Tuesday Talk Mother Tongue: When is language useful, and when is it dangerous?

Mother Tongue is an interactive discussion about language. It invites the audience to consider what language is by personifying it. Imagine language as a person—perhaps someone who thinks quite highly of themselves or someone who feels ashamed of how it's being used. Can we detach language from the people using it, or are they inextricably connected? What happens when language is the most powerful means to determine a person’s freedom? When is language useful, and when is it dangerous?

About the Speaker

Nataliya Kharina is the Artistic Director of Unique Community and was an asylum seeker who arrived in Harrow in the 1990s. During her childhood, she navigated a series of accents to fit in with her peers, eventually settling on Received Pronunciation, which led many to call her “posh.” Meanwhile, at home, she spoke only Russian, despite feeling distanced from the changing climate of her birth country. In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and she began working with Ukrainian migrants, this language became both a source of shame and her only means of communicating with her newfound community. Complex feelings surrounding language began to simmer, leading to the creation of the Mother Tongue project.

This talk is part of  the Stories of Harrow programme preserving the heritage of underrepresented communities in Harrow. Stories of Harrow is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and managed by Harrow Giving in partnership with Headstone Manor and Museum. Thanks to National Lottery Players.