The vision document “Sjiek is mich dat!”, named after a song by the locally well-known singer Fabrizio from Maastricht, has served as important input for the language cultures section of the (im)material Heritage Policy developed by the Province of Limburg (2016-2019). This policy is important for those dialects in Limburg which were extended minor recognition in 1997 under the label ‘Limburgish’ by The Netherlands, a signatory of the 1992 European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Since then, public funds have been made available for promoting the use of Limburgish, as well as protecting the language rights of its speakers.

The initiative to write the vision document was taken by the chair “Language culture in Limburg” and MACCH with full support of het Huis voor de Kunsten and major regional language and cultural organisations in Limburg like the Road veur het Limburgs and the dialect organization Veldeke. The document is a plea for professionalizing language and cultural organisations in Limburg, notably by (i) developing a digital infrastructure crucial for maintaining and vitalizing regional language and culture, (ii) creating a knowledge network and conducting research and (iii) involving youth in policy-making, talent-development, and education.

This vision document is part of the Arts, Media and Culture research programme.