Those of us who are Elders, we have to remember to tell our children and our grandchildren, to give them history of our culture because we cannot go forwards unless we find, unless we can see our tracks from behind. We have to know our roots… they can’t go forward unless they know their roots.
– Ida Lowe, Tlingit Elder
1991 Yukon Aboriginal Languages Conference
Tagish Lake, Yukon, Traditional Territory of the Tagish and Tlingit people. Credit: Martina Volfova, August 2015
Research suggests that language programs and language activism in general, can have positive effects on the indigenous community as a whole. For example, Chandler and Lalonde (1998) and Hallett, Chandler & Lalonde (2007) have shown that communities engaged in ancestral language and cultural preservation experienced a dramatic decrease in youth suicide rates. Delaine argued that language related activities increase community members’ intergenerational interactions, and cooperation, restoring respect as well as increasing a sense of belonging (2012:79).
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
The benefits of maintaining First Nations languages were acknowledged nationally last year, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its final report, with 94 Calls to Action to redress the legacy of Canadian residential schools. These calls for action are wide-ranging, including important issues concerning child welfare, the justice system, public health, and education, among others. Notably, five of the calls to action speak directly to issues related to the support and promotion of Aboriginal languages and cultures as a way to advance the national process of healing and reconciliation in Canada.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
How non-indigenous allies can help TRC recommendation a reality
Official Recognition of Indigenous Languages
In April 2014, the Alaska State Senate passed House Bill HB 216, which recognizes hall 20 Alaskan Native languages as official languages of the state. Watch the following video discussing the significance of this action for both Native and non-Native Alaskans. James Crippen is an Alaskan Tlingit from Wrangell, Alaska.
Brave Heart-Jordan. (1995) The Return to the Sacred Path: Healing from Historical Trauma and Historical Unresolved Grief among the Lakota. (Doctoral Dissertation, Smith College School for Social Work).
Chandler, Michael and Christopher Lalonde. (1998) Cultural Continuity as a Hedge Against Suicide in Canada’s First Nations. Journal of Transcultural Psychiatry 35(2):191-219.
Hallett, Darcy, Michael Chandler & Christopher Lalonde. (2007) Aboriginal Language Knowledge and Youth Suicide. Cognitive Development 22 (3): 392-399.
Delaine, Brent (2010) Medicine Talk: Envisioning the Effects of Aboriginal Language Revitalization in Manitoba Schools. First Nations Perspectives 3(1): 65-88.
http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=92
Lisa Jackson's short film Savage
"On a summer day in the 1950s, a native girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in her Cree language. When the girl arrives at her destination, she undergoes a transformation that will turn the woman’s gentle voice into a howl of anger and pain.
In a place like this, there aren’t many chances to be a kid. But, when no one’s watching…
A residential school musical." (http://lisajackson.ca/Savage)
