Truth and Reconciliation: Preserving and revitalizing Indigenous languages
Global News
'Within the next 10 years, we will lose our language altogether if we don't start to do revitalization now,' said B.C. Métis Federation Michif language director Jeanie Cardinal.
With numerous Indigenous languages in use across Canada but many facing a shrinking pool of speakers, work is underway to recognize their importance and to preserve and revitalize these languages.
The Truth and Reconciliation report and its calls to action offer insight and instruction in how to recognize injustices against Indigenous peoples and how to take action toward reconciliation, including actions specific to Indigenous languages.
On the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30, Global News is looking at what work is already underway — and what more can be done.
“People assume that we’re all the same, but we’re not,” says Ray John, a teacher and Indigenous cultural adviser with the Catholic school board in London, Ont.
“And when we look at a very diverse place like Europe, how many different cultures are there? Different languages and different lifestyles? That’s what we have here. When you say that, it now sparks more questions and more wondering: what is it like to be Oneida living here, or a Cree, or an Anishinaabe or a Delaware person?”
Statistics Canada says over 70 Aboriginal languages were reported in the 2016 Census. According to the federally-funded Canadian Encyclopedia, about 40 of those languages have 500 or fewer speakers. In many cases, a majority of those speakers are in their 70s or 80s, adding urgency to the need to revitalize these languages.
The residential school system, among other abuses, denied Indigenous children their culture, with survivors reporting that they were severely punished for speaking their own languages.
“Each community were losing their language, little by little by way of 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 house.