Aboriginal leaders seek $2.6 billion (fwd)

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Aboriginal leaders seek $2.6 billion
First Nations languages are dying

CHARLES MANDEL, CanWest News Service
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f50b57a8-b43f-4ebf-b105-eaf943152c53

An Assembly of First Nations call yesterday for $2.6 billion over 11 years
to revitalize aboriginal languages resonated with Deborah Jacobs.

The 50-year-old educator and member of British Columbia's Squamish Nation is
minimally fluent in her own language.

But that's not surprising when out of the Squamish Nation's 3,600 people,
only 15 are still able to speak their native tongue.

The problem came into focus yesterday at the Assembly of First Nation's
annual meeting. The AFN seeks $2.6 billion over 11 years to follow through
on its National First Nations Language Strategy that would see the
languages back in common use by 2027.

"Our languages are the cornerstone of who we are as people," said Katherine
Whitecloud, a regional chief from Manitoba.

Whitecloud criticized the Conservative federal government for cutting $160
million in funding for aboriginal languages in 2006. In its place, Ottawa
made available $5 million per year for aboriginal languages, amounting to
$5 for each native in Canada to learn aboriginal languages, Whitecloud
said.

She blamed the decline partly on the residential school system, in which
aboriginal children were sent to live in the schools, where they were
abused for speaking their own languages.


© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007