Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
Despite nearly half a millennium of attempts to erase them, Indigenous languages have not disappeared. As the recently released federal census shows, more than 70 Indigenous languages are in use in Canada today.[1]
On October 25, Statistics Canada released a census in brief which reported that “in 2016, 260,550 Aboriginal people [including First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples] reported being able to speak an Aboriginal language well enough to conduct a conversation.”[2] Notably, the census tracks a 3% increase since 2006 in the number of people who can speak an Indigenous language.[3] This is in stark contrast to statistics from earlier studies estimating usage and ability declines ranging from 30-80% through the 1950s-1980s.[4]
As discussed in an earlier post, children in residential schools were punished for speaking their first languages. Taking away the children’s languages was not merely a means of taking away their identity; government officials knew that “languages are the basic media for the transmission and survival of Aboriginal consciousness, cultures, literatures, histories, religions, political institutions, and values.”[4] Accordingly, the elimination of Indigenous languages was a core component of the colonial project.
Residential schools were not the only educational facilities where Indigenous languages were targeted. Even today, the process of education in Canada still contributes to the erosion of Indigenous languages in many ways. However, universities are no longer “simply the colonizing site of academic exploitation. They are increasingly sites of cultural recovery.”[5]
At the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies, Faculty of Education, and Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute, Indigenous languages are being taught and learned with great success. Initiatives like Alexander First Nation’s weekly Cree classes are also popular sites for revitalization
These successes are reflected in the fact that the census found the Indigenous language family with the most speakers was Algonquian, at 175,825.[6] The most reported languages under this umbrella were Cree varieties, Ojibway, and Oji-Cree,[7] all of which are languages linked to Indigenous peoples from the Treaty 6 territory.
Although the threat of language loss is real, the census shows that efforts being made by individuals and communities, both in the university and outside of it, are working. Indigenous languages, and all that they contain, are a valuable resource that we predict will only grow in social, cultural, legal, and political importance from this point forward.
Until next time,
Team ReconciliAction YEG
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[1] Statistics Canada, “The Aboriginal languages of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit” Census of Population, 2016 (Released October 25 2017), online: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016022/98-200-x2016022-eng.cfm [Census 2016] at 1.
[2] Ibid, at 1.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Konstantin Prodanovic, “The Silent Genocide: Aboriginal Language Loss FAQ” (October 16, 2013), online: http://www.terry.ubc.ca/2013/10/16/the-silent-genocide-aboriginal-language-loss-faq/.
[4] Marie Battiste, “Maintaining Aboriginal Identity, Language and Culture in Modern Society” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed Marie Battiste (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009) at 199.
[5] Daniel Heath Justice, “Renewing the Fire: Toward the Liberation of English Studies” (2003) ESC 29.1-2 at 51.
[6] Census 2016, supra note 1 at 3.
[7] Ibid.
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