The Race to Preserve a Dying Language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

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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