****December 2010 Focus - Focus Magazine

PHOTO: DAVID BROADLAND
Kwak’wala language teacher Donna Cranmer holds flash cards and
students of T’lisala’gilakw School demonstrate their language skills.
Pure
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Don’t forget, bring a friend!
the Kwak’wala language, that of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations.
We plunked ourselves down in the beautiful school gym amidst proud
parents, aunties, uncles and teachers, and watched with delight as children
were flashed cards with pictures on them; they had to come up
with the Kwak’wala word for the object pictured. At one point the
teachers, Pewi Alfred and Donna Cranmer, showed us a chart with
pictures of close to 400 people who had joined the “Kwak’wala Challenge”
by each logging an hour of speaking their language.
My experience in Alert Bay, and Katherine’s in other First Nation
communities, are cause for some optimism. Still, time is of the essence:
of the five percent of First Nations people in the province who remain
fluent in BC’s 32 indigenous languages, most are over 65.
Wade Davis told me the way to rejuvenate a language is to write it
down: “The art of codifying these languages is not that expensive.” As
you’ll read in our feature report, codification and language revitalization
are happening in BC, but government funding is exceedingly low.
Canada tried—with much success—to extinguish native languages
in the past, but now we have a chance and an obligation to right that
wrong, by supporting First Nations’ efforts to regain their languages—
and urging our government to do likewise.
As Wade Davis says: “True peace and security for the 21st century
will only come about when we find a way to address the underlying
issues of disparity, dislocation and dispossession that have provoked
the madness of our age. What we desperately need is a global acknowledgement
of the fact that no people and no nation can truly prosper
unless the bounty of our collective ingenuity and opportunities are
available and accessible to all.”
Editor Leslie Campbell wishes all Focus
readers a holiday season full of peace, joy
and the nurturing of children and cultural
traditions.
Come visit us at 1037 Fort Street 480-5183
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Showroom: 10134H McDonald Park Rd, Sidney
www.oakwoodkitchens.ca 250-516-7351
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