Saving the languages of 'our heritage' (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

POSTED ON 01/04/06
ENDANGERED TONGUES
Saving the languages of 'our heritage' 
Premier dedicates $1-million to augment efforts with programs and technology
ROD MICKLEBURGH
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060401.BCLANGUAGE01/TPStory/National
VANCOUVER -- In the beginning, as cousins born less than a year apart on the
Squamish native reserve,
Barbara Charlie and Addie Kermeen shared almost everything.
But early on, their young lives took a different turn, and years later, despite
their closeness, the two native elders remain separated by language.
Ms. Charlie, like thousands of other aboriginal children, was sent to a
residential school. There, she lost the ability to speak the Coast Salish
language she knew as a preschooler.
Ms. Kermeen, on the other hand, was spared residential school because she had
tuberculosis. Kept close to home, she did not speak English until she was 12.
Today, Ms. Kermeen, 70, is one of only eight or nine members of the Squamish
Nation still fluent in their original tongue.
As speakers of Canada's aboriginal languages grow older, particularly those
fluent in more obscure dialects, a desperate campaign has begun in recent years
to prevent these endangered languages from dying out.
With 32 of the country's 53 indigenous languages, British Columbia is in the
forefront of the struggle, and yesterday, Premier Gordon Campbell announced a
grant of $1-million to aid the cause.
Speaking to more than 130 aboriginal community leaders at the fourth annual
First Citizens' Forum, Mr. Campbell said five of the province's existing 32
aboriginal languages are already effectively extinct.
"There is nobody left who can speak them fluently," he said. "Six more
languages are on the verge of being spoken no more."
In a rare burst of eloquence, Mr. Campbell said the many languages spoken by
the first nations are a vital part of the province's past.
"Our heritage is not just tied to the past two centuries. It is tied to
thousands of years of stories, reaching back into time immemorial when
languages we now seek to protect echoed from the trees and the mountains and
the valleys of this province," he said.
"If we lose these languages, we lose a part of British Columbia's heritage, and
we lose a piece of ourselves."
The $1-million will be used to augment existing efforts to save dying languages
through immersion programs and voice technology.
The languages that exist today barely survived the decades of assimilation
imposed on native children by residential schools during most of the 20th
century.
The schools forbade students from talking to each other in their native
language, at risk of severe punishment.
"They outlawed our language, our songs, our dances," lamented Ms. Charlie. 
"My mother and father never spoke English, so I can still understand the
language.
"But for myself, I have forgotten how to say most of the words. It makes me
feel bad."
Chief Doug Kelly from the Soowahlie Indian Reserve near Cultus Lake in the
Fraser Valley said his father, who spoke Salish, had such a terrible experience
at his residential school that he refused to teach his children the language.
"So I haven't learned it. I only recognize a few words."
In recent years, however, traditional aboriginal languages are increasingly
part of the curriculum in native-run schools.
Ms. Kermeen recounted how shocked she was the other day when her eight-year-old
grandson came home from school and told her something in Salish.
"I asked him: 'Do you know what you're saying?' And he told me: 'I'm saying
it's a good day today.' It made me very happy."
At the First Citizens' Forum, hereditary Nuu-Chah-Nulth chief Shawn Atleo
welcomed Mr. Campbell's announcement.
"This is a chance to renew our commitment to preserve the words I sang as a
child and understood fluently back then," Mr. Atleo said.
The Chief recalled what his grandfather used to tell him when they were out
fishing.
"He would have tears rolling down his cheeks and he would always tell me: 'You
can't let it go.' He was talking about our language, our songs and our
expressions. 'You can't let it go.'
"Through the language, our people were prepared for life. My father remembered,
too, what my grandfather told him. He said: 'There was always a genius among our
people.' "
© Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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