Language Revitalization Pole carving “suspended” due to current funding gap: Group issues urgent appeal “… we’re hoping Canadians, and Canadian corporations, will answer the call to “Raise the Pole” and help us raise the $50,000 we need to get us through the summer to the point in the fall where further funding will hopefully be […]
“This great cedar is about 800 years old; before this town even existed. But when this was a seedling, our creator knows the destinies of everything that exists on this earth, and he knew what this was going to be for, way before it even started growing.” – Harry Lucas, Nuu-chah-nulth language-speaker and Elder – April […]
The following opinion-editorial by FNEF Executive Director Scott Jeary was printed in the Waterloo Region Record Issue of language revitalization should not be reduced to a question of money Language revitalization work is not the simple expiation of white guilt, Scott Jeary writes. OPINION Mar 03, 2019 by Scott Jeary – Waterloo Region Record In Peter Shawn […]
As the new year of 2018 begins, it’s worth noting from the start that we continue to face a stark, ongoing reality: No Indigenous language in Canada is considered safe. This is the reality that drives our work and our FNEF language revitalization approach; namely, to develop language revitalization programs for at-risk Indigenous languages and […]
Google Earth recently made a wonderful new learning tool available to the public; one that helps tell the story of Canada’s residential schools and the devastating impacts the schools had on Indigenous people. The new tool is part of Google Earth’s Voyager series and it takes full advantage of the powerful storytelling functionality Voyager brings […]
“Without immediate, robust, and heartfelt intervention, language decline will be irreversible.” – Chelsea Vowel / âpihtawikosisân – If you haven’t read Métis author Chelsea Vowel’s recent article, which argues for the teaching of Indigenous languages alongside French and English (the article was posted on the Maclean’s website last week), we highly recommend it. Vowel, who is […]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized today, on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, to former students of Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools. He also apologized to the families, loved ones, and communities for the painful and tragic legacy the residential schools left behind. Please follow and like us:
An online CBC news item caught our eye yesterday morning. The CBC article noted that the use of Aboriginal languages is on the decline in the Northwest Territories, bucking an optimistic national trend that some feel is apparent. The article indicates that there was a 15 per cent decline in the number of people in […]
Today is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. It’s also been ten years since the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples making this year’s observances a major reconciliation milestone. Read the UN’s press release and their backgrounder marking the day: On International Day, United Nations marks 10th anniversary of […]
“We cannot change the past, but we can honestly recognize it.” These are words that stood out for me in a recent blog post by UBC President Santa J. Ono, in which he expresses how “honoured and humbled” he was to participate in the raising of Reconciliation Pole at UBC’s Vancouver campus. Reconciliation Pole is […]