Category Archives: Module 2

Pertinent articles about dying indigenous lanugages in B.C.

To further my research for my final ETEC 590 paper, I am now using Google Scholar to start looking for articles that will support my topic of revitalizing the Shuswap language after the lost generation due to residential schools.

This first article, entitled “The Crisis of Silence” is by Alan Haig-Brown. One question that is raised is

“Why maintain the languages? However, for Indian people the answer is obviously one of individual self-identity and cultural continuity” (Haig-Brown, 1983)

http://prophet.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/bcstudies/article/viewFile/1149/1193

A second article that I found is entitled “You can’t kill Coyote stories of language healing from Chief Atahm School Secwepemc language immersion program” (Michel, 2005). I have selected this article since the Shuswap Immersion program in Chase B.C. (at the Chief Atahm School) was the first article that I came across that inspired me to continue my research on indigenous language immersion. This paper was written by a UBC doctorat student, which caught my attention. Again it focuses in exactly on my topic about dying languages and the story of the Chief Atahm Shuswap Immersion school.

http://summit.sfu.ca/item/5641 (click on link and then download the PDF)

Secwepemculecw – Land of the Shuswap

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This site is a much more personal site and deals with the Kamloops Shuswap Indian Band. There are personal stories about language acquisition (before and after residential schools), as well as some of the positive things the residential schools offered (such as getting an education and learning English).

This site (even though it is a bit out of date), shows the different Shuswap tribes. There is a chart showing the populations of each tribe and how many native Secwepemc language speakers are left in each band. Alkali lake has the strongest number of native language speakers with 95 (which is 14% of their population. I’m sure that the numbers are much lower now but it would be interesting to investigate as to why their number of native speakers is so much higher than the other tribes.

In addition, this site offers more information on traditional Shuswap history and their culture.

http://www.landoftheshuswap.com/lang.html

Long term effects of the Residential School Era on Native Canadian People

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In my search for ideas for my final paper in ETEC 521, I came across the following article that describes in more detail what went on in residential schools in Canada. My main focus is:

What are the long term effects of the residential schools and how does this effect indigenous language fluency for future generations?

One of the things that went on in the residential schools was that students were forbidden to speak their own language and were punished if they did so. I find this so incredibly sad. Just to imagine not letting your own language leave your lips, is unfathomable. When I think of myself (I often talk to myself when I work through a problem, or for example, count out loud when adding things together). For example, I’m sitting out on my porch right now, talking myself through these weblogs. I’m sure if someone recorded me, I would have been speaking English to myself for the past three hours! For another example, my husband (who is from the French part of Switzerland) always does math and calculations out loud to himself in French (even though he is completely fluent in English). I do the opposite. I’m fluent in French but when working out numbers etc., I always revert to doing the calculations out loud in English (since that’s the language where I learned how to count). Therefore, when I think of residential schools abolishing the speaking of indigenous languages, the students must have been beaten, even when they didn’t mean to speak the languages (but it would come out of their mouths anyway).

I was just thinking of this exact concept when I was teaching my French Immersion students last Monday. I was telling a group (in French) to not speak English amongst themselves. It’s scary to think that if I was teaching in a residential school, I would have to punish my students each time they spoke English. However, it’s not exactly the same situation. Most of these students (the fortunate ones) go home to their families every night where they speak their native tongues and are loved and can share with family culture and events. This was not the case in the residential schools.

http://myworldyourworld.blog.ca/2009/06/15/the-long-term-effects-of-the-residential-school-era-on-native-canadian-people-6311450/

Elders share Shuswap language

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The photograph in the attached article below really hit home for me. It depicts how a language will die off with its elders unless something is done now. These women, the last remaining fluent speakers of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) language, have come together to create recordings of 3,360 words and phrases of the eastern dialect of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) language. This group of elders is from Enderby B.C., (which is located in our province’s interior), come from the Splats’in tribe.

What I find wonderful about this article is that the recordings of these grandmothers will be available on-line for anyone wishing to listen to what Secwepemc really sounds like. This project is vital, especially considering the ages of the elders at the time of the article in 2011 were between 71 and 89 years old. This shows that if projects like this aren’t encouraged in the next few years, many of the indigenous languages in B.C. will be lost forever. For example, out of the 800 members that live in the Splats’in community, there are only 10 members left who speak Secwepemc fluently. This is the related to the theme for my paper in ETEC 521. I am looking at how the next generations of Secwepemc speakers can envision fluency in the language (once the elders have passed on) by having only recordings to base their language learning on).

http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/community/133487098.html

Saving Indigenous Languages – Simon Fraser University

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I was happy to see that Simon Fraser University is recently concerned with saving Indigenous languages (one of them the Shuswap language) and discussed a $2.5 million dollar grant for the next 7 years that will be provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to help revitalize languages throughout B.C. and the Yukon.

Since I am focusing on the Shuswap language for my final paper, I was pleased to come across this information that proves that the Canadian government is making an effort to help the Shuswap save their language. The SSHRC will be working together with Aboriginal groups that speak at least 11 aboriginal languages, in hopes to maintaining and revitalizing them.

Having this money would be a great asset, however I can see that a project like this would be monumental. It would require sending people into these communities to discuss the best ways to preserve the languages and at the same time, interview the elders who speak these languages before they pass on.

http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media-releases/2013/saving-indigenous-languages-among-key-projects.html

Module 2: Post 2 First Peoples’ Language Map of BC

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I am posting this for my colleagues who are researching around the topic of language use/preservation – I came across it in my own research and thought it might be useful to those focusing on this topic. It is a colourful visual display of which First Nation languages are spoken in which regions in BC.

First Peoples’ Language Map of BC

Module 2 Post 1: Indigitization

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I find this site, Indigitization, very interesting – here is a snippet from the site:

“UBC Library’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre has created a new grant for B.C. Aboriginal organizations to convert audio cassette tapes to digital formats for preservation and access. The program will provide equipment, training and funding support for up to six projects per year, with applications accepted twice a year.”

I’m not sure at this point of how much I will use this site for my final paper, but I was drawn to it because it reminds people of the importance of documenting and preserving aspects of First Nation culture, and it’s very current and ongoing.

Module 2 post 1 Growth and Sustainability TREMBLAY

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I think as a society we need to get away from the idea of “Growth” being the most important factor in economics. One of the questions considered for the indigenous educational goals section of Module 2 were the differences between Eurocentric and Aboriginal approaches to education. During my investigation, I kept coming back to the root motivations behind the two systems, growth and sustainability. While Eurocentric education focuses on the accumulation of knowledge (associate, undergraduate, masters, PhD degrees etc.), and a need for more in order to be successful (letter grades and standardized tests), Aboriginal education focuses on the retention and examination of existing education. Eurocentric education values the information itself, whereas aboriginal focused education values the knowledge and the person who retains it. So with growth defining the origins of our understanding of how to learn any subject, is it really surprising that the idea is so entrenched in our understanding of Economics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXpaBQnBvE

The need for growth creates a system where greed is an acceptable and often desirable trait which is unfortunately in direct contrast with how a healthy society functions. If instead we focused on sustainable business structures where people and employees are valued involved it’s possible that we might have a system that doesn’t rely on exploitation to be successful.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/04/17/walmart-pays-workers-poorly-and-sinks-while-costco-pays-workers-well-and-sails-proof-that-you-get-what-you-pay-for/

I worked at Costco for most of my college career and was always impressed at how seriously everyone took their job there. People worked harder than most of the other places that I had previously worked and were happy to do so. Although this is admittedly not the best example because Costco, like most successful companies in the capitalist world function on a growth model when I worked there people appreciated that they were valued and I’d like to believe that it’s a step in the right direction.

The following is an article about the ethics behind the Enron debacle:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1024194519384#page-1

The following is an article about how one would go about changing a destructive business culture from within the company:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1006093713658#page-1

Sto:lo Nation

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Module #2, Post #5

http://www.stolonation.bc.ca/services-and-programs/shxweli-language-program/shxweli-language-program.htm

This site is about the Sto:lo Nation Shxweli Language Program. It has information about the Halkomelem language, their vision to ensure the future of the language, learning materials for the language, and a history of the program itself.

In the navigation bar of the site there is a link to Useful Links that lead to many other sites such as

This site is helpful because of the amount of information it has about the program to learn the language and because of the many other sites and links that are provided on the site.

Native Languages

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Module #2, Post #4

http://www.native-languages.org/halkomelem.htm

This site is specifically about the Halkomelem Language as well. It is a site that leads to many other links and resources about the language and people. It contains a sections on the language, Stolo tribe culture and history, cowichan tribe culture and history, and Halkomelem Legends. Under the language section there are numerous outside links about learning the language from pronunciation and spelling, to dialect differences and orthography.

Some of the outside resources that the site provides are to encyclopedia articles about the language, news articles about the Sto:lo language in the classroom, and many others.

This site is valuable for those interested in learning the language and about the culture of the people who speak it.