****December 2010 Focus - Focus Magazine

..... editor’s letter
▲ ▲
The flash of human spirit
LESLIE CAMPBELL
Language is the vehicle by which
the soul of a culture comes into the world.
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This month’s feature on First Nations languages by Katherine
Gordon brought to mind an interview I conducted back in
2005 with cultural anthropologist Wade Davis.
He told me that when I was born, 6,000 languages were spoken in
the world, but since half of those aren’t being taught anymore, they
are effectively dying. “Within a generation or two,” said Davis, “half
of humanity’s intellectual, spiritual and social legacy will be lost.”
That’s because, as Davis so eloquently explained: “language is not
just vocabulary and grammar. It’s the flash of human spirit, it’s the
vehicle by which the soul of a culture comes into the world. Every
language is an old growth forest of the mind, a sort of watershed of
thought, an ecosystem of possibilities.”
Yes, Davis really talks like that, even without notes. That ability, along
with his ideas, earned him the prestigious task of delivering the Massey
Lectures last year. (He’s also a National Geographic Explorer-in-
Residence and the author of a dozen books.)
“Losing one’s language is the beginning of a slippery slope towards
assimilation and acculturation and, in some sense, annihilation,”
he told me.
Whether the aim of our forefathers, in fashioning the residential
school sytem, was assimilation or annihilation of First Nations culture,
I don’t know. But, as Katherine Gordon and her interview subjects
illustrate, the resulting loss of language—and hence vital culture—has
resulted in high rates of not completing high school, unemployment,
addiction, crime, and suicide.
In addition, because cultures are “unique expressions of the human
imagination,” as Davis puts it, when we lose them, we lose humanity’s
repertoire for dealing with the challenges that confront us.
Cultural diversity, carried by language, in other words, gives us more
scope, more ways to understand and solve our problems. Its benefits
run parallel to those of biodiversity: both provide us, in their separate
spheres, with a greater palette to draw from and hence greater
resiliency, vibrancy and strength.
“[I]f we have any loyalty to ourselves as a species,” said Davis, “how
could we possibly want to diminish the range of human responses to
the challenges of being alive”
LAST SUMMER, ON A VISIT TO ALERT BAY, I was able to witness
firsthand the growing movement among BC’s First Nations to keep
their languages alive. David and I serendipitously attended an event at
the local T’lisala’gilakw School celebrating the children’s learning of
Editor: Leslie Campbell Publisher: David Broadland
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4 December 2010 • FOCUS