INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES ARE A FADING TREASURE
Country finds itself on a precipice of losing them forever, writes Ry Moran.
The line, “Phillips is the last fluent speaker of Upriver Halkomelem,” in Tuesday’s Vancouver Sun article about Elizabeth Phillips strikes at the heart of one of our country’s greatest failures — the continued loss and erosion of indigenous languages across Canada.
For years now, we as a country have heard the calls for the need to preserve indigenous languages before it is too late, yet still we find ourselves standing at the precipice.
Documenting indigenous languages is work that I did years before I joined the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sadly, I too have recorded the last speaker of a language. While the words we put into digital form endure, recording remains a far cry from what a living, thriving language looks like.
We, as a society, need to realize that indigenous languages are national treasures — keys to understanding the land and cultures that have existed here for thousands upon thousands of years. If they are lost here in Canada, they are lost forever; they do not exist anywhere else in the world.
The loss of these languages is a direct result of the residential schools where children were forbidden to speak the languages of their parents, grandparents and ancestors.
This attack on languages was a cornerstone of the overall attempt to eliminate indigenous cultures from Canada.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission affirmed that preservation of indigenous languages is critical in the process of moving toward reconciliation. The Commission called for the recognition that aboriginal rights include language rights and that there is a great urgency to preserve these languages. The Commission also recognized that past actions have fallen woefully short and call for the creation of an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner that will oversee and report on the status of preservation and revitalization efforts. Without these bold measures, the fear is that attempts to preserve languages will continue to be ad hoc and indigenous languages will continue to disappear.
Reconciliation cannot be achieved until the pages of our newspapers no longer report on “the last speaker” of any indigenous language. What we need are headlines celebrating the renewed revitalization of indigenous languages, of increased understanding of these languages by non-indigenous Canadians and of significant steps forward to not just preserve, but of breathing life into these languages.
But to achieve these headlines, we need a country that realizes we are collectively richer when we understand our national identity not just in terms of two official languages, but as a country full of rich languages that have existed here long before Canada was even dreamed of.
And just as the creation of Canada was once dreamed of, we too can dare to dream of a new Canada; a Canada different than the one we know at present.
I dream of a day where indigenous languages are protected and honoured, where indigenous peoples have the right and ability to speak in their own language in our national institutions of decision making; where there are interpreters ready and able to bring their voices forward with truth and meaning. I dream of a day where young indigenous people see learning their language as a sustainable career path that leads to meaningful employment as an indigenous interpreter for public events, hearings, parliamentary process and official reports.
I dream of a day when Canadians are afforded the opportunity to understand the richness of meaning embedded within these old and wise languages; a day where we move beyond unilingualism or bilingualism towards a society that has the ability to understand many languages.
But we are a long ways from that.
First, the languages need to be rekindled, they need to be relearned. We need to move from silence to voice. Then the languages will need to be shared. This will take time and trust.
Rebuilding these languages is a collective effort and until Canadians begin to truly value the richness that we have here in Canada, I fear that the headlines of the “last speaker” will continue.
Joni Mitchell famously sang that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Sadly, I think most Canadians still don’t appreciate what we have and what we are at risk of losing.