Fund targets fading aboriginal languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Fund targets fading aboriginal languages

By Tom Fletcher Black Press
Jun 24 2007
http://www.tricitynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=74&cat=23&id=1012374&more=0

VICTORIA – The B.C. government is dedicating an additional $400,000 towards
the preservation of the province’s more than 30 aboriginal languages.

The latest fund is in addition to a $1 million expenditure announced by the
province last year, said B.C.. Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong,
who helped paddle a canoe into Victoria’s downtown harbour to make the
announcement Thursday.

A total of $1.2 million was committed to increase the program, aimed at
keeping traditional languages from disappearing from everyday use.

It will fund language and culture camps, master-apprentice programs for
elders and younger people, pre-school language and cultural immersion
programs and community language and culture authorities.

The largest partner in the latest funding is the New Relationship Trust,
with a $500,000 contribution.

It’s the first major investment for the trust, established last year with a
$100 million endowment from the provincial government and an appointed
board of directors with majority aboriginal membership.

Elaborate ceremonies for Thursday’s announcement coincided with National
Aboriginal Day, and demonstrated the high priority placed on native affairs
by the B.C. government this year.

With votes set for July on the first two agreements from the B.C. Treaty
Commission, with the Tsawwassen and Maa-Nulth First Nations, and dozens of
other treaty tables looking for results, Premier Gordon Campbell’s
government is looking for tangible progress to show for its effort and
expense to settle historic disputes.

Loss of language is one of the bitterest legacies of the Canadian aboriginal
history. Residential schools were established to break the ties of
aboriginal children with their language and culture, and now government’s
efforts are focused on trying to reverse that before the cultures are lost.

Monique Gray Smith, executive director of the Aboriginal Head Start
Association of B.C., said language and cultural training is a key part of
both its urban and on-reserve education programs.

In addition to treaty discussions, the federal and provincial governments
are trying to settle a backlog of specific claims, some arising out of
historic treaties and others from legal actions.

De Jong confirmed that negotiations with the Musqueam First Nation in
Vancouver may involve the University Golf Club, part of a disputed property
sale from the province to the University of B.C. in 2003.

The Musqueam claim ownership of the Point Grey territory around the
university, and the 120-acre golf course is one of the only undeveloped
parcels left that could form part of a settlement.