Fight is on to preserve Aboriginal languages

Page 2

The future of declining Aboriginal languages got a little brighter Dec. 9 when a memorandum of understanding was signed by two organizations, one political, the other cultural, that believe their combined efforts could save 50 languages from dying out.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN), which drives policy for First Nations nationally, and the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres (FNCCEC), representing 77 cultural centres, have partnered to improve the chances endangered languages will survive. They've agreed to co-ordinate languages policy development, political advocacy, lobbying, and program development and delivery, a press release states.

Chief Ron Ignace, chairman of the AFN Chiefs Committee on Languages, and Gilbert Whiteduck, president of the FNCCEC, signed on behalf of their organizations.

"Our First Nations languages are the language of the land. The Creator has given us the responsibility to ensure that our languages will survive and therefore Mother Earth will regain her health," said Whiteduck.

Ignace described the "perpetuation, enhancement and promotion of our languages" as their joint mission. "Our partnership provides us with more strength to achieve our ends," he said.

Since a House of Commons Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs warned in 1990 that only three of 53 Aboriginal languages in Canada were viable enough to survive more than a few years, various groups have been looking at ways to combat their decline. Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut speakers are still numerous; all other language speakers are rapidly dying out without passing on their linguistic heritage.

According to statistics supplied by FNCCEC, the situation is serious. In 1951, 87.4 per cent of Aboriginal people spoke their language as their mother tongue; by 1991, only 36 per cent of Aboriginal people over 15 and 21 per cent under15 could speak it. By then, too, slightly more than half the adults (51 per cent) and nearly three-quarters of the children (71 per cent) reported they had never spoken an Aboriginal language.

"The essence of the FNCCEC's position," said Morrisson, "is that you've got to recognize the inherent value of languages to the multicultural mosaic of Canada, and even further, as one of the three founding groups of the country."

He added they want the government to accept responsibility for the destruction of Aboriginal languages through federal, provincial, local policies, and it should provide resources to help redress the harm it has done.

Both the AFN and FNCCEC have stated support for and pushed for protective legislation for Aboriginal languages over the years. They say their other priority is the establishment of an Aboriginal languages foundation.

Ignace told Windspeaker the AFN's Chiefs Committee on Languages passed a resolution setting their language agenda a year ago. First, he said, they were to administer "the Aboriginal languages initiative" from Heritage Canada; "which we've done, but also we're not limiting ourselves to that.

"What we're looking at doing," said Ignace, "is . . . trying to push forward for the legal recognition of our languages via legislation." Attached to that, he explained, is the establishment of a foundation, as suggested by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which would be funded $50 million by the federal government and $50 million private money. "This is not a new agenda," Ignace said.

"The new approach that was taken to this agenda," Ignace explained, "is . . . the establishment of Friends of Aboriginal Languages. We're hoping to enlist members of Parliament, senators, heads of various corporations . . . ." Ignace says people are very receptive to this idea.

"They would have a two-pronged responsibility . . . one, assist us to try to get the message through to the government (that) emergency action should be taken on our languages, because the prediction is there are only two or three languages that may survive the next 20 to 30 yeas." Ignace says the Friends would help them lobby for legislation and the "members of Parliament and senators would guide us in how that process should work - how we should approach the government and to ensure that we could get this legislation through."

He says the other way he hopes some of the Friends would be able to assist is through fundraising.

In the fall of 1997 Heritage Canada announced it would contribute $20 million over four years to save Aboriginal languages, to fulfill a Red Book promise.

"Of course, there's no such promise in the Red Book," said Morrisson, "but apparently in a sub-budget of some sub-document to the Red Book, there was a line allocation from Heritage of $20 million." Morrisson says that announcement was made just a short time before the Liberals were gearing up for their second election. Morrisson said that after a lot of meetings and wrangling among numerous Native political and non-political organizations over who should divide and receive the $20 million, the money started to flow in September1998 through the AFN (75 per cent), the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (15 per cent) and the Metis National Council (10 per cent).

That was when the AFN put together the Chiefs Committee on Languages, and a Technical Committee on Languages, to administer their portion of the Heritage Canada dollars and to pursue protection and enhancement of First Nations languages. Until1993, language issues at the AFN had been under that organization's education umbrella. Then their languages secretariat took over and the AFN drafted language legislation. But it went no further.

"A number of attempts have been made to get legislation passed that have not been successful," Ignace agreed. He admits the AFN's languages secretariat "fell by the wayside" in the past year or so, but "I lobbied long and hard and was able to get it successfully re-established."