Of the most spoken languages in the world. © 2020 Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. Sadly, our language has reached such a critical point that we must make this kind of investment a priority in order to keep it alive. Vocalize your support for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action for language by reading the. The root of the decline lies in the. For some, there are more immediate matters like health care and housing to worry about while for others, language is central to healing our communities. Guest contributors:Amanda Pereira & Jillian Morgan, wintranslation. The federal government has a responsibility to provide sufficient funds for Aboriginal-language revitalization and preservation. Science, medicine, governments and resource planners all rely in part on Indigenous traditional knowledge and are all impacted when that irreplaceable storehouse of traditional environmental knowledge is gone. It’s about our history, it’s about our heritage, it’s about our way of life that our ancestors have fought and died for. Did you know, that during the debate on the Indigenous Languages Act, MP Romeo Saganash spoke Eastern Cree while a translator simultaneously translated? Here’s a short video on the discussion in 2018 about including Indigenous languages during House of Commons proceedings: Circling back to the advancement of the digital world having an impact on Indigenous languages, the digital world may also play an important role in saving languages. English) imposed by the colonizer as a more practical alternative, using the colonial language both to enhance inter-nation communication (e.g. Click the image to grab your copy. Indigenous traditional knowledge. setsusapartfrom!otherswho speak! Similarly, for language revival efforts to be successful, children need to feel that it is "their" indigenous language and that speaking the language makes them a member of an important and worthwhile group. Our free Guide to Terminology ebook includes explanations of 43 different terms in use today in building Indigenous relations. ii. Indigenous languages are struggling to survive. Reconciliation, When a language dies so does the link to the cultural and historical past. Happy reading! These individuals are responsible for passing down their knowledge and teaching their language to their people, a daunting task for anyone to undertake. While interned in the schools the children were forbidden to speak their home language and if they did they often were subjected to horrific forms of punishment. 2015; Web. With the number of Indigenous language speakers on the decline, some of these languages are on the verge of completely disappearing. Some argue for a distinction between language revival (the resurrection of a dead language with no existing native … Reviving their languages is the key to a decolonized future, where Indigenous societies maintain sovereignty and their cultures flourish. Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker, 50 to 90 per cent of them are predicted to disappear by the next century.” [1], As for Indigenous languages in Canada, some are thriving whereas others, such as Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca are on the brink of extinction. Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., provides information on this blog for free as a resource for those seeking information about Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Readers looking for more detailed information, or who have questions, can sign up for our fee-for-service training. desire to preserve the memory of the most meaningful achievements of their lives and to pass on the knowledge about their times The rest are classified as “vulnerable/unsafe.” [2]. This will impact all languages but those languages already endangered will be the most severely impacted as young people become fluent in the language of the internet and not their home language; the impact will be compounded through the following generations. Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., provides information on this blog for free as a resource for those seeking information about Indigenous Peoples in Canada. 2011). Language! For our second fund drive blog post I wanted to continue talking about the impact and importance of technology in language revitalization. [1] Study: Indigenous Languages and Selected Vitality Indicators, 2011. First page has apps available to help reclaim and revitalize 13 Indigenous languages. N.p., 27 Nov. 2015; Web. An important part of language revitalization is the language speakers themselves, for they are the ones who are responsible for their own linguistic renaissance and their language reaffirms their connection to each other, their land, and the country outside of their communities. Working Effectively With Indigenous Peoples®, Why continuity of Indigenous cultural identity is critical, When a Pandemic Threatens to Erase a Community’s Memory, Committee considers Indigenous language use on Parliament Hill, 'It's a very emotional experience': Indigenous millennials share their journey of language reclamation, Meet the N.S. According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger project, “three-quarters of Indigenous languages in Canada are “definitely,” “severely” or “critically” endangered. another language! Others see the language (e.g. That’s a first! 2017, [3] Indigenous Language Preservation & Revival, Creative Spirits. Another way to show why language is important to culture is to look at the vocabulary that a particular culture is using. , held in the language, is an invaluable source of information about the history of the natural environment, climate. N.p., 16 Oct. 2014; Web. Well, it’s not entirely due to the encroachment of the digital world. The traditional Ainu language, an isolate with a number of dialects, had been almost completely supplanted by Japanese by the early 21st century; a language-revitalization movement initiated formal instruction in Ainu in the 1980s. The. and! And when they had children of their own, they frequently did not teach or encourage them to speak their home language, in part because their fluency had been impacted, in part because they feared their children would suffer the same punishment, and in part because they believed their children needed fluency in the dominant language. A language also holds the stories, songs, dances, protocols, family histories and connections. These language revitalization projects help to restore this freedom and also strengthen the identity of First Nations people. In our previous post, Becca talked about a specific project with Hakha Chin (Laiholh). Language plays a significant role in the development of Indigenous culture. Revitalization and preservation of Indigenous languages has many positive effects for the survival of endangered languages and for the people who speak them. As accessibility to the digital world expands, so too will the spread of English as a second language. The calls to action included #14 for an Aboriginal languages act, and #15 is for an Aboriginal languages commissioner. Language and keyboard apps are being developed that help users learn common words and phrases. For example, the use of English as an international language can have wide-ranging implications for the world's societies. Community research and planning consists of establishing realistic goals and finding the most effective methods and strategies of reaching those goals. Are Indigenous Peoples supportive of the Act? Studies and research have proven that learning and having the ability to speak an Indigenous language improves self- esteem, lowers suicide rates, promotes academic success and strengthens the connection between Indigenous people and their culture. One of the key mandates of residential schools in Canada was to prevent their students from speaking their native language. Why the decline of Indigenous languages in Canada?Well, it’s not entirely due to the encroachment of the digital world. It is an irretrievable body of knowledge. For example, Hinton 2011 is just one of several chapters in Austin and Sallabank 2011 in which responses to language endangerment are discussed. 1.1 Situating Myself as a Researcher Without that crucial connection to their linguistic and cultural history, people lose their sense of identity and belonging. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(374848, '78222e95-067f-4dbf-b5ab-dcf30327c183', {}); Topics: So, what is currently being done to help Indigenous language thrive? What happens when an Indigenous language dies?Language is the foundation of a culture. Here’s the full call to action on language:Language and culture. This may include capacity-building efforts that focus on language sustainability and revitalization approaches, determining the linguistic situation of the community, and gathering other language resources. 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