Hearing the voices: Towards a relational framework for decolonial sociolinguistics

Celeste Rodríguez Louro
The University of Western Australia / All Souls College, Oxford

Monday January 26, 2026, 5:15 - 6:30. Schwarzman Centre 30.445, Linguistics Large Seminar Room.

In the last five years, sociolinguistics has increasingly engaged with decolonisation through truth-telling and critical reflection on how colonial structures continue to shape linguistic theory, method, and practice. This paper contributes to that conversation by proposing a relational, partnership-based framework for sociolinguistic research in which minoritised speech communities are not objects of study but partners in knowledge co-creation.

Drawing on nearly a decade of ongoing two-way, cross-cultural collaboration with Nyungar scholar Dr Glenys Collard, I examine sociolinguistic research on Australian Aboriginal English as spoken on Nyungar Country in southwest Western Australia (Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2020; Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2021a; Rodríguez Louro, Collard, & Reynolds, 2025; Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2021b). Initially designed to investigate linguistic variation and intergenerational language change (Rodríguez Louro et al., 2023), this work evolved through sustained collaboration into a decolonial practice grounded in First Nations leadership and cultural safety. Central to this shift was the adoption of yarning—an Indigenous cultural form of storytelling and conversation—as a primary method of data collection. Our use of yarning made it possible to engage with community in a culturally safe fashion. We also applied a diversity lens when we worked with the Heart Foundation to decolonise medical media for First Nations communities (Collard & Rodríguez Louro, 2024) and in our work with Google to make voice-operated technology more inclusive (Hutchinson et al., 2025; Rodríguez Louro, Collard, & Hutchinson, 2025).

I argue that this body of work exemplifies an emergent decolonial sociolinguistics that develops not through top-down programmatic intent, but through emergent long-term relational practice. The paper focuses on three interrelated dimensions: (1) methodological innovation that legitimises Indigenous ways of communicating, including applied collaborations with industry partners; (2) a rethinking of fieldwork ethics to prioritise cultural safety and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP); and (3) a participatory research ethic that resists neo-liberal pressures that privilege outputs over relationships.

By treating collaboration as a site of theory-building rather than mere consultation, this paper advances a sociolinguistic framework in which decolonisation is enacted through shared authority, methodological diversity, and attention to the community’s lived experience. I suggest that such an approach not only enriches sociolinguistic theory but also offers a model for linguistics more broadly, one in which “hearing the voices” of minoritised speakers becomes central to how we conceptualise the role of language in society.