-
Dene elder Paul Disain said,
-
"Our language and culture
-
is the window through which
we see the world."
-
And on Turtle Island,
-
what is now known as North America,
-
there're so many unique
and wonderful ways to see the world.
-
As a person of indigenous heritage,
-
I'm interested in learning
Anishinaabemowin,
-
which is my heritage language,
-
because it lets me see the world
through that window.
-
It lets me connect with my family,
-
my ancestors, my community, my culture.
-
And lets me think
about how I can pass that on
-
to future generations.
-
As a linguist,
-
I'm interested in how language
functions generally.
-
I can look at phonetics and phonology --
-
speech sounds.
-
I can look at morphology,
or the structure of words.
-
I can look at syntax,
-
which is the structure
of sentences and phrases,
-
to learn about how humans
store language in our brains
-
and how we use it to communicate
with one another.
-
For example,
-
Anishinaabemowin,
like most indigenous languages,
-
is what's called polysynthetic,
-
which means that there are
very, very long words,
-
composed of little tiny pieces
called morphemes.
-
So I can say, in Anishinaabemowin,
"niwiisin," "I eat,"
-
which is one word.
-
I can say "nimino-wiisin," "I eat well,"
-
which is still one word.
-
I can say "nimino-naawakwe-wiisin,"
"I eat a good lunch,"
-
which is how many words in English?
-
Five words in English,
a single word in Anishinaabemowin.
-
Now, I've got a bit of a quiz for you.
-
In a one-word answer,
what color is that slide?
-
Audience: Green.
-
Lindsay Morcom: What color is that slide?
-
Audience: Green.
-
LM: What color is that slide?
-
Audience: Blue.
-
LM: And what color is that slide?
-
(Audience murmurs)
-
Not trick questions, I promise.
-
For you as English speakers,
-
you saw two green slides
and two blue slides.
-
But the way that we categorize colors
varies across languages,
-
so if you had been Russian speakers,
-
you would have seen two slides
that were different shades of green,
-
one that was "goluboy,"
which is light blue,
-
one that is "siniy," dark blue.
-
And those are seen as different colors.
-
If you were speakers of Anishinaabemowin,
-
you would have seen slides
that were Ozhaawashkwaa
-
or Ozhaawashkozi,
which means either green or blue.
-
It's not that speakers
don't see the colors,
-
it's that the way they categorize them
and the way that they understand shades
-
is different.
-
At the same time,
-
there are universals in the ways
that humans categorize color,
-
and that tells us about how human brains
-
understand and express
what they're seeing.
-
Anishinaabemowin
does another wonderful thing,
-
which is animate, inanimate
marking on all words.
-
So it's not unlike how French and Spanish
-
mark all words as either
masculine or feminine.
-
Anishinaabemowin
and other Algonquian languages
-
mark all words
as either animate or inanimate.
-
The things that you would think
to be animate are animate,
-
things that have a pulse:
people, animals, growing plants.
-
But there are other things
that are animate
-
that you might not guess, like rocks.
-
Rocks are marked as animate,
-
and that tells us really interesting
things about grammar,
-
and it also tells us
really interesting things
-
about how Anishinaabemowin speakers
-
relate to and understand
the world around them.
-
Now, the sad part of that
-
is that indigenous languages
are in danger.
-
Indigenous languages that posses
so much knowledge of culture,
-
of history,
-
of ways to relate to one another,
-
of ways to relate to our environment.
-
Having been on this land
since time immemorial,
-
these languages have developed here
-
and they contain priceless
environmental knowledge
-
that helps us relate well
to the land on which we live.
-
But they are, in fact, in danger.
-
The vast majority of indigenous
languages in North America
-
are considered endangered,
-
and those that are not
endangered are vulnerable.
-
That is by design.
-
In our laws, in our policies,
-
in our houses of governance,
-
there have been stated attempts
-
to eliminate indigenous languages
and cultures in this country.
-
Duncan Campbell Scott
-
was one of the architects
of the residential school system.
-
On tabling a bill that required
mandatory residential school attendance
-
for indigenous children in 1920, he said,
-
"I want to get rid of the Indian problem.
-
Our objective is to continue
-
until there is not
a single Indian in Canada
-
that has not been absorbed
into the body politic
-
and there is no Indian question,
and no Indian Department;
-
that is the whole object of this Bill."
-
The atrocities that occurred
in residential schools were documented.
-
In 1907,
-
P.H. Bryce, who was a doctor
and expert in tuberculosis,
-
published a report
that found that in some schools,
-
25 percent of children had died
from tuberculosis epidemics
-
created by the conditions in the schools.
-
In other schools, up to 75 percent
of children had died.
-
He was defunded by federal government
-
for his findings,
-
forced into retirement in 1921,
-
and in 1922, published
his findings widely.
-
And through that time,
-
indigenous children
were taken from their homes,
-
taken from their communities,
-
and forced into church-run
residential schools
-
where they suffered, in many cases,
-
serious emotional, physical,
and sexual abuse,
-
and in all cases, cultural abuse,
-
as these schools were designed
-
to eliminate indigenous
language and culture.
-
The last residential school
closed in 1996.
-
Until that time, 150,000 children or more
attended residential schools
-
at 139 institutions across the country.
-
In 2007,
-
the Indian Residential School
Settlement Agreement came into effect.
-
It's the largest class action lawsuit
in Canadian history.
-
It set aside 60 million dollars
-
for the establishment of the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
-
The TRC gifted us with the ability
to hear survivor stories,
-
to hear impacts
on communities and families,
-
and to gain access to research
-
that explored the full effect
of residential schools
-
on indigenous communities
and on Canada as a whole.
-
The TRC found that residential schools
-
constituted what's called
cultural genocide.
-
They state that physical genocide
is the mass killing of the members
-
of a targeted group,
-
biological genocide is the destruction
of that group's reproductive capacity.
-
And cultural genocide is the destruction
of those structures and practices
-
that allow the group
to continue as a group.
-
The stated goals of Duncan Campbell Scott.
-
So they find that it's cultural genocide,
-
although as children's author
-
and a great speaker
David Bouchard points out,
-
when you build a building,
-
and you build a cemetery
next to that building,
-
because you know the people
going into that building are going to die,
-
what do you call that?
-
The TRC also gifted us
with 94 calls to action,
-
beacons that can lead the way forward
as we work to reconciliation.
-
Several of those pertain directly
to language and culture.
-
The TRC calls us to ensure
adequate, funded education,
-
including language and culture.
-
To acknowledge indigenous rights,
including language rights.
-
To create an Aboriginal Languages Act
-
aimed at acknowledging and preserving
indigenous languages,
-
with attached funding.
-
To create a position
for an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner
-
and to develop postsecondary
language programs
-
as well as to reclaim place names
that have been changed
-
through the course of colonization.
-
At the same time as the Indian
Residential School Settlement Agreement
-
came into effect,
-
the United Nations adopted
-
the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous People
-
in 2007.
-
It states that indigenous people
have the right to establish and control
-
their own education
systems and institutions
-
providing education
in their own languages,
-
in a manner appropriate
to their cultural methods
-
of teaching and learning.
-
In 2007,
-
when that was brought into effect,
-
four countries voted against it.
-
They were the United States,
New Zealand, Australia
-
and Canada.
-
Canada adopted the United Nations
-
Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous People in 2010.
-
And in 2015, the government
promised to bring it into effect.
-
So how are we collectively
going to respond?
-
Here's the situation that we're in.
-
Of the 60 currently spoken
indigenous languages in Canada,
-
all but six are considered endangered
by the United Nations.
-
So, the six that aren't are Cree,
Anishinaabemowin,
-
Stoney, Mi'kmaq,
-
Dene and Inuktitut.
-
And that sounds really dire.
-
But if you go on to the Atlas
of the World's Languages in Danger
-
through the UNESCO website,
-
you'll see a little "r"
right next to that language right there.
-
That language is Mi'kmaq.
-
Mi'kmaq has undergone
significant revitalization
-
because of the adoption
of a self-government agreement
-
that led to culture
and language-based education,
-
and now there are Mi'kmaq children
-
who have Mi'kmaq as their first language.
-
There's so much that we can do.
-
These children are students
-
in the Mnidoo Mnising
Anishinabek Kinoomaage,
-
an immersion school on Manitoulin island,
-
where they learn in Anishinaabemowin.
-
They arrived at school
in junior kindergarten
-
speaking very little,
if any, Anishinaabemowin.
-
And now, in grade three and grade four,
-
they're testing at intermediate
and fluent levels.
-
At the same time,
-
they have beautifully high self-esteem.
-
They are proud to be Anishinaabe people
-
and they have strong learning skills.
-
Not all education
has to be formal education either.
-
In our local community,
-
we have the Kingston
Indigenous Language Nest.
-
KILN is an organization now,
-
but it started 6 years ago
with passionate community members
-
gathered around an elder's kitchen table.
-
Since then, we have created
weekend learning experiences
-
aimed at multigenerational learning,
-
where we focus on passing
language and culture on to children.
-
We use traditional games,
songs, foods and activities to do that.
-
We have classes
-
at both the beginner
and intermediate levels
-
offered right here.
-
We've partnered with
school boards and libraries
-
to have resources and language
in place in formal education.
-
The possibilities are just endless,
-
and I'm so grateful
for the work that has been done
-
to allow me to pass language
and culture on to my son
-
and to other children
within our community.
-
We've developed a strong,
beautiful, vibrant community as well,
-
as a result of this shared effort.
-
So what do we need moving forward?
-
First of all, we need policy.
-
We need an active policy
with attached funding
-
that will ensure that indigenous language
-
is incorporated meaningfully
into education,
-
bot on and off reserve.
-
On reserve, education is funded
at significantly lower levels
-
than it is off reserve.
-
And off reserve,
-
indigenous language education
is often neglected,
-
because people assume
-
that indigenous people
are not present in provincial schools,
-
when actually, around 70 percent
of indigenous people in Canada today
-
live off reserve.
-
Those children have equal right
to access their language and culture.
-
Beyond policy, we need support.
-
And that doesn't just mean
financial support.
-
We need space where we can
carry out activities,
-
classes, and interaction
with nonindigenous populations as well.
-
We need support
-
that looks like people
wanting to learn the language.
-
We need support where people talk
about why these languages are important.
-
And to achieve that, we need education.
-
We need access to immersion
education primarily,
-
as that is most certainly
the most effective way
-
to ensure the transmission
of indigenous languages.
-
But we also need education
in provincial schools,
-
we need education
for the nonindigenous populations
-
so that we can come to a better
mutual understanding
-
and move forward in a better way together.
-
I have this quote hanging
in a framed picture on my office wall.
-
It was a gift from a settler ally student
that I taught a few years ago,
-
and it reminds me every day
-
that we can achieve great things
if we work together.
-
But if we're going to talk
about reconciliation,
-
we need to acknowledge
-
that a reconciliation that does not result
-
in the survivance and continuation
of indigenous languages and cultures
-
is no reconciliation at all.
-
It is assimilation,
-
and it shouldn't be
acceptable to any of us.
-
But what we can do
is look to the calls to action,
-
we can look to the United
Nations Declaration
-
on the Rights of Indigenous People
-
and we can come to a mutual understanding
-
that what we have,
-
in terms of linguistic
and cultural heritage
-
for indigenous people in this country,
-
is worth saving.
-
Based on that, we can step forward,
-
together,
-
to ensure that indigenous
languages are passed on
-
beyond 2050, beyond the next generation,
-
into the next seven generations.
-
Miigwech. Niawen’kó:wa. Thank you.
-
(Applause)