Local woman helping to save endangered language
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Columbia Valley Pioneer
A Kelowna woman is learning and helping to save a critically endangered Indigenous language.
With a handful of living Ktunaxa speakers, Martina Escutin has been making an effort to learn the language of her ancestors and share her knowledge with the Akisqnuk First Nation community through a social media platform on Instagram.
Escutin has been studying aspects of the Ktunaxa language with her family since childhood.
Now, as an adult, Escutin is focused on gaining proficiency in Ktunaxa to pass along her culture and language with others — including her immediate family.
“It’s really difficult for our elders to pass on traditional languages because they were punished for speaking it in residential schools,” Escutin explained, emphasizing that language learning has been put on hold in the community for a long time, while families cope with intergenerational trauma.
The 26-year-old is a member of the Ktunaxa Nation and she has mixed settler ancestry. The Ktunaxa’s traditional territory covers approximately 70,000 square kilometres in the Kootenay region.
Since 2014, she has lived in Kelowna with her husband and their daughter after completing a Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of B.C. in Vancouver.
Escutin currently works for the Okanagan Nation Alliance in Kelowna’s child welfare program.
During her studies at UBC, Escutin completed a course with Hawaiian professor Candace Kaleimamoowahinekapu Galla. Course content included information about how best to access heritage resources in endangered First Nation language revitalization efforts, while exploring how to acquire, develop, curate, preserve and honour First Nation languages and cultures.
“When you look at endangered languages, the resources decrease significantly, whether it’s textbooks, language speakers or (historical) archives,” said Galla. “I shared in the class, we don’t have to have all the knowledge right now. It’s part of the learning journey.
“In many situations, language learners are the teachers at the same time. Sometimes the teachers are just one step ahead of their students, but it’s a way of staying on top of their learning and ensuring there’s always more for students, and I think it’s also to showcase that whatever resources you have available, whether it’s one word, a greeting or a phrase — it’s the right place to start. You don’t have to wait until you have 200 words to start teaching. You can start wherever you are.”
Galla’s course helped Escutin foster the idea that fluency is not required to share language learnings with others, especially when a language is critically endangered like her community’s Ktunaxa language.
Escutin’s created the @Ktunaxa.learning.lady profile on Instagram about a year ago after attending Galla’s course.
“We were exposed to language revitalization through different forms of arts (such as) puppetry and social media,”
Escutin explained. “There was a girl from California who talked about using her social media platform to revitalize her language, and that’s where I got the inspiration to start my Instagram page.”
The challenges of working in the Okanagan, outside of her home nation, has limited the amount of time Escutin devotes to learning the traditional Ktunaxa language.
“Because I’m working for another nation, not my own, I’m not putting my time into learning my own language and culture, so I’m constantly feeling anxiety about this,” said Escutin, voicing concerns about work-life balance.
“On top of the 40-hour work week, I have a three-year-old daughter, but it’s really hard to study the language and teach her without the time. I’m hoping that will change when things settle down for me.
“I just want to create a little bit of easy content to be sure other language learners could benefit with it.”