There is a legend among linguists that anyone who undertakes work on the Hadza language is doomed to fail. Provoked by this bizarre story, this talk uses the “Hadza Curse” as an entry point for a critical intervention in the relationship between researchers and the Hadza people, between traditions of Hadza scholarship and epistemic violence, as well as between language work and the transformative work of allowing the Hadzabe people to valorise, speak for, and represent themselves. Very early on, it will be established that the “Hadza Curse” is due to factors external to the Hadza people, and is a myth. Attention will then duly turn from imagined threats faced by linguists, to the real violence faced by the Hadzabe people. The talk will assert that the end to violence against the Hadzabe people is rooted in changing how they are portrayed to outsiders, and especially through challenging existing research practices. Recent cases of language work with the Hadzabe people are given as examples of what some of these transformations can look like.

Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change. Acknowledgement and citation: Harvey, Andrew. 2022. Deconstructing the "Hadza Curse": Language work as work in transformation. Talk given at the evening lectures of the Leiden University Summer School in Languages and Linguistics. 28/07/2022.