The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action is a list of items crucial to repairing the damage and intergenerational trauma brought upon Indigenous peoples in Canada. The document is designed as an outline of necessary work to be done collaboratively between Indigenous and non-Indigenous governments at all levels. Calls #13-17 specifically mention language and culture. These calls to action serve as a starting point to which many dying Indigenous languages may be preserved and enriched.
Tag Archives: calls to action
Module 2 Post 1 – Indigenous Languages
This is Lindsay Morcom. She talks about the history of indigenous languages and how to revitalize them. She spoke about residential schools and how when you build a school and then build a cemetery right beside it because you know the students will die, what do you call that? The talk is from February 2019.
She speaks about what is needed:
- Policy – that there is attached funding with active policy and that on-reserve schools and off-reserve schools need equal funding. Special note that this is also a call to action
- Support – that there needs to be space to carry out activities and have access to immersion education in traditional languages and that there needs to be education for the non-indigenous populations
Her statement that reconciliation that does not result in the survival of language in the people is assimilation and not reconciliation.