When I heard my grandparents’ Indigenous language on the radio, it felt like home. I had to learn it, too. Here’s what got in the way
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It’s been nine years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made 94 Calls to Action urging all levels of Canadian government to address the ongoing impact of residential schools. Progress has stalled. We asked three Indigenous writers how Canada can move the dial in the next year.
I never believed in blood memory until my cousin turned on the radio, on our drive north from kistapinanihk to mistahi sakihanihk. I was 21. My stomach was filled with knots as I stared out the window. I had never been in the province of Saskatchewan, and everything seemed unfamiliar.
My cousin was accompanying me to go meet nohkom, my grandmother, and many of my paternal family for the first time. She changed the radio station to Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation. There was something about hearing my language nīhithawīwin (Woodland Cree) on the radio that eased my nerves. I did not understand what was being said, but something about it felt familiar, felt like home.
I am now 28. Four years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, I relocated to my traditional territory in northern Saskatchewan. I am a passionate second-language learner of my Indigenous language, a current master’s student conducting research on and writing grants for Indigenous language revitalization and a Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) community member.
I long to be able to converse with nohkom and nimosom (grandfather).
Today, I do not speak my Indigenous language fluently because of ongoing settler colonialism in Canada. Due to the intergenerational impacts of the residential school system and my father being taken through the ‘60s Scoop, I did not grow up with any access to my paternal family, community, my traditional territory nor my Indigenous language: nīhithawīwin.
This outcome is sadly not an individual experience, nor is it accidental. The majority of Indigenous peoples in Canada do not grow up immersed in their languages — not only because of the paternalistic discriminatory policies like the residential school system, but also because of the systemic ways Canadian society continues to enforce assimilation.
Canada has constructed a national myth that it is a benevolent multicultural nation, without acknowledging that its prosperity is dependent on the continued genocide of Indigenous peoples. An amnesia continues to grip the nation despite Indigenous peoples sharing the truth. Our truth, too often, continues to be denied. Reconciliation, without efforts to change the broader Canadian society’s attitude and without adequate accessible funding and action, perpetuates that myth.
On the Government of Canada’s website, it states that Calls to Action numbers 13 to 15 are “now completed.” However, as many Indigenous language advocates have said, a substantial gap remains between what is espoused in the Indigenous Languages Act and the actual funding provided to meaningfully “support the efforts of Indigenous peoples to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen their languages.”
This is seen clearly in the amount of funds allocated to Indigenous language revitalization efforts.
In 2019, the federal budget allotted $333.7 million over five years and $115.7 million per year afterward. In 2021, they provided an additional $275 million over five years and $2 million thereafter.
After two years with no additional funds, the 2024 budget allocated $225 million to Indigenous languages over five years.
This might seem like an enormous amount, however the truth is in the comparison. Last year, the Assembly of First Nations highlighted that the 2023 federal budget set aside “$4.1 billion over the next five years” for official languages: English and French.
There are only two official languages contrasted with more than 70 Indigenous languages, not counting subdialects. If split equally, that would mean $410 million per “official” language per year compared to less than $2 million per Indigenous language annually.
Unlike Canada’s two official languages, losing an Indigenous language means we have nowhere else in the world to retain it, something I am urgently reminded of by local nīhithaw Elders.
To revitalize an Indigenous language, you need to revive the intergenerational transmission disrupted and halted by residential schools, the ‘60s Scoop and the continued overrepresentation of Indigenous children in foster care.
Immersion schools have the best chance of producing young speakers. But again, the funds devoted to French Immersion programs, according to a 2014 report, greatly surpass those for Indigenous languages. Even still, children learning languages in schools will not be enough as language loss and the trauma from residential school spans generations. We need funds to create language resources, employ community members and support language acquisition on a wider scale. We need a lot more than what is currently being allocated in the federal budget.
Within the next year, I hope the federal government truly considers Indigenous organizations that have long researched funding shortcomings. I hope that provincial and territorial governments will pick up the financial slack and push reconciliation further.
I hope non-Indigenous Canadians will educate themselves on the true history and continued reality, to unlearn stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous peoples, and join hands with us as we continue to seek justice.
Despite the pivotal role the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has played in unraveling the injustices that were done in the residential school era, we are far from reaching reconciliation. The chapter is not closed, and colonialism is still alive and well in Canada. As of right now, the government might say these are “completed” on their website, but talk is cheap. The true intention of those Calls to Actions have not been achieved. For those Indigenous languages that still have fluent speakers alive, we are losing mother-tongue speakers daily.
Calls to Action No. 13, 14 and 15
13. We call upon the federal government to acknowledge that Aboriginal rights include Aboriginal language rights.
14. We call upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that incorporates the following principles:
- Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.
- Aboriginal language rights are reinforced by the Treaties.
- The federal government has a responsibility to provide sufficient funds for Aboriginal-language revitalization and preservation.
- The preservation, revitalization, and strengthening of Aboriginal languages and cultures are best managed by Aboriginal people and communities.
- Funding for Aboriginal language initiatives must reflect the diversity of Aboriginal languages.
15. We call upon the federal government to appoint, in consultation with Aboriginal groups, an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner. The commissioner should help promote Aboriginal languages and report on the adequacy of federal funding of Aboriginal-languages initiatives.
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Language is culture, destroy the language and you destroy the culture ... this was made possible by the european penchant for calling natives savages and the proselytizers lapped it up.
Crazy how few americans speak the language or even live in a culture that even remotely resembles how their ancestors lived a few hundred years ago.
It's almost like change happens over generations to everyone.
My dad’s parents arrived through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s. He and his brothers and sisters spoke a little Slovak but not much. When we would ask my grandparents to teach us Slovak they refused. Saying, we are in America now and we speak American. That is word for word.
A big difference between immigrants then and now. They were proud to be legal American immigrants and refused government help whenever possible..
All to the good, however, native americans discussed in this article are not immigrants.
My comment was in response to 1.1. I’m sure my friend to the north will now agree that it really is ALL to the good now that full comprehension is achieved …..
Comprehend this, as with squirrels neither was impressive.
Opinions do vary.
Yours have become indubitably predictable.
Yet the truth does not.
Your usual hive minded drone nonsense........
Ah, if only I could compete with such 'inspiring' insight.
'Opinions do vary.
As is this response
No problem. Maybe you’ll get it one of these days
"The federal government has a responsibility to provide sufficient funds for Aboriginal-language revitalization and preservation."
Why? Can't the tribes do this with their own resources?
Should the US government have the taxpayers support all the Native American language and customs?
No..............
Many do put their own resources into it and in addition gov't funding that is mandated by treaties signed by both parties. You know, what SCOTUS calls the highest law in the land. The government spent hundreds of millions destroying the culture and language so fricking complaining about funding to correct their crime is what whiners do that have no fricking knowledge of the subject.
See 1.2.2 and educate yourself.
The goal of colonization was to destroy the culture and attacking that language is the way. It was/is the same in the US.
The upside in the US is that many of the tribes have started their own schools and the tribal language is a mandatory class.
In Michigan, Casino’s have been a game changer for the Tribes that have them. Not all good news but they have been net positive for the tribes in my area. They have done a lot of good.
That's a good thing and the way it should be done.
See 1.2.2 and educate yourself