Truth and reconciliation: preserving and revitalizing indigenous languages ​​| The Canadian News

With numerous indigenous languages ​​in use across Canada, but many facing a shrinking pool of speakers, work is being done to recognize their importance and to preserve and revitalize these languages.

The Truth and Reconciliation report and its calls to action provide information and instruction on how to recognize injustices against indigenous peoples and how to take steps towards reconciliation, including actions specific to indigenous languages.

On the inaugural National Truth and Reconciliation Day on September 30, Global News is looking at what work is already underway and what else can be done.

More than 70 indigenous languages ​​in use across Canada

“People assume that we are all the same, but we are not,” says Ray John, teacher and indigenous cultural advisor to the Catholic school board in London, Ontario.

And when we look at a very diverse place like Europe, how many different cultures are there? Different languages ​​and different lifestyles? That is what we have here. When you say that, now more questions and more questions arise: what is it like to be Oneida living here, or a Cree, or an Anishinaabe, or a person from Delaware? “

Statistics Canada says more than 70 aboriginal languages were reported in the 2016 census. According to the federally funded Canadian Encyclopedia, approximately 40 of those languages ​​have 500 or less Speakers. In many cases, the majority of those speakers are in their 70s and 80s, adding urgency to the need to revitalize these languages.

The residential school system, among other abuses, denied indigenous children their culture, and survivors reported that they were severely punished for speaking their own languages.

“Every community was losing its language, little by little through the children,” says Hubert Antone, 70, who escaped the residential school system by hiding in the bushes with his siblings when an official came to their home.

Antone says, including himself, that there are roughly 20 fluent speakers of the Oneida language left.

“At this point, I think I’m probably the only instructor left,” he told Global News.

“There is not much time left to teach the language, from my perspective. The only other way is to try and see if I can get other people to learn the language enough to go out and teach it. And that’s where Fanshawe comes in. “

Revitalization efforts in Canada

In August, Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, announced that it would launch a new program to “help address the urgent need to increase the number of speakers of the Oneida languages,” in partnership with the Oneida Nation of the Thames.

“I was surprised by how many people wanted to sign up and have signed up and there are only a certain number of seats available,” Antone said, noting that members of the Oneida Nation have priority.

In addition to the program at Fanshawe, Antone says that Oneida Nation of the Thames has its own language and culture center where recordings are archived and second language learners are helping to teach in nurseries and kindergarten classes on their reservation. .

Still, he says the community doesn’t have enough funds to really “give it a try.”

The Fanshawe College program is one of many and diverse efforts across Canada focused on indigenous languages.

Manitoba Indian Languages, founded in 1985 as the Manitoba Native Languages ​​Association, works to preserve and support seven indigenous languages: Anishinimowin, Michif, Inuktitut, Dene, Dakota, Anishinaabemowin, and Ininimowin.

“Recently, in the last few years, we have dedicated ourselves to the training and professional development of our educators, as well as working with other organizations and communities,” said Executive Director Melanie Kennedy.

While the pandemic has affected programming that would normally take place in person, the organization launched a radio drama series as part of a partnership with the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg and Mazinaate Publishing. They also offer remote programming that allows them to extend services beyond Winnipeg.

ILMB summer student Kale Swampy, who is Anishinaabe from Sagkeeng First Nation, has been helping coordinate and plan events and programming.

“I am passionate about our indigenous language and culture. Especially with everything that is happening right now with residential schools and stuff. It is important that we learn this language because our ancestors could not. “

In British Columbia, the BC Métis Federation, in association with Canadian Heritage, has created the Michif Language Project to preserve what language director Jeanie Cardinal describes as “the only language developed in Canada.” The language, which includes many dialects, combines French, or in some cases English or Scottish Gaelic, with indigenous languages, mostly Algonquin or Cree.

Michif French is the first language of BC Métis Federation Vice President Rene Therrien, 76, who grew up speaking it in Manitoba.

“When I started school, our Michif French was not allowed to be spoken at school, so I lost a bit. But right now it’s my passion to be able to get it back ”.

Cardinal says that according to the latest census, fewer than 1,000 Michif speakers were still living, most of them in their 70s or older.

“In the next 10 years, we will lose our language completely if we don’t start to revitalize ourselves now.”

As part of the revitalization efforts, the Michif Language Project was launched three years ago in consultation with the community and with a focus on Michif French.

For the project, the team has so far created a kindergarten through sixth grade curriculum that involves using stories to teach the language and share its culture. The curriculum includes written and illustrated stories, as well as audio.

Cardinal says the curriculum is ready and will be soon. uploaded to your website. The next phase is to create a more challenging curriculum for grades seven through twelve.

Calls to action on language

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, presented in late 2015, include five language-specific elements and Culture:

• Recognize that Aboriginal rights include Aboriginal language rights.
• Enact an Aboriginal Languages ​​Act
• Appoint, in consultation with Aboriginal groups, an Aboriginal Language Commissioner
• Create college and university degree and diploma programs in Aboriginal languages.
• Allow residential school survivors and their families to claim system-changed names by waiving administrative fees for five years.

The Canadian government has begun to address some of these issues, while some, it says, are not within its jurisdiction, such as the call to action for post-secondary institutions to create college and university degree and diploma programs in Aboriginal languages.

The Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia, the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, and the En’owkin Center announced in March 2021 that they would offer the first Bachelor’s degree in Indigenous language fluency.

In 2019, A law that respects indigenous languages entered into force with the aim of supporting and promoting the use of indigenous languages. The Act also undertook to respond to Call to Action 15, to present a Commissioner for Aboriginal Languages.

In June 2021, Stsmél̓qen, Ronald E. Ignace was appointed Commissioner for Indigenous Languages.

Data from Statistics Canada also provide some hope for language revitalization. The number of indigenous people who could speak an indigenous language increased by 3.1% between 2006 and 2016, with more people reporting that they could speak the language than those who reported it as their first language.

Stats Can reported that the data suggests “that many people, especially the young, they are learning Aboriginal languages ​​as second languages. “

Canada is taking “important steps” to fund projects like the Michif Language Project, Cardinal says, but more resources are needed to implement and maintain the projects.

Antone emphasized that because the government’s actions are directly related to the loss of the language, the government has a responsibility to support restoration efforts.

“They need to step up and say, ‘Hey, we took it off. We will do anything to help you regain that language. ‘

Links to all calls to action, divided by category, can be found on the Crown-Indian Relations and Northern Affairs Canada website.

The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) is available 24 hours a day to anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience..

– with files from Jaclyn Carbone and Marney Blunt of Global News.