Wadagv

ᏩᏓᎬ

Wadagv (ᏀᏓᎬ) is the Tsalagi Gawonihisdi (ᏣᏓᎩ ᎦᏩᏂᎯᏍᏗ; "Cherokee language") word for the American Goldfinch, the Washington State bird. I am Tsalagi and I live in the Pacific Northwest - I especially consider the local forests my home. The background is the Hoh Rainforest, part of the Olympic National Forest in which I grew up. The kingfisher was added as a joke because I always forget the goldfinch is called a goldfinch and wind up calling it a kingfisher instead. This wolf is a marriage of my identity as a Tsalagi person and as a resident of the Pacific Northwest.

Tsalagi Gawonihisdi was declared an endangered-to-moribund language by UNESCO in 2019. UNESCO's steps towards preventing language extinction include supporting, promoting, and preserving the language in education, culture, communication, information, science, and more.