‘Lip service’: The need for Indigenous-led language revitalization

For Algonquin Anishinaabe Elder Claudette Commanda, language is directly connected to culture and is an important part of Indigenous identity. Commanda is from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and said where a person is from shapes language.     

“We can’t go anywhere else in the whole entire world to find our languages,” Commanda said. “Our languages are here on this land.” 

Commanda is the executive director of the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres (FNCCEC), as well as a professor at the University of Ottawa. She advocates for protecting Indigenous languages and cultures. 

Indigenous languages are the living embodiment of Indigenous culture and are directly connected with history and spirituality that would inevitably be lost without the words, Commanda said.  

“If our language dies, then who are we as a people?” she asked. 

Under the Indian Act, the Canadian government forced Indigenous peoples to stop speaking their native languages. Now, the government is trying to remedy its wrongs by following the calls to action outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released in 2015. But Indigenous communities working toward language reclamation are still facing systemic barriers.  

Government action and inaction

The Canadian government invested more than $60 million from 2019 to 2021 to fund the Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program—about $30 million per year. The government also has an Action Plan for Official Languages initiated in 2018 and ending in 2023 which aims to invest $2.7 billion for the country’s two official languages: English and French. The plan spends about $540 million a year for each official language. 

The action plan also includes new measures to spend $62.6 million on training and recruiting teachers for Francophone schools and immersion classes. 

Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk Indigenous human rights activist and artist from Kanehsatà:ke, said the Canadian government treats the revitalization of Indigenous languages like establishing a third language, instead of recognizing Indigenous languages as the first languages spoken in Canada. 

“I think there’s a lot of lip service said to Indigenous peoples,” Gabriel said. “I don’t think people really understand the importance of languages in regards to strengthening identity.”

On June 21, 2019, Bill C-91, also known as the Indigenous Languages Act, received Royal Assent. The Act recognizes Indigenous languages as the first languages ever used on Canadian soil, and it aims to preserve them today.  

However, this came many years after the Indian Control of Indian Education Statement in 1972—a policy outlining Indigenous education agreed upon by the Chiefs of the National Indian Brotherhood. Since 1972, it indicated the need for complete Indigenous control over their education, something that only recently came to fruition in 2019. 

In 2019, the National Research Council of Canada found there are more than 60 Indigenous languages in Canada. Programs to support all these languages draw from the same funding pool. 

This is a concern for Janis Monture, the executive director of the Woodland Cultural Centre (WCC). 

“Funding should be, at least, at the same level as French-level funding, if not more because there are more Indigenous languages,” Monture said.  

According to Gabriel, Indigenous rights to self-determination are interlinked with language, culture, spirituality and land protection. For this reason, these topics cannot be viewed separately. 

“It’s not just about funding … it’s about correcting a human rights injustice,” she said.

Indigenous-led organizations working towards language reclamation

There are several Indigenous-led organizations in Canada working on revitalizing language and culture. The FNCCEC is one of them. 

From the West to the East coast, the organization’s cultural centres are designed to cater to the language needs of particular communities, Commanda said. It assists with developing programs to build language fluency, translation services and production of dictionaries, as well as delivering language sessions and training language instructors. 

According to Commanda, some First Nations communities do not have a cultural centre because of a lack of funding from the federal government. The FNCCEC receives $4.6 million yearly to support 46 centres which represent about 400 First Nation communities. 

“This is not adequate funding for long term sustainable language promotion and revitalization,” wrote Commanda in an email to the Charlatan. 

The FNCCEC works closely with the WCC. Established in 1972 after the closure of the Mohawk Institute Residential School, the WCC aims to preserve, promote, interpret and present the language, culture, history and art of the Six Nations Confederacy. This includes the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora communities. 

“It’s a little tricky to ensure language revitalization of all six languages,” Monture said. 

The FNCCEC only has sufficient funds to focus on certain aspects of learning, such as curriculum development and teacher training for culture revitalization. 

Monture said though the languages of the six communities may be linguistically similar, they are all unique with different vocabulary and grammatical structures. 

Impacts of COVID-19 on funding

While the WCC receives funding from various grants, including the Canada Council for the Arts and the department of Canadian Heritage, it needs to fundraise to maintain operations. 

According to Monture, about 30 per cent of the centre is self-funded, which has become increasingly challenging during pandemic lockdowns. The centre typically makes $125,000 per year from its group tour program, but in 2020 it only made around $32,000. 

The group tour program is open to the public and typically involves showing the public the former residential school and sometimes includes guest speakers and performances. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the WCC was unable to host live performances, exhibitions and field trips for Ontario schools. 

“We probably lost about 80 per cent of our self-generated funding,” Monture said. 

Amidst lockdowns, the centre pivoted to a digital format by holding virtual tour screenings of the former Mohawk Institute, spring break beading and pottery workshops and virtual film screenings every other month. 

Supporting Indigenous communities

Non-Indigenous peoples can support Indigenous language and culture revitalization through donations, according to Monture. At the WCC, all funds go back to programming. 

Commanda advises non-Indigenous communities to support First Nations through advocacy by writing to local MPs and community leaders. Overall, there is a need for Canadians to educate each other about this issue, Commanda said. 

“It’s important for First Nations to have their languages because they have nowhere else to go to learn their languages besides here in their homeland,” she said. 

Gabriel said non-Indigenous communities need to hold the government accountable in enacting the Indigenous Languages Act and Reconciliation Act to ensure Indigenous culture revitalization. 

These acts aim to respect and restore Indigenous land and culture. Since the land, culture and languages are all intertwined, the government needs to respect all promises made to Indigenous communities, especially promises concerning land disputes, Gabriel said. 

“The land is an integral part of our language and identity, and we are losing our land,” she said. “What we need from [non-Indigenous communities] is to have the truth about colonization.” 

Although universities try to be inclusive by offering Indigenous language programs, Gabriel said this takes Indigenous teachers away from communities who need them most. University language programs are also expensive, making language education more inaccessible to Indigenous communities. 

“If you want to really help, then help us support the human resources within our communities to teach our people,” Gabriel said. 

Gabriel also emphasized the importance of monetary aid and support, as the language speakers cannot teach without financial resources. Elders would volunteer their time to teach and train educators, but the limited number of native speakers creates a need to financially invest in language education, Gabriel said. 

“We need to be able to be self-sustaining,” Gabriel said. “We need the funding.” 

Centring Indigenous communities in reconciliation 

Commanda lived through a time when white missionaries ruled Indigenous communities with Indian agents—individuals sent by the Canadian government to monitor First Nation reserves. 

“My oldest son was born in the day of the Indian agent, so that was not that long ago,” Commanda said. The last Indian agent left Commanda’s community in 1977. 

“That attitude, that mentality, that behaviour still exists today,” she said. 

As a professor, Commanda said universities could help by working with local Indigenous communities, while ensuring Indigenous peoples are leading initiatives. 

“Far too often we have seen many non-First-Nations, non-Indigenous organizations access big dollars … and our people don’t benefit from that whatsoever,” Commanda said. “The exploitation, the appropriation of our knowledge has to stop.”  

There must be open communication about reconciliation with Indigenous communities, she said. 

“If you want to do something truthfully and honestly with the right intentions, then you work with the people.”

Featured image by Spencer Colby.