Keeping Aboriginal Languages Alive: Passing on Squamish to the Next Generation (fwd link)

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Keeping Aboriginal Languages Alive: Passing on Squamish to the Next Generation

By KEVIN GRIFFIN 21 JUN 2011 COMMENTS(0) CULTURE SEEN

At Capilano Little Ones School, it’s a special day. Squamish elders
have arrived for Elders Day, a program started two years ago to help
pass on the Squamish language from the oldest generation to the
youngest.

The focus of all the activity was in the big common room by the front
entrance in the school which is designed in the style of a traditional
Squamish longhouse. Groups of three to five-year-old students slowly
and noisily sat behind a line of masking tape on the floor facing the
elders who sat in comfy chairs. The 24 youngsters talked like magpies
among themselves. Some looked up and stared at us, the newcomers who
were making this Elders Day a little more special than usual.

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http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/cultureseen/archive/2011/06/21/squamish.aspx