Dying Language

[Andre Cramblit]

The Race to Preserve a Dying Language

Tb News Source
Web Posted: 3/24/2006 4:20:32 PM
http://www.tbsource.com/Localnews/index.asp?cid=81531

There are fewer than 1,000 speakers of Michif in the world, and many  
of them are dying faster than their words can be recorded.

Delegates from across Canada came to the Métis Nation of Ontario’s  
fifth National Michif Language conference in Thunder Bay last  
weekend, where Métis leaders, speakers and cultural preservationists  
gathered to celebrate their language and talk about strategies for  
saving it.

Métis people across Canada have been struggling to protect their  
Michif language for years, and as the sun sets on the federal  
government’s multi-million dollar Aboriginal Languages Initiative,  
the pressure was on to move faster. The program provides funding and  
support to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to save dying  
languages.

“We all expected (the program) to continue, and now it’s uncertain,”  
said Bruce Dumont, the Métis Nation minister of culture and heritage.  
“It’s fitting that we’re hosting this conference in Thunder Bay,  
because this area served as a rendezvous place, or a crossroads for  
our forefathers. We too are at a crossroads with a new government  
that is far from clear in their stance (on Aboriginal language  
preservation).”

On March 31 the Aboriginal Languages Initiative ends. Allan Clarke,  
director of Aboriginal Affairs for Canadian Heritage said the only  
decision that will be made at that time will be whether or not to  
renew the program. He said they’re very hopeful that will happen, but  
if so there will be many changes.

“One program can’t be the only thing we have,” he said. “So far not  
enough attention has been placed on results. We’re going to take  
steps towards moving money quicker…and being more reasonable about  
controls that we put on the funding. We have to be more flexible and  
responsive but maintain accountability. That didn’t happen with the  
ALI, but it can now.”

He said they’re looking at the next generation of programming as more  
distinctive between its three major nation groups: First Nations,  
Inuit and Métis. Programming and funding would be tailored to  
specific needs rather than a “one-size-fits-all” policy.

For the Métis Nation, that means finding more ways to teach the  
complicated language to their people and the world. Michif is a blend  
of French and Cree, with many regional dialects remaining different  
from one another. Besides a lack of syntactical consistency, few  
Michif speakers know both Cree and French. Without standardization,  
the language is difficult to explain and even harder to learn.

France Picotte of the Métis Nation of Ontario said she remembered  
being a little girl and speaking what she was told was “bastard French.”

“Most people speaking it didn’t even realize it was its own  
language,” she said. “They assumed many of the words were very old  
French, when in fact they were very old Cree.”

Métis Nation of Ontario project coordinator Carey Calder said the  
reality of the rapid decline of speakers is one that shocks them at  
times.

“For example, we had the idea of having a Michif translator here to  
translate everything through earpieces, and realized that just wasn’t  
possible,” she said.

Calder, who is originally from Thunder Bay, doesn’t speak Michif but  
said she’d love to learn. She explained that growing up her family,  
like many others, downplayed their Métis heritage.

“They’d say, well you don’t even look Aboriginal, so you don’t even  
have to tell anybody,” she said. “It wasn’t maybe until the last 15  
years that we really started to be proud to be Métis.”

Thunder Bay has a large Métis population due to the area’s thriving  
fur trade posts of the 18th and early 19th centuries. French fur  
traders married local Aboriginal women and created a culture of  
people who struggled with identity since the days of Louis Riel.  
Often lumped into cultural and language categories with their sister  
First Nations, the Métis Nation has lately been stepping up their  
cultural preservation tactics.

Technology has helped; CD-ROMs and interactive websites teach Michif  
to youngsters and a 24 hour Web radio station plays Métis music and  
language all over the world.

Metis Nation of Ontario president Tony Balcourt said even if they  
don’t get the government support they need, there’s no reason to stop  
trying.

“Even if we just use tape recorders to record elders speaking, that  
costs us next to nothing,” he told the crowd. “So let’s just get out  
there and do it, not just talk about it.”

The House returns the first week of April, and Clarke is hoping  
Canadian Heritage Minister Beverley Oda, originally from Thunder Bay,  
will have good news.
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