What is the status of BC First nations languages? - First Peoples

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Why is it important to act now for B.C. First Nations languages?KnowledgeEach language encompasses immense cultural,historical, scientific, and ecological knowledge. Thisknowledge is vital not only for the language communitiesthemselves, but also for the sum of all humanknowledge.With the loss of B.C.’s languages, communitieslose vital knowledge of sustainability, biodiversity,survival techniques, food preparation and preservation,and interactions with others, the land and theanimals. They lose their methods of survival andthe specific and intricate knowledge to continuetheir traditional ways of life, which is an accumulationof generations of interactions and connectingwith the land and nature for survival.The knowledge contained in each language greatlycontributes to all human knowledge. A languagemay be the key to answering fundamental questionsin humanities and in sciences. For example,linguistic theories depend on examples from a greatnumber of languages: Every time a language dies,there is less evidence to understand the patterns,structure and function of human language, cognitionand language acquisition and transmission. 4Environmental, medical, biological, chemical, andastronomical sciences also have a lot to gain fromindigenous languages. For example, at least oneB.C. First Nations language has always had twodistinct names for a type of salmon that scientistsclassified as a single species. It was not until thescientists carried out DNA testing that they realizedthey were two distinct types of salmon, whichthe First Nations people had known all along. Thisis just one of many similar examples. As NationalGeographic points out, “eighty percent of specieshave been undiscovered by science, but thatdoesn’t mean they’re unknown to humans, becausethe people who live in those ecosystems know thespecies [and how they are interrelated and coexist]intimately and they often have more sophisticatedways of classifying them than science does.” 54Bernard, R. Endangered Languages and Publishing (University of Florida, 2001). http://www.akha.org/content/language/endangeredlanguagesandpublishing.html (January2010); Ken Hale, “On Endangered Languages and the Importance of Linguistic Diversity.In Grenoble”, Lenore and Lindsay J. Whaley (Eds.), Endangered Languages, p 192 - 216(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998).5Lovgren, S. “Languages Racing to Extinction in 5 Global “Hotspots,”” (NationalGeographic News, September 18, 2007), http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070918-languages-extinct.html (January 2010).“Our language is our very way of life. Without it we have no tradition,no culture… it means everything to us.”Daisy Sewid-Smith, Kwak’wala Speaker8Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages
Why are we losing languages in B.C. ?As we outline in this report, all B.C. First Nations languages are in a state of critical endangerment.How did this happen?Causes of Language LossThe dramatic loss of fluent speakers beganwith colonization and the Canadian Government’shistoric policies to assimilate FirstNations people into English-speaking, non-FirstNations society.These policies began with the Royal Proclamationof 1763 which allowed the Crown to take over FirstNations land through treaty, and continued with furtrading, gold mining and forestry. In 1857 the Act toEncourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribesin this Province, and to Amend the Laws Relatingto Indians (commonly known as the Gradual CivilizationAct) was instated. The assimilation policiescontinued with the British North America Act in1867 and the Indian Act in 1876 which excludedFirst Nations people from any decision-makingprocesses. Other oppressive strategies such asanti-potlatch policies, Canada’s residential schoolsystem, and brutally punishable “English-only policies”followed. 6A major cause of First Nations language loss in B.C.is the church-run residential (boarding) schoolsthat began operating in Canada as early as the1840s. Government-mandated residential schools,run mainly by the Catholic, Anglican and Unitedchurches, operated in B.C. from the 1880s to the1990s. When attendance became compulsory, childrencould be forcibly removed from their families6B.C. Teachers’ Federation, First Nations Historical Timeline, http://bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=5678(February 2010).by police or Indian agents and taken to live in theschools, often on a year-round basis. The speakingof First Nations languages was strictly bannedwithin the schools, and was enforced by often brutalmeans of physical and emotional punishment.Because children were removed from the homeenvironment where languages were spoken, andwere unable to use their languages in the schoolsetting, many of them lost their languages completely,a loss which was passed on to subsequentgenerations.The residential school system (followed by theIndian day school system) along with simultaneousoppressive strategies of assimilation caused a vastand devastating interruption in the intergenerationaltransmission of First Nations languages as amother tongue. First Nations people who had beenraised at home in their First Nations languagesas children were trained, forced and shamed intoabandoning their languages at residential schools.Even when they were released from the schools,many could not go back to speaking their languagesor pass the languages on to their childrenbecause of residual shame and trauma.The Canadian government’s school system (residentialschools to present day public schools) didnot just interrupt the transmission of B.C. First Nationslanguages for one generation. Many residentialschool survivors, their children, grandchildrenand great-grandchildren still feel the effects of theloss of their traditional First Nations languages.First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council 9
Page 2 and 3: The First Peoples’ Heritage, Lang
Page 5 and 6: Language Resources• Only about 31
Page 7: Why is it important to act now for
Page 11 and 12: Decline of Fluent SpeakersAll First
Page 13 and 14: Table 1: First Peoples’ Council F
Page 15 and 16: They never taught it to my dadUsage
Page 17 and 18: Table 2: Snapshot of the Status of
Page 19 and 20: Age of SpeakersOf the 170 communiti
Page 21 and 22: • University of Victoria: SENĆO
Page 23 and 24: Table 4: Measures of EndangermentB.
Page 25 and 26: • Many speakers and learners are
Page 27 and 28: What are some communities doing to
Page 29 and 30: Case Study 2: Sto:lo Halq’emeylem
Page 31 and 32: The Chief Atahm School is a model o
Page 33 and 34: How can we revitalize B.C. First Na
Page 35 and 36: Goal SettingBased on their needs an
Page 37 and 38: What’s next for B.C. First Nation
Page 39 and 40: tween communities sharing a languag
Page 41 and 42: Coast Salish LanguagesShe shashisha
Page 43 and 44: Tsimshianic LanguagesSm̓algya̱x S
Page 45 and 46: Table 12 : Communities and Populati
Page 47 and 48: Table 16 : Language Education for D
Page 49 and 50: Table 19 : Language Education for I
Page 51 and 52: Nuxalk LanguageTable 24 : Communiti
Page 53 and 54: Xaad Kil LanguagesX̱aad Kil / X̱a
Page 55 and 56: Language Authority and Language Pla
Page 57 and 58: APPENDIX CLanguage Needs Assessment
Page 59 and 60:
7) Immersion Class: Do you have imm
Page 61 and 62:
Appendix D First Peoples’ Heritag
Page 63 and 64:
First Peoples’ Language Mapof Bri
show all

What is the status of BC First nations languages? - First Peoples

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?