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British Columbia is home to 203 unique First Nations and 34 languages with 61 dialects

Article Origin

Author

Compiled by Debora Steel

Volume

32

Issue

4

Year

2014

British Columbia is home to 203 unique First Nations and 34 languages with 61 dialects and is known as a “hot spot” by language experts, an epicentre of staggering linguistic diversity.
The Royal BC Museum and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council celebrate this fact with a feature exhibition, Our Living Languages: First Peoples’ Voices in BC, opening on June 21 for a three-year engagement. Learn how to greet someone in an indigenous language. Learn about the history of language disruption and resurgence in BC’s First Nations communities. Experience first-hand the ground-breaking technologies and strategies First Nations communities are using to revitalize their languages. See three original artworks commissioned specifically for this exhibition by renowned BC First Nations artists Francis Dick, Jaalen Edenshaw and Debra Sparrow.