Arnasa gara’ campaign is especially important for UEMA. “What UEMA has said and claimed for many years is beautiful to see that today some public institutions also admit and disseminate it.”

In addition, in the words of Lazkano, “citizen awareness is key to reflect and influence linguistic habits. The concern about the use habits of young people is great, and that's why we launched the UEMA educational project, four or five years ago. This campaign also seems particularly attractive to us in this regard: in raising awareness of citizens and young people.”

On the other hand, Lazkano mentioned the importance of collaboration: “This is a joint campaign between the Government of Navarra, the Basque Government and the Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities, with all that this entails. In addition to emphasizing the importance of the respiratory spaces, the messages that are intended to be disseminated have also been agreed between all and all, trying to respond to the concern that in recent times has aroused dozens of municipalities and Euskalgintza”.

Background

Two years ago, the Provincial Council of Álava, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Basque Government, Euskarabidea, the Public Entity of the Basque Language and UEMA launched the campaign 'Arnasa gara' to highlight the importance of the respiratory spaces of our Basque language in the revitalization of our language. In addition to presenting events in several localities, the web 'Kartzela' was the main support. The campaign then had two objectives and phases. On the one hand, the awareness of the inhabitants of the respiratory areas. On the other hand, let the rest of Basque citizens know that the protection and dissemination of the respiratory spaces is essential for the normalization of the Basque Country.

This year, audiovisual content has also been worked on to disseminate it via social networks. The eight videos were produced by Hiru Damatxo and Iametza was in charge of the film's communication campaign. The above content www.arnasagara.eus is already available on the website.