"Three N|u speaking elders confirmed that the primary perceived cause of language loss was ecological. The farmers, who controlled their lives and welfare, were hostile to them. Their language was stigmatised along with their identity. They were like immigrants suddenly surrounded by a foreign tongue and living amongst other people, even though they were still present on their ancestral lands... There was not a shift in values or identity for the old people. The world changed under their feet and there was no obvious reason to teach the language to their children. None of the elders ever confided to me that it was a strategy of theirs to hide their culture and language from the children. Nonetheless, this was the cumulative effect."