Revival

[Andre Cramblit]

New program seeks to revitalize aboriginal languages

http://communications.uvic.ca/ring/04feb04/features/aborginal-language.html

by Patty Pitts

As a child attending the Duncan Indian School, Hul'qumi'num linguistic
consultant Ruby Peter would sit on the swings and secretly spin tales.
"I used to tell the younger kids Indian stories in my language. But we
had to keep a look out for the teachers. If they caught me speaking
Indian, I'd be punished."

Peter no longer has to hide her pride in her language and, thanks to a
new Community University Research Alliance (CURA) partnership with
UVic, she'll join other members of the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group
(representing six communities), the First People's Cultural Foundation
(FPCF), the First Peoples' Heritage language and Culture Council and
the Saanich Native Heritage Society (representing seven communities) in
studying and revitalizing their native languages.

The five-year, $901,720 CURA grant, funded through the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council, will link UVic researchers with First
Nations community members and elders. Together, they'll create new
programs, evaluate current ones and set up systems to keep the
revitalized languages thriving in the future.

"This CURA responds to a passionate need and desire on behalf of the
communities to help their languages live again," says linguist Dr. Ewa
Czaykowska-Higgins, the project's lead researcher. "The researchers
will be directed by the communities. The CURA will assess the community
needs and determine how all the partners can best work together."

All the First Nations partners have various projects underway.
Collaborating with UVic linguists and others, the Hul'qumi'num have
developed a dictionary and a written system for their oral language.
The Saanich Native Heritage Society, with assistance from the FPCF, is
ready to have the Saanich language, SENÇOÏEN, available online as part
of the Foundation's First Voices project.

The researchers and partners will use the CURA to co-ordinate existing
community projects and identify opportunities for new programs. Some of
the proposals being considered include language camps, language fairs
and mentoring programs involving elders.

"I'm looking forward to being able to work with UVic linguistic experts
along with our own SENÇOÏEN experts to be able to complete some of the
work we started here on the grammar of SENÇOÏEN," says John Elliott, a
teacher at the Saanich Tribal School and chairman of the Saanich Native
Heritage Society.

In addition to making the Saanich language available online, the society
is developing a dictionary and refining a curriculum guide. Some of the
first children taught SENÇOÏEN at the school are now young parents,
teaching the language to their own youngsters.

Hul'qumi'num elder and language teacher Florence James of the Penelakut
Tribe hopes the project will expand opportunities to teach adults their
own history in their own language. "Part of my work is to introduce the
oral history, the way we learned when we were kids. This is what the
students really enjoy. Most don't learn their history in the
traditional way and then the chance to pass it along to their children
is lost."

Czaykowska-Higgins says the CURA project will revitalize more than
words. "Language is tied to culture. You can't separate the two. When a
language thrives, so does the culture."