Revitalizing Indigenous Languages I: Vanishing Tongues

Greg Smith is a Consilium consultant who has worked on various language revitalization projects around the world. Over the next couple of weeks he'll be describing the different approaches taken in Hawai'i and New Zealand to bring indigenous language back into day-to-day life. 

Languages in Danger: UNESCO

There are more than 50 Aboriginal languages in Canada, all under pressure, and many in serious danger of vanishing. Some have only a handful of elderly native speakers still living, so protection and preservation of indigenous languages is of paramount importance. Language is viewed as a critical element for the transmission of culture, history and values and there is a strong will among Aboriginal people to maintain, enhance and pass on indigenous languages to the next generations.

Many innovative and successful programs have been developed over the past two decades. In Canada these have included immersion programs for young children; the growth of Aboriginal language media (print, radio, television and film including the international success Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner); and legislation recognizing Aboriginal languages as official languages in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

But there are many other stories out there in the world.
For nearly thirty years, a significant part of our consulting practice at Consilium, Aarluk and Stonecircle has involved projects and programs aimed at preserving and enhancing Aboriginal languages. Several of us worked for years in the development northern native broadcasting, starting in the early 1980s when the federal Northern Native Broadcast Access Program (NNBAP) was announced. Terry Rudden and I were involved in helping to create, manage, and grow the Inuvialuit Communications Society, the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, the James Bay Cree Communications Society, Television Northern Canada (TVNC) and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) where Jennifer David also worked. All of these networks had, as one of their primary goals, the creation of media by and for Aboriginal peoples in Canada, including broadcasting in their own language.

Over the years I've also been involved in many other projects related to Aboriginal languages –a review of CRTC regulations on Aboriginal broadcasting; an evaluation of the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, and of the Aboriginal Languages Initiative (ALI), another federal program in support of language, and the Canada-Nunavut Cooperative Agreement on Official Languages – Inuktitut component; feasibility studies for a Nunavut Language Centre, and facilitation and participation in a number of Elder-Youth cultural camps in Nunavut and participation in a national AFN conference on FN languages. Other colleagues have also conducted research and planning on language issue, including most recently the Mamaweswan Language project for the North Shore Tribal Council in Ontario, and work with the Government of Nunavut on the Implementation of their historic Language Acts.

In 2005 I looked at two examples of indigenous language protection – by the Maoris in New Zealand, and by native Hawaiians. The Maori experience is probably the better known because some of its approaches have been used as models in other countries – for example, the development of ‘language nests’ for very young children has been adopted in many places. In New Zealand I was welcomed by staff of the Maori Language Commission in Wellingto, and visited Maori TV in Auckland. Somewhat lesser known is the experience in Hawaii, where the language has been brought back from the verge of extinction over the past few decades. There, after some initial screening, Aha Punana Leo put out the welcome mat, and accompanied by our guide, staff member Kaiu Kimura, gave my wife and I full access to their schools, offices and other facilities in Hilo. This included traditional welcomes at both their offices and schools, where all staff and students provided a greeting in front of the buildings, which was very moving.

Over the next few days I'll be telling their stories. They're both interesting and very different approaches to the challenge of language revitalization, but they share one key element - the recognition by indigenous peoples that the heart and soul of the their culture is their language, and the passion and commitment that drive their revitalization movement.

Next: The Maori Experience.