https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/no-new-funding-bc-indigenous-language-1.6045504
“Indigenous language teachers across B.C. were alarmed to learn earlier this year there would be no renewal of funding from the provincial government.”
This is recent news (June 2021) has come up as we were working on our project. As we found, funding is vital in the Indigenous language revitalization and preservation efforts by Indigenous communities and advocates. Curriculum development, paying teachers to teach the language, and creating online platforms is supported by funding from the government.
“In 2018, the province invested $50 million over three years for Indigenous language revitalization for the nearly 200 First Nation communities in the province. The funding was not renewed and no new funding was provided in this year’s budget.”
One conclusion from a report Indigenous Languages Recognition, Preservation and Revitalization from the National Dialogue Session on Indigenous Languages in 2016 was that: language funding must be sustainable to be effective.
In addition to funding, another barrier mentioned in the article is the lack of support in government computers for non-English or non-French text characters found in Indigenous languages. For example, a glottal stop (ʔ) is replaced by a 7. Indigenous names need to be anglicized when inputted into government systems and computers. These are some barriers faced by Indigenous communities and advocates when attempting to support Indigenous languages in British Columbia.