While Carleton has made some efforts to build its Indigenous studies program, the school must take extra care to protect Indigenous languages and recognize them at the same level as French.
Canadian institutions have robbed Indigenous peoples in Canada the right to connect with their cultures and learn their languages.
Residential schools punished Indigenous children for speaking their native languages. The deaths of children in residential schools, such as the recent discovery of 215 Indigenous children at an unmarked burial site at Kamloops Indian Residential School, denied Indigenous nations of potential knowledge keepers who could have taught and preserved Indigenous languages and culture.
Carleton, as a Canadian institution, has a responsibility to promote Indigenous languages in programs led by Indigenous community members, and is currently not meeting calls to action.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action 13 to 17 call for the preservation of Indigenous languages.
Call number 16 asks that post-secondary institutions create “degree and diploma programs in Aboriginal languages.” This call could not be addressed by the federal government in its response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings, and instead must be led by post-secondary institutions, including Carleton.
Carleton’s own report, Kinàmàgawin, released by the Strategic Indigenous Initiatives Committee, calls for Indigenous languages to be taught at the school, and for the Algonquin language to be recognized as an official school language.
Of 11 modern languages taught under Carleton’s School of Linguistics and Language Studies, only one—Anishinaabemowin, a member of the Algonquin language family—is a recognized Indigenous language.
A minor in Anishinaabemowin is not offered, unlike most other languages at the university. The course is offered under the course title, “Languages Less Commonly Taught,” with a focus on Cree and Inuktitut languages in previous years.
Of more than 60 Indigenous languages in Canada, only three are regularly taught at Carleton. There is minimal advertising for Indigenous language teaching at Carleton, compared to other minors such as French.
Universities need to step up to protect Indigenous cultures through preserving and teaching traditional languages.
An earlier version of this editorial included an incorrect spelling of the word ‘Indigenous’ in the second last paragraph. The editorial was corrected on June 21. The Charlatan regrets the error. The earlier version of this article also referred to the burial site discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School as a mass grave. Leaders of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation say the site is an unmarked burial site, not a mass grave. This update was made on June 28.
Featured image from file.
