Video — Indigenous Languages Symposium — January 29, 2021

Transcript of Indigenous Languages Symposium, January 29, 2021

Length: 2:09:56

Mathieu Courchene (MC): Meegwetch, International Chief Wilton Littlechild. I was standing and then I just sat back down because otherwise you would see I'm wearing boxers. No, I'm just kidding. I do have my pants on. Just in case the national anthem came on and I had to stand up, that's why I had them on. So, Meegwetch for that. Our second speaker—our second keynote is Dr. Lorna Wanosts'a7—I try to get it right—Williams. I'm sure she'll correct me. There's the seven. I was supposed to... I think it's... kind of thing, but I'm not very good at it after saying vowels and consonants. So, I do want to welcome Dr. Williams with us. She'll be our keynote speaker, providing an overview of the international—oh, no. Yes. An overview of the international languages and moving forward with the decade. With that, I would invite you—the floor is yours, Dr. Williams. Oh, we don't have the PowerPoint. Oh, there it is. Okay. Dr. Williams, I believe you're muted. There you go.

Lorna Williams (LW): I'm muted. [Greetings in Lillooet language]. It's a great honour for me to be here. My name is Wanosts'a7 Lorna Williams from the Lil'wat in Mount Currie. It's a real honour for me to—next slide, please.

To be here with you. And I want to thank the ancestors whose spirits are on all of the lands that we are—that we gather on and the people who care for this land. We're all here as visitors and we come with good thoughts and spirits. Next slide. Next slide.

In 2019, I was very blessed to participate in the beginning of the Year of Indigenous Languages, which took place—the celebration, which took place in New York at the UN (United Nations). It was—this was very important to me that—to participate in this and to hear what people were doing around the world. The stories that people told about how they are keeping their Indigenous languages strong and moving forward. The one common theme amongst all of the countries that day that presented at the UN told the story, really, of how the Indigenous languages were obliterated and—but the strongest message was that they continued, despite everything that was directed towards them to make them vanish. They continued. And that is something to be—for us to be able to, you know, to be proud of and to celebrate that we haven't let the voices of our lands, the voices of our ancestors, and the voices of our people, we haven't let it leave us. And it's been because of the tenacity of language champions in every part of this planet. In 2019, it was a year for really for re-emergence and for sharing and learning together. And one of those opportunities for sharing and learning was the HELISET TŦE SḰÁL Let the Languages Live conference that took place in Victoria in 2019. It was an opportunity to share and advance knowledge, to share what people were doing in every aspect of language revitalization and language reclamation and language maintenance from around the world. We had over a thousand delegates from British Columbia, from Canada, and from 20 countries. It was a featured activity for—of UNESCO for the Year of Indigenous Languages. And what was so wonderful about that gathering was how the spirits of the people were so high and lifted. And how they—how happy they were to be coming together. And so I really encourage the organizers and leaders and planners to make sure that there are times for our people to gather together, to share, and to learn together in the decade. The other thing that I've noticed in that year, and since, is that there are new and positive and truthful and honest Indigenous--led stories in the media. They haven't shied away from the difficult stories on racism towards Indigenous people in the law, in health, in education, in sports, in communities. There have been stories of our languages in the media, extensive stories that I haven't heard in all of my—the work that I've been doing with languages. That makes a difference. It's important for people to hear our languages and the diversity of our languages. It's important that people become accustomed to hearing the sounds in our language and—because they don't exist in the English language or in French. And—but people can learn, just as we had to learn the sounds from English and French. There are sounds there that don't exist in our languages, and we learned and so can everyone else. There was a conference in Paris organized by UNESCO in December 2019 on languages and technology. This was a very important gathering because technology is an important part of our world today. We're meeting and gathering today using technology. But technology, as it has developed, has not taken into consideration our languages. And so that conversation was an important one. I think it was a good, important beginning. And next slide, please. Next slide, please.

One of the things that—an example, another example: There is a small city nearby to where I live that because of racism in their community, in their city that was being played out in many different parts of the city, the way that Indigenous people are treated, one of the actions that they're taking is to put signage—to change signage in their city to the Indigenous language of that land. That has taken place. And it's a really good step. It's a big step to be able to reconcile that they’re on—the city is on Indigenous people’s land. And that the city sits on places that had names prior to the building of the city. It's an acknowledgement of that and I applaud this—these people for doing that. Leaders, as we witnessed today, and public figures are learning and using Indigenous languages in more than land acknowledgements, but they begin there. And it's a struggle. They have to learn, they have to take the time, they have to make the commitment, and they have to break down their fear of not being able to speak the language properly, but they're trying and they're learning, and this is happening and taking place across the country. It's important for leaders to be able to walk their talk, and it's good for us to be able to see that they're doing this. It's also important for us to acknowledge and recognize and appreciate the leadership that Canada has taken—our leaders like Wilton Littlechild and many, many, many others from across the country—Harry Bellegarde—that have designated the Year of Indigenous Languages and also worked on the decade. And it's important for us to recognize, applaud and support those leaders. Next slide, please.

There have been policy and legislative changes, and this is really important because it's a—this, too, is a beginning. The Indigenous Languages Act was signed in 2019. And—but what was really important was—it was the culmination of a cross--country dialogue where people's views were heard and collected to inform the act and the implementation considerations. It's important that Indigenous people were actively involved in this development. And I want to again applaud the leaders for making sure that this took place. It's really important that—there is so much work to do to, you know, to revitalize, to reclaim, to maintain our languages. It's a lots and lots and lots of work. But, it's also important that to—that we continually learn on how to dismantle colonial practices and the colonial practices that are—that continue to be used by governments and that exist in the general public. It's—this work is probably going to take the most care on being able to dismantle this because unless this is acknowledged and worked on and changed and shifted, the work of the language champions, the work of the language communities is harder. And so we need to be able to—and so this, I think, has become so much more in people's minds. And thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and all the other reports and commissions that have taken place. It's important that we don't set those aside like we have so many times before and when we looked at the creation of acts and changes to Indigenous languages in countries around the world, there have been failures or there have been—or people have—there's been a slow uptake. And it's been because of this reason that each—in each case, it's dismantling the attitudes that have derived from colonial practise because—and to destroy our languages. Also in 2019, there was a shift, a major shift, in Indigenous research and as an example that I'm going to put—to share with you is the work of SSHRK, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. They worked with an Indigenous advisory to make sure that the research that is conducted and carried out and shared is respectful to the Indigenous world. This is challenging because research has been from—has been largely from a euro-western direction. And this is a huge and major shift. Also, that there was provisions put into place to support the new Indigenous scholars in the areas of researching our world and being able to share this knowledge. The other Tri-council—members of the Tri-council are also doing the same work and that makes a huge difference. And I'd like you to go to their websites to find out what they're doing. It's important that in 2019 that people are learning to work together and work—learning to work together across the cultural divides is really important. Unless we do this, we cannot continue to work in isolation, in silos and across the river. We need to be able to work together and this I see happening in organizations, in governments, in communities, and associations. In British Columbia, the Premier put into place the action to create an Indigenous languages education policy. This continues to be worked on and it's in partnership—they're doing this work in partnership with the First Nations Education Steering Committee. Next slide, please.

We have to be able to—oh, Okay. We have to be able to build on that year. And as we're going—as we prepare for and begin the decade of Indigenous languages. I think that we can be comfortable and we can be confident based on what we saw happen in just that one year. We can—we know that we can accomplish what we need to in a decade. It's important that we learn from the failures of other people who have established national policies, national legislation on Indigenous languages. The one of the areas that caused and created those failures is that there was no plan. And so let's take this year—these 10 years, these 11 more years to… not only to develop a plan of action, but to carry it out. And we need to be able to continue sharing our stories and research across the provinces and territories. We need to be able to do it nationally, internationally, and those research and stories need to be Indigenous design. We need to be able to shift the way Indigenous knowledge, language, and rights are advanced and respected in governments because we're shifting, for example, in this country, the way that the Federal Government views Indigenous people. And that's going to be a hard one. That where the government always thought that they knew best, and they're the ones who could lead the way. And that has to change. We need to be directly involved. Our voices heard and our actions supported. Institutions like education. Education has been the institution that has taken away our language. And so, this needs to be changed, and UNESCO is working on a curriculum for 2030. And they have included Indigenous knowledge in this—in their discussions about the changes that need to be made in educational curriculum. Law is changing and they're working towards this both in the practice of law but also in the study of law. And there are many Indigenous leaders who are working in this field. We have, thankfully, Indigenous people in the health, and one of the things that I heard in the dialogues across the country is that health and the people who work in health need to learn and they need to learn about our world and language is one of—is a key. Our Elders need health professionals to know our languages. We need to be able to continue to protect our lands in every way, and the knowledge that is contained in Indigenous languages will help in this—in the protection of our lands and also in the technology. Next slide, please.

In funding in 2019, there was increased funding from the Federal Government. I mis-ordered my PowerPoint. There was increased funding from the Federal Government to both communities and band schools, and this has made a difference. Its—people have been working very hard to access this funding and to put it to good use. Although 2020 has been a challenging year for our communities, I think that they've still continued to work and to use technology to be able to carry out their programs. There are questions that are—and studies on funding plans on—and so hopefully the decisions that are made will be—but those studies will be listened to, the voices of the people will be listening—listened to. There is an increase in funding in provinces. For example, in British Columbia, fifty million dollars was provided to First Peoples Culture Council to support language planning, learning, mentor/apprentice, language nests and much, much more. Go to their website, you'll find the actual work they're doing and what this fifty million dollars is doing to promote our languages in the communities. There is increased funding from the private and public sector. This is an important thing to think about. There are places that have—that do receive private and public sector report, but there are many others that don't. And in all the work that I've been doing, this has been a real challenge. And again, the attitudes of many in the public and private sector is that languages—our languages are going extinct. And they're not—and of what use are they? Is one idea that they have. And the other is the notion that Indigenous people cannot manage money and they cannot do the work that needs to be done. These are attitudes and ideas that need to be changed. Next slide.

I'm running out of time. Next slide.

So, looking ahead, It's important—we need to focus, especially in the first five years—the implementation of the Indigenous Language Act, and I want to applaud that the act is distinction-based. For the first time, the unique needs and the vision of First Nations, the Métis, and the Inuit are taken into consideration as each has a unique history in this country and each have unique needs because of what's happened to them and because of the uniqueness of their cultures and identities. The creation of the Office of Commissioner and the three Directors is key, and the work of this office will be one of the primary activities, I'd say, in the first five years. This is critical that what gets established is what will promote and make—and help Indigenous languages across the land to be successful. And I just want to say here that a message that I carry with me today is one that I learned from an Elder, an Elder from the North Shore, Mr. George, Dan George. He was helping me with a leadership development program that I had for youth. And he would come to help me. And one of the things that he said to the youth that I thought is really important for us here. He said—he was talking about, you know, the qualities and—of leadership, you know, who—what do leaders do and how do they behave? And but then he said, we also have to think about the people who he said are walking behind the leader as the leader, you know, moves forward towards the goal to the point where we need to reach. The leader who is looking to make sure that we are on the right path and that we can make a path. He said we need—he said those of us who are following behind. He said, we need to work together to help that leader to be successful. So, we need to be observant. We need to be supportive. We need to be encouraging. We need to be willing to be led. And this, I think, is really important because a shift that we need to make, too, is that we've been fighting, fighting, fighting, and fighting and pushing and pushing to open doors. And sometimes we forget that there are times when we need to not fight anymore or we need to be cautious about who we're fighting. And so, whoever is going to take up this challenge, this huge challenge, of being the Commissioner for Indigenous languages, who has to make the changes that are necessary. It's going to be important for us to help them to push and not to break them down. It's—and so it's important that we become mindful of our ways and our kindnesses. And it's the same for the three who are going to—who will choose to be Directors of the different languages. Next slide, please.

So, it's important that we engage in both the macro and micro Indigenous language planning and action that's going to take place and we need to be involved, we need to give good advice, and we need to be thoughtful. We need to rely on all of the people who have—who are working on our languages and to find the practices that are both—the practices that are barriers and the ones that are the creation of policies that support Indigenous language revitalization. We need to celebrate and acknowledge the Indigenous languages locally, nationally, and internationally, and we need to recognize our language champions. I did studies on—for several places, and it's—for me, it's been the most hurtful to know how our language warriors, our language champions, are treated sometimes in their home communities. We need to be mindful of this and to support them. We need all Indigenous people to have access to mother tongue language learning and to consider how that can be made available to all Canadians in this decade. Next slide, please.

Language learning programs are comprised of speaking the language, studying the language, the culture, identity, contexts, and traditions, and that includes sports and recreation and opportunities to celebrate in our ceremonies, in our languages. We need to be able to design and practice learning, teaching, and assessment that are based on our ways. Next slide, please.

So I think that it's—that we have much work to do, but we know how to work hard. We know how to work together. We call on the Creator to help us find our path as we make this happen. Stucum in my language is the word that we use when we leave and depart from a place and when we watch people go on—continue on their journey. And so I say Stucum to each of you. And the translation of that word, I think, is really good. It says ask—be open to the Creator. So, that the Creator can help you see your path as you journey. Stucum.

MC: Meegwetch, Dr. Williams. That was a beautiful ending. I love that greeting—that farewell. It's all kind of self-reflective. So, Meegwetch for that. What an amazing presentation. That brings us to the end of our keynote speakers in terms of our agenda. We'll move now to two panellists, and we'll be—we're lucky to be joined by Gina Wilson, who is our Deputy Minister, Diversity and Inclusion and Youth and Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage. She promises me she'll actually share her full title with us and not just this quick summary that we were provided with. So, with that, I will pass the chair on to Gina Wilson, who will be moderating our next two panels. Gina.

Gina Wilson (GW): Thank you, Mathieu, and yes, indeed, I have a few titles too many, but I'll save that for another day. Hello, everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. Kwai. So, Gina Wilson here coming to you from unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe Territory. I'm so happy to be here. Welcome to this one of two sessions.

MC: Well, we seem to have lost Gina. The beauties of technology. Of course, she was sitting and waiting and waiting to start. And then now that we start, freeze. Are we—so, we're still trying to get connection. Okay, or? That's what I'll do. As we wait to make a connection with Gina, what we'll do is I'll introduce our panellists. We're joined today by Minister Clara Morin Dal Col, who is the Métis National Council Minister of Heritage, Families and Culture, Métis Nation Minister of Health, and President of Métis Nation British Columbia. Who is Ruth? And we are also joined by Ruth Kaviok, who's on the phone. Unfortunately, we can't get a hold of Ruth via video. I'm sure—and she's an Inuk youth who will also be part of our panel. So, with that, what I'd like to do is go straight to that. I believe she has a presentation for us and hopefully we'll get Gina back in time for the Q&A session. But, Clara, the floor is yours.

Clara Morin Dal Col (CMDC): [Greetings in Michif]. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone attending this important symposium on Indigenous languages. First of all, my thanks for the opening prayers by our Elders and Knowledge Keepers, the wisdom and knowledge about who we are and the importance of our languages and culture that they share with us in their opening prayers is something that we always learn from and deeply appreciate. I also want to recognize the other Indigenous leaders, government representatives, and speakers who have made important contributions to the symposium this week, and I also want to express my appreciation to all the organizers for working together to put on this important symposium on Indigenous languages during the pandemic. I know it has not been easy to do. Let me begin my presentation by sharing with you the fact that Michif was the language spoken in our family home in Ile--à--la--Crosse, Saskatchewan. That's where I was born and raised in my early years, but when I was a bit older and we moved to Hay River in Northwest Territories, we're not allowed to speak our language in school and therefore we knew it—that language became my dominant language and the use of Michif slipped away. I regret that this very day—to this very day, and I'm determined to do everything I can as the National Métis Minister for Culture, Heritage and Families to change that. In 2019, we celebrated the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This was an important opportunity to focus the world's attention on the critical threats to the survival of Indigenous languages in every region of the globe. One of the achievements of that year was the recognition of the urgency and necessity of doing much more to ensure the survival of our languages. This directly led to the United Nations proclaiming the years 2022 to 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous languages. The objectives of the International Decade are: to draw attention to the critical loss of Indigenous languages and urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote them, and to take urgent steps at the national and international levels. The Métis Nation was very involved in the activities leading up to the Proclamation of the International Decade. Métis National Council President Clément Chartier and I took part in the official launch of the International Year at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the lead UN agency working to protect endangered languages. I also had the honour of speaking at the United Nations when I attended the closing event for the International Year in December 2019. I took the opportunity to emphasize the need for the upcoming decade to focus attention and support for critically endangered languages such as Michif. For the Métis Nation, when we look ahead to the end of the International Decade in 2032, we want to see significant progress in bringing our national language Michif back from the brink of extinction. We know that by the end of the International Decade, many of our current fluent speakers will have passed on. It is critical and urgent that over the coming decade, we significantly increase the number of new speakers of all levels of fluency. We need to put strong foundations in place that will enable this revitalization to occur. During last fall's engagement process, our educators strongly emphasized the importance of standardizing the spelling of the Michif language. This is essential for sharing curriculum, materials, and other resources throughout our homeland. Our educators also emphasize the urgency of working with our Knowledge Keepers to create a thorough archive of recordings reflecting the richness of how our language is used in daily life. We also know that our citizens need to be able to see and hear our language more often in daily life. President Chartier has challenged the Métis nation to use our national language more often in our own meetings and in our own communications. Certainly, before the end of the decade in 2032, we should be able to offer simultaneous translation in Michif. We should be able to produce bilingual editions of all our key publications. For the future of our language, we have to be able to do this. It is important that Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Governments also adopt clear targets for their own use of Indigenous languages in their own communities and communications, as well as targets for the promotion of arts and entertainment using Indigenous languages. At this point, I do want to applaud the Federal Government for introducing and passing Bill C91, an act respecting Indigenous languages in 2019. This will be an important tool for all Indigenous peoples in revitalizing our respective languages as we move through the International Decade. The Joint Implementation Steering Committee, which is made up of the Métis National Council, First Nations, Inuit, and Canadian Heritage, has begun to examine how a national action plan in Canada can be developed for the International Decade. Today's conversation will help contribute to that plan. The Global Task Force has been established through UNESCO for making a decade for action for Indigenous languages. I'm looking forward to the work of the task force and I will be informed by our conversation here today and have been listening throughout the week to the many Métis nation, First Nations, and Inuit experts whose insights and perspectives will also inform my contribution to the Decade. Merci and thank you.

GW: Thank you, Clara. And apologies for losing my network there for a moment. I want to thank you for your presentation. I don't know how far we got with the introductions, but I'm just going to turn it over to Ruth Kaviok, former President of the National Inuit Youth Council. Ruth, you're on the telephone, right? Ruth was going to join us by phone.

Ruth Kaviok (RK): Hi. Can you hear me now?

GW: Yes, we can hear you, Ruth. Go ahead.

RK: Okay. Thank you. So, I will just quickly put my time in. There. [Greetings in Inuktut]. Good morning, everyone. My name's Ruth Kaviok and I'm from Arviat, Nunavut. I'm an Inuit Youth and former President of the National Inuit Youth Council. I was a fourth-grade teacher for a year, and I worked at our local Hunters and Trappers organization and now I am currently working as a Recreation Creator at our Elders Care Centre. So, for my presentation this morning, I want you all to visualize the timeline with me. Imagine you're back to the time before colonization. You are helping your mom or dad butchering your catch to feed your family and provide things to make clothing for you and your family or you’re picking berries or egg hunting or playing some games with your siblings. Everyone is speaking nothing but pure Inuktitut, speaking words that some of us don't know exist anymore. Now, visualize the present day, some of us Inuit are privileged to be able to fluently speak, read, and write and communicate in Inuktitut while a lot of Inuit struggle to understand or discourage to put an effort to reclaim their language all because of our colonial history. This gives an idea to how I want to see our Inuktitut thriving in the future. The Inuktitut is one of the important values to honour our culture and to keep it alive. So, I want to see it thriving, for everyone to embrace speaking it. Just after the colonial experience, after the era of sort of—as generations went—that residential school era, some Inuit were embarrassed to speak Inuktitut because of colonial—the colonial experience. So, I want everyone to be embracing to be speaking it like 100 percent and for every Inuk to be able to both understand and fluently speak Inuktitut, for our language to be known by every Inuk in existence in the future. And for us to keep our Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit principles alive like our IQ values. To keep that alive, it gives us an opportunity for young people to teach each other too. And for Elders to pass it down onto us, so that we can pass it on to the future generations. Opportunities, I would like there to be an Inuktitut guide. I want Inuktitut to be recognized to be one of the official languages in Canada, in our country and in other countries where there's need as well, like Greenland, Alaska, Russia. This gives an opportunity to fund, to provide services and programs to promote Inuktitut, so that we can unify Inuktitut language between regions and communities in Inuit Nunangat. I also want to see education system all in Inuktitut from beginning from pre-school all the way to university to job opportunities like that's how much I want Inuktitut to be revitalized. I want to see a dictionary created to have all Inuktitut words properly spelled, explained, what region it's from, pronouns, nouns, adjectives, everything properly spelled out for us to reclaim our language so that it can be passed on from one generation to the next. For our Elders to teach more people as much as they can, especially for young people. It has been such a rollercoaster before, after—before and after the colonization, so by reclaiming our language, it's such a good, bright future for us Inuit youth and Inuit in general. Sorry, I'm speaking about this topic gives me vivid picture of what our people had to go through to lose our language in the first place or to—I want to see Inuktitut learning centre to be available to our Inuit and for us to relearn traditional words. I mentioned that I work at our Elder Care Centre here in Arviat and sometimes I even have to ask my older co-workers what the elders are specifically asking for. Simple, simple words like the traditional word for bowl or spoon or like anything small, but it's so, like. There is an age gap between the eldest and myself is pretty big, so. And because of that age gap, I'm like in the middle person between the older people who were able to learn this all Inuktitut, like they had the opportunity to grow up, to speak nothing but Inuktitut, whereas I had to grow up with like some English words and words that are like modern. And that makes it lose—that makes us lose our pronunciation with our daily lives and actions every day. And so, I want to envision a clear roadmap to how we can claim our Inuktitut. To keep it alive, to pass it on, to keep our culture strong, everything. And so, if we are able to be supported by the Federal Government, imagine what that support can do to our people so that we may be able to heal from the colonial times. We will be able to heal from all the bad history that we carry. Inuktitut is the only—is one of the only values to keep our culture alive and by keeping it alive, we are able to do a lot—make a lot of ripple effects into learning our language. It could open more doors to completely take back our culture with such pride, with such honour, and with good… So, yes.

GW: Thank you, Ruth. Were you done?

RK: Thank you. Yes.

GW: Okay. Alright. Thanks so much. Thanks so much to both of you for that. You both referred to what success looks like and so I'm hoping you can give us a sense of measuring that success. So, some of the things you talked about are probably not going to happen like overnight or in the next month or so, but can you give us a sense of, and that's to both of you, what measuring that success could look like? You know, how will we know that we are progressing, I would say? So, I'll turn it back to Clara.

CMDC: I think how we can show we're progressing is that how far we're coming within our own communities, within our own people, and sharing our language. I think it's starting at our early years with our very youngest. The thing is—the success for us is teaching the speakers on our language. We have so few speakers. How do we incorporate that across our whole nation? So, it's getting the tools and starting to work on that level. We'll start to show our success when we start moving it into the early years programs for our children. That would be the first step for us to make sure that that is done and then to where like some communities that speak, you know, our Michif language and have to learn that in school, like in Ile-a-la-Crosse, where you're learning your language in school. So, that's vitally important. That's something we'd like to see happen and at all levels.

GW: That's great. Ruth, how about you? Do you have an example of what can be measured?

RK: I—yes. The success rate to reclaim our language back to 100 percent is very, very high. Some of us are already privileged to be able to read, write, speak Inuktitut, so. And I mentioned the IQ values, Qauijimajatuqangit. If we reclaim that too, we could greatly help to teach these—we could use that tool to teach each other Inuktitut, like the social media, in person, through letters, everything. And if we added to our education system, it's very highly possible because we already use it in our current education system. So, it's taught at school. There's no doubt it's taught at home too.

GW: Thank you. Thank you for that. Just on that, you know, by the end of the decade, we're talking about a number of years from now, what are some of the outcomes we would want to achieve? And I'm talking about more quantitative outcomes if you have any, Clara.

CMDC: Well, our outcomes like we talked earlier would be—I'd love to see our language being spoken fluently and at all levels of fluency, like we talked before, because by the end of the Decade, we're going to lose a lot of our Elders that speak the language fluently. So, we have to ensure by that time that we do have speakers and that when we do gatherings and we do have not just language gatherings, but all type of language gatherings. We are language fluently and everyone understands. My mom spoke it fluently and she'd talk to us all the time, but we'd answer her in English a lot of the time. So, you know, this is something that I’d love to see that everybody can speak fluently and bring it out of extinction. We're on the borders of extinction with our language. That's important.

GW: Yeah, so that would mean then like one hundred percent, right, in terms of the quantification. Okay. Ruth, I would think that that would be the same, that you would envision for Inuktitut.

RK: Yes.

GW: Okay. Okay. What about some tools out there? Do we have any tools that you're aware of that can—scales or indexes or anything else that could be helpful, Clara?

CMDC: That's what we're lacking. We have to get more tools. We've got a few that community members have put together, like I use all across Saskatchewan, for example. They've got, you know, a little dictionary the high school teacher put together and some audio, but we need more than that. We need to be able to have this across our whole nation and ensure that what they're getting is the proper terms, the proper pronunciations, and things like that. So, it's the tools we need to move our language forward we're lacking in, and we have to ensure that we get those tools for our people to be able to use in order to enhance our language.

GW: Yes, absolutely. As well as measurement tools as well, right?

CMDC: Absolutely.

GW: Good. What about—over to you, Ruth. Do you have any comments on that?

RK: I think, like cause we Inuit are verbally taught from our parents to our children, etc., cause we mostly learn like verbally. I think the only tool we need is to be able to learn how to, like, give proper, like, teaching. We already have like ads. We already have Inuktitut being taught in school and at home. And we just need the opportunity to be able to be united again, so that we can learn together and teach together, if that makes sense.

GW: Yes, that makes sense for sure. And being united is probably, like, one of those really important impacts that can happen as a result of the language, you know. Clara, I wondered if you could talk about that in terms of impacts like well-being or pride or stuff like that.

CMDC: You know, culture is everything to Indigenous people. It tells us who we are. It makes us proud of who we are and to be able to learn the language. I see it now in people who are so thirsty for knowledge and thirsty to learn our language, and it gives them the pride that self—the sense of well-being. We have our Métis communities, but we also have a lot of urban Métis. And so, how do we bring them together into a community, into a setting of learning? And so, we've got a lot of these challenges for us, but the pride people take in learning anything about their culture and language shows who we are as a people. And along with all the, you know, our whole culture. So that is really important to the people in their pride that they take when they do learn this, and I know they're thirsty for that knowledge and to be able to learn our language. That is so important to all Indigenous people.

GW: It is. Ruth, any wrap up from you? Anything that you wanted to add to the conversation that you might not have at this point? And I'll come back to you.

RK: Yes. I think the most important thing for this topic is that it's very, like, it holds so much value to hold our language and to keep it alive and to be like for that, like, I can't even put it into words of how like, how much pride it like, the measure of pride, it can hold. Yes. Like it's so unique kind of way. It's so like, Inuktitut, like, how. Hold on, let me try, like. The—what is like, how much strength it holds. Like our culture. The impact would. So very much like very much.

GW: Yes.

RK: Like how it very much would help our people go back to the way it was before colonization. And for us to be able to heal together.

GW: Healing, yes. That's another impact for sure.

RK: It's such a—one of the beautiful ways to embrace our culture. One of the most beautiful treasures to keep.

GW: Indeed. It is. So, I'm going to give you both an opportunity just to say a few closing thoughts or words or something you really wanted to emphasize going forward. So, Clara, over to you for final comments.

CMDC: I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you and how important this symposium is because language is, as I said earlier, our—it's our culture, it's who we are as a people and to know that we have this decade of the languages—to bring back languages that I said are on the verge of extinction and to be able to, at the end of this Decade, to have our people and all Indigenous languages being able to be spoken freely, openly. It heals our people culturally, spiritually. And this is something that is really exciting to me and to all Indigenous people to have this and to be recognized in moving our languages forward. So, I hold my hands up to you. Thank you to everyone for being on the—at the symposium.

GW: It's a wonderful, optimistic message. Thank you, Clara. Ruth, final thoughts.

RK: Okay. I will just say this in my language. [Inuktut]. I just wanted to say to any Inuit who are listening and were able to understand what I'm saying. I said this: I wanted to thank you guys for this opportunity to be able to give a presentation. And for my fellow Inuit that are listening for them—for us to work together to bring back our language back to 100 percent and for everyone to be safe during these hard times in their lives.

GW: That's beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. Thank you so much both of you. To Clara and Ruth, I want to say Meegwetch. Welcome back. Gather back. Hope you had a good break. I'm very pleased to welcome you back for this plenary session on the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. And I'd just like to take a moment to introduce each of our panellists before inviting them to speak. I'm happy to introduce Crystal Martin-Lapenski, President of the National Inuit Youth Council, and Crystal has spent her entire career working to improve the lives of Inuit across Canada through the development and implementation of Inuit-specific programs and services. It's also my great pleasure to introduce Clément Chartier, the President of the Métis National Council. Clément is a well-respected political figure and recipient of a Queen's Counsel Distinction for his work in law. He served both political and administrative capacities with numerous Indigenous peoples organizations nationally and internationally. Finally, I'm also pleased to introduce Sébastien Goupil, Secretary -General of UNESCO. Sebastian has held a number of various senior-level positions in the Federal Public Service, including Library and Archives, Canadian Heritage, and Status of Women Canada, which is now Women and Gender Equality Canada. So, thank you and welcome to all the panellists here today, and I want to first invite Crystal Martin-Lapenski to speak. So, over to you, Crystal.

Crystal Martin-Lapenski (CML): [Inuktut]. Thank you. [Inuktut]. Hello. My name is Crystal and I'm the President for the National Inuit Youth Council. My role as President for the National Inuit Youth Council is to bring forward the priorities of Inuit youth to various tables and lobby policies that impact youth and our future. These priorities are identified every two years at the National Inuit Youth Summit. However, like many other important events, have been postponed due to COVID -19. However, our priorities remain relevant to our overall well-being, including culture and language revitalization. Throughout this week, you have heard from many Inuit representational organizations on the amazing work being done in our communities, and you may have also heard about the various concerns we have regarding loss of language. Many of our regions face in the need for multi-year funding arrangements that will ensure the safety of our language. The fact is, though, Inuktitut does remain strong in most of our communities. We do have varying dialects that are often underrepresented, such as the Inuvialuktun in the Inuvialuit region, Inuinnaqtun in the Kugluktuk region and Inuttitut in Nunatsiavut. Though these regions have been doing exceptionally well in promoting and revitalizing Inuktitut in programs across their communities, they still require support to ensure that language of their region is not lost and forgotten. And this support is ensuring multi-year funding arrangements that are long term. As an Inuk who only spoke Inuktitut in Nunavut as a child and then moving to rural Ontario by the age of 10 years and becoming a fluent English speaker, I only have my mother to thank for her ongoing communication in Inuktitut throughout my adolescence and early adult years. Because of that and my willingness to keep up, I was able to continue to be an intermediate Inuktitut speaker. However, as I mentioned in my opening, my language skills can often come across as child-like. Rural and urban Inuit in southern Canada are also underrepresented in language programming where there is a growing population of Inuit. I feel lucky that I am able to communicate in Inuktitut. My brother, on the other hand, who is a year older than me, has lost Inuktitut almost completely. This is a huge concern for Inuit children, youth, and families who move to southern Canada to access basic services and programs because we lack so many in our communities. Our language is tied with our culture and our culture is tied with our communities, and our communities are being ripped apart because of lack of infrastructure in our own communities. This cycle will repeat itself if we do not look at systemic changes in policy. Recognizing that there are amazing programs and projects taking place across Inuit Nunangat to preserve, promote, and protect Inuktut. And the Government of Canada adopting the Indigenous Languages Act. We need to be clear that Indigenous peoples are taking the lead in developing, managing, and controlling their own affairs, especially when it comes to their language. Inuit youth are hungry for culture and language, as you have heard Ruth speak just before us and are identifying unique ways of learning and growing Inuktut, whether that is through poem writing, songs, in the arts sector, or participating in Elder and youth programming. Inuit youth have also been using popular social media platforms. One which has become very popular, TikTok, to really engage with other Inuit in Canada and around the world since this pandemic started. There are Inuit that have used TikTok to learn Inuktitut and to learn other dialects as well, and to teach Inuktitut. As an idea, something like an app for Inuit to learn Inuktitut that is engaging and unique, as that will create a fun space for Inuit youth and children while they're learning. In closing, our regional Inuit organizations have been doing a fantastic job supporting revitalizations and promotion of Inuktitut or Inuktut. However, provincial and territorial governments need to change their policies to reflect and respect Indigenous languages. Ensuring Indigenous languages are available at all costs, including those that are coming in from the north coming into the south. I've heard of experiences where unilingual Inuit Elders are coming down and people are providing them with a piece of paper that is all written in English, none of which are in their language of choice that they're able to understand. We hope that through this Indigenous Languages Act, Inuit youth will be able to not just revitalize but continue to protect our language as well. [Greetings in Inuktut]. Thank you.

GW: Thank you so much, Crystal. Going to turn it over to President Clément Chartier to speak next.

Clément Chartier (CC): Yes. I was told you guys would handle it, but anyway. So, hello, Gina. And I want to say a big thank you to the Elders and Knowledge Keepers for providing us with the opening remarks and the opening prayers today, and, Gina, I'm pleased to join you in this session. And as well, of course, as Crystal Martin--Lapenski and Dr. Sébastien Goupil. In the context of examining Canada's strategic plan for the 2022--2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages, I will attempt to speak more from the international character of the Decade. I am sure you will agree that it has been a real pleasure and benefit during this symposium to hear from our guests from other regions of the world who have brought their experiences to us and so willingly shared them with us. Indigenous peoples worldwide have a lot in common. Globally, our Indigenous sisters and brothers are also grappling with revitalizing languages that are on the brink of extinction. They have developed techniques and tools that work for them, but which could also work for us. We already know this to be the case and we have certainly learned a lot from the speakers over the past several days about the potential of examining the positive models that we can adapt and apply here in Canada. Over the past week, we have learned from one another, and we have drawn inspiration from one another. Over the decades, I won't say how many, but for the past little while, anyway, I have had an opportunity to witness the power of advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples through international advocacy, particularly within the United Nations forum, including the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, The Human Rights Council, and special procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I have also spent considerable time working with the Organization of American States, including the working group, which was tasked with developing a draft of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a task like the UN one that took a couple of decades, you know, to arrive at. I'm pleased to say that the General Assembly in 2016 almost unanimously adopted the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That declaration also speaks to the importance of Indigenous languages and cultures in the Americas and the Caribbean. Hopefully, Canada will endorse this declaration in the next few years, as it adds to the reconciliation efforts taking place between Indigenous peoples in this country, but also Indigenous peoples in the rest of the Americas and the Caribbean. In my experience, an important part of engaging in international human rights systems is the relationships and networks that have developed with other Indigenous peoples and nations. In fact, through these relationships, working with the Assembly of First Nations, we established the American Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) in April 2018 in Lima, Peru. During the eighth summit of the Americas, a regional body which can be instrumental in helping promote the Decade and seeking to obtain its objectives. I know that in my own life, I have worked quite a bit with Indigenous peoples in South and Central America as well as other regions of the world. This work is something that has always deepened my commitment and renewed my energy to serve my own people, the Métis nation. More of our people need these opportunities, especially our young people, and we need to encourage intergenerational exchanges among Indigenous peoples. I would like to see this happen more frequently within the Americas, as well as globally. One of the key ways to realize the objectives of the International Decade is to support connections and exchanges amongst Aboriginal peoples. There is no substitute for spending time together face--to--face. However, if there is a positive side to this pandemic, it's that we have all improved at using new communication tools that are available to us. The lower cost and the lower carbon footprint of virtual collaboration makes it possible to imagine making international connections accessible to our young people in a way that was never imaginable before. This should be a central part of the Decade as it unfolds. From participating in this symposium, it is clear that there is an impressive array of expertise embedded within our Elders, our Knowledge Keepers, our speakers, our educators, and our youth. We need to ensure we support these experts so that our languages, our cultures, and our very identities prosper and grow in a measurable way over the next decade. With that, Merci, thank you. Merci.

GW: Thank you. Merci, Clem. Over to you, Sébastien.

Sébastien Goupil (SG): Miigwetch. Merci, Gina. Kwai. [Translated from French] Hello everyone. I would also like to...

Interpreter: I would also like to underline the contribution of the Elders, the Knowledge Keepers. I was happy to meet several over the last years. They've inspired me a lot and encouraged me to act. I would also like to recognize the UNESCO's offices are on the unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabe and I'm privileged to have participated in 2019 at a great gathering organized by our group to mobilize the community around the revitalization of the Algonquin language. I'd like to participate in the panel today next to you, President Chartier and Ms. Lapenski. The Law on Languages Act is very important. I'm happy to be able to speak at a symposium that was prepared. One—Canada is one of the rare countries that has, finally, I stress that, produced laws on Indigenous languages, even though there's a lot of work yet to do. It's important to recognize that it is good progress. I'd like to first speak on the UNESCO Canadian Commission. Our commission has a mandate to actively promote the activities of UNESCO, and we promote the—what is happening within the Canadian society and our partners from all of the nations native UNESCO and the work of UNESCO to promote the revival of the native languages. Since 2018, we've invested to work for this International Year that occurred in 2019 under UNESCO. We worked with our network and partners. We wanted to broaden this movement to promote, maintain, and revitalize native languages. And I've got to underlie the—Katharine Turvey, my colleague who worked within my team and who worked at—on this file with conviction. She charted a role for our organization and her own family was touched by the loss of the Anishinaabemowin language, and she worked at dealing with this issue, knowing that it was not for her personally, but for her community. We are proud of having been good allies and what we accomplished over that International Year. There's enormous work yet to be done and to tell you the essence of what I think, we should not be happy that the United Nations dedicated one year to native languages, but to continue with the Decade, it indicates the unwillingness of countries and institutions to stop the eradication of languages across the world.

SG: We are still discussing this topic and how to get traction on it. I was asked to say a few words today about mobilizing civil society to take action on Indigenous languages in Canada. I would like to start by sharing what we learned as a commission through our work on the International Year in 2019. First, for Indigenous cultures and languages to thrive, they need adequate, stable, predictable funding. This is, we know, included in the legislation, and has been the topic of discussions this week. The dedicated, passionate, creative colleagues work in language and culture revitalization have been saying this for decades, as President Chartier was just saying. They need sustained support from all levels of government, the private sector, and civil society to continue their efforts. Next, all levels of government, including municipal ones, also need to mobilize and engage to put Indigenous languages at the forefront and create the conditions and space they need to thrive. They have a moral obligation to provide adequate resources to redress, of course, the harms inflicted on the Indigenous peoples, their culture, and their languages across our history. This is especially important because the International Year was, in many ways, what I see as a missed opportunity here in Canada, along with our many partners, many Indigenous ones, we have been, in fact, quite disappointed by how little interest was demonstrated for the International Year. Governments in Canada, starting at the federal level, did not, in my humble view, take the opportunity to seize upon the real public excitement about the Year that we witnessed at the grassroots level, nor did they take any major step or contribute anything noteworthy on the international stage. And you know, at some point it seemed coincidental that the Indigenous Languages Act passed that year. I know that all parts of society, including public administration, can do better. I would like to strongly encourage those of you working in different departments, especially executives and those in central agencies, to be much more ambitious to really use the International Decade to build a real legacy on Turtle Island and, of course, beyond. To make that happen, you will need to decide on some concrete actions and outcomes. To begin with, I would urge you to consult the First Peoples Cultural Council 10 goals for the International Decade from giving Indigenous communities full control of their own language data to ensuring Indigenous language learners have access to mother tongue-based education for recognizing and honouring Indigenous knowledge and expertise and more. Those goals are, in our view, an excellent starting point, but this should not be a check-the-box exercise. The subject matter is far too important for that. A solid action plan needs to be fuelled by ambition and imagination. It needs to be co-created by a range of stakeholders. It needs to be designed really to mobilize and inspire. The coming International Decade is also an opportunity for Canada to set an international example of how to lead on this issue. We can leverage UNESCO's normative role to bring greater attention to the key issues and create the conditions for better safeguarding of Indigenous languages across the globe. Because of the legislation we enacted, our experience and expertise should serve others. We can also seize the decade to help make UNESCO better. The International Year was a major learning experience for UNESCO on the urgent need to decolonize its own processes, assumptions, and approaches. I think Grand Chief Littlechild raised that. It highlighted the lack of a mechanism for UNESCO to engage directly with Indigenous peoples. It shows that something as simple as revising the UNESCO style guide is going to take further time and advocacy, but it is essential to respect and, of course, convey Indigenous rights to UNESCO's global audience. The creation of the International Decade is a provocative wake up call to take bold, courageous, urgent action. And don't worry, I'm not letting civil society off the hook either. Citizens, I believe, have a strong supporting role to play in creating the conditions that will allow Indigenous languages to flourish. This will be a massive exercise in mainstreaming, and it starts with being well informed. Before they can be convinced to make a contribution, people need knowledge. They need the motivation. A sense of shared responsibility is key to advancing our efforts to safeguard Indigenous languages. It starts with understanding languages as living languages. The stories of loss and destructions are real. They are a painful reminder of past and ongoing colonial harm in this country, but the stories of continuity open revival are key to mobilizing broad civil society support and investment in Indigenous languages, and there is hope. The overall number of speakers has been consistently rising the last 10 years. There are now twice as many children as elders who can speak an Indigenous language, and it's time to shift the narrative with civil society from one of depth to one of vitality. And this is one of the very important takeaways I took from the International Year. There are many concrete actions members of civil society can take to support and promote Indigenous languages as living languages. Our commission developed a factsheet in cooperation with Onowa McIvor at Kwai (University of Victoria) that we shared very widely. It lists some of them, like some very straightforward. Get informed. What is the language of your territory where you live, work, and visit? Learn a greeting in the language of the territory and use it often. If you're in a position to do so, make it visible in public spaces or advocate for their visibility. These are—there are beautiful examples of the popping up all over our university campuses, municipal buildings, and even UNESCO designated sites, parks all over Canada. And of course, advocate for re-establishing Indigenous place names or renaming streets or region using a local Indigenous language in collaboration with speakers and local language and cultural centres. Just a quick story. When I was on my way to Temiskaming to attend the Miaja gathering, I just couldn't believe that during a five-hour drive, I never came across an Indigenous name, except when I was going through a reserve, and it made me sad. These are all excellent ideas. There are plenty more, of course, but all of these efforts need to be backed up by a real commitment on the part of governments to recognize and uphold the work of Indigenous peoples to revitalize their languages. To sum up, I would say this: no one should ever have to argue that their language matters. Indigenous languages are part of our shared heritage on this land. They hold the keys to worldviews, legal systems, and intimate understanding of the natural world and history. Indigenous languages are vital connections to culture, community, nature, science, knowledge, traditions, spirituality, and relationships that needs to be broadly understood. And that's a role that civil society can also play. I hope that each of you will lead this panel in the symposium with renewed determination to play a proactive role in supporting Indigenous languages on a societal level, or through, of course, your professional role, especially if you're within government. Chi-miigwetch.

GW: Miigwetch. Merci, Sébastien and Clem and Crystal. Thank you very much for your presentations. I'm going to start the questions here and the discussion, and I want to start with one that I'm actually very keen to learn about, myself, as a representative of government, and it is about Canada's approach to the International Decade. So, it's going to be very important that we engage. Clearly. You've all talked about that, but what would be some of the best ways we can go about gathering people by grouping, maybe by youth, Crystal? I don't know. Clem, you talked about technology and the connections we can make that way. But I'll turn to Sébastien first and see if you have any ideas that we can take even at Canadian Heritage or government at large in terms of engagement.

SG: Maybe, Gina, it's a very relevant but terribly complex question. There is no magical wand when it comes to developing a meaningful strategy. To me the secret, and this is what we've been—we've tried as a commission is just mainstream, and instead of going with, you know, our own little plans and start checking boxes and pretending that our job is done, we really look at our responsibility as a whole as a commission. And we've tried—like, when it came to reconciliation and Indigenous languages, we've examined how we could advance this agenda broadly across our entire governance and mandate. And I think that's what I would challenge government to do. It doesn't rely on PCH (Department of Canadian Heritage) shoulders, even if this is where the main funding programs are based. We should challenge every single part of government, including like Treasury Board who has a very important evaluation function to play or normative function to play to be creative and see what it is that they can do, even through infrastructure funding or anything else. Like you can invest in green infrastructure and ensure that it be done in a way to revive Indigenous cultures and bring elements of languages about that. I would ask for people to come to the table with their best ideas notwithstanding, you know, the type of gathering you make. And of course, I find—I would say, let's all get out of our office and let's go on the ground. That's one of the things—I was very sad and I was often, with my colleagues at the commission, the only one who is attending gatherings, hearing first-hand not only Elders and Knowledge Keepers, but young people think about their wish and what they were thinking important about language revitalization. And to me, I would be bold and challenge. I think, Gina, you could challenge all of your colleagues to come up with some plans and put this together in a whole--of--government strategy.

GW: Okay. So, almost like gender--based analysis plus, just mainstream it for all policies and programs and ask the question in terms of how does this contribute to Indigenous languages? Interesting. Thank you. Clem, you were talking a bit about technology and connections and so on. How can we bring people together and really engage them on the decade?

CC: Well, this, I guess, is more regional—international. I think within Canada, first of all, we do have the legislation and we're working to implement it, and I think that's come in Canada for that and we do have the permanent bilateral mechanism on a distinctions--based approach and we have to be always cognizant of that. We can't go back to this pan--aboriginal, you know, initiative or initiatives with respect to Indigenous peoples and nations, and we need to look within Canada. But of course, we have to engage our communities as well, our respective communities. Can’t leave that out. And as well, I'm not speaking for the Inuit, but at some point, you know, Canada has to move towards recognizing, you know, official languages of Indigenous peoples. And I know President Obed has and the Inuit have been pressing for such an—they're a prime example of how, you know, Canada could set a precedent with respect to that. Internationally, I participated in a virtual meeting in November—on November 4th with leaders from South and Central America. It's the first time we, you know, had that experience, usually we meet in person, and I'm thinking, well, that's a good way to do it, because—as well the Métis National Council, we have received some money to reach the Sustainable Development Goals for consultations both within Canada, within our Elders and within our youth, but also within the Americas. So, we're looking at ways and means to set up a consultation with Indigenous leaders throughout South and Central America through our—North America throughout our new organization. And so that's a way that we can be promoting initiatives regionally, regionally being, you know, the Americas and the Caribbean, and this technology is assisting us to do that. So, I think it's something we need to grasp. I don't know much about technology. I'm quite a dinosaur on this, but this is where the youth come in. You know, they're so knowledgeable about it. I mean, even our two-year-olds know more than I do, you know, working these technological things. So, that's a very important thing that we need to engage in.

GW: Okay. Thank you. Crystal, what about the youth perspective or Inuit perspective when it comes to engagement?

CML: Thank you. I think what both Sébastien and Clem mentioned are really great points and that—what I'm really, you know, gathering and what I've heard from Inuit leadership and Inuit youth and just Inuit generally in Canada and actually, you know, within the circumpolar region is Inuit governing their own affairs. Inuit having the control of code—not just code development, but having that ownership of all aspects of our people because we know our people. It's our culture, it's our traditions, it's our language, and it's also our knowledge as well. Traditional knowledge and ways of life as is very different from the Western system. And for Inuit, you know, Western policies have really plagued our people since the 1950s. And we're still in a position where our Elders that were traditional, that lived down on the land, that were born and raised in Igluvijaq and igloos or tupiqs. They're still around. And so, they still carry this traditional knowledge and traditional system. And I think it's really important that Inuit are responsible for overseeing such changes because we know how to engage with our communities. We have, you know, an understanding and a deep understanding and mutual understanding and feelings about the importance of our language and, you know, there are also a lot of changes happening within climate if we even look at climate. I know it's not really part of the language symposium, but it does impact our language. Our language is changing based on the climate as well. So, there's words that existed years ago that we're no longer using anymore, or we are unable to use anymore because that language or that word has been lost. So, it's really, really important that when the Government of Canada is doing these engagements or these consultations, that they're doing it directly with Inuit representatives and allowing them to take the lead and co-develop, co-manage, and own this information as well.

GW: Yes. And you talked about, like, infrastructure even impacting many of these issues. They're all interrelated, right, is the point, you know. I'm going to ask all of you as well to think about the Decade a little bit going forward. I'm going to start with Clem and just ask you, you know, what are some of the things you would like to see happen? What are some of the actions you'll take or others around you will take, you know, that are there tangible concrete actions? Clem, you know, what are some of the things you would see?

CC: Well, in terms again, thinking regionally. In 1985, when we marked our centenary of the Battle of Batoche, we also—and I was president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples at the time. We organized at Batoche an International Indigenous Youth Conference. And of course, there were youth from throughout the Americas and then from the Sámi. And a very good interchange—a very good sense of camaraderie. I mean, we would hold campfires at night and some in sweat lodges, various things, a lot of music, a lot of meetings. And I'd like to see something like that happen again on a smaller scale, but in the Americas, and we're developing the mechanism to do that, like the American Council of Indigenous Peoples. And so, it's so important to get the youth involved. And when I traveled, I did on occasion run into kids, long ago, wearing the Batoche centenary t-shirts because they took them home and they give it to family, and you know, just, in that kind of way, you know, people get together and people think that, you know, in South and Central America, the languages of Indigenous peoples are strong, and in some cases they are, but like us, they're also on the verge of losing them. So, Canada, you know, which has always been supportive of international or Indigenous peoples initiatives internationally, has kind of—it's not a criticism. They've kind of not done that much since, you know, the Trudeau government has come in, not that they did before with the previous one. But in the past they've, you know, funded the Indigenous Summits of the Americas that coincided with the Summits of the Americas, but that hasn't happened now for about, well, since about 2008 or 2009 under the Harper government where that got cut off. And we also had under the previous Liberal government an Indigenous Peoples Participation Program, where Indigenous Peoples of Canada would partner with Indigenous peoples in South and Central America. And we get funding. This is through CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and we would do projects, like the Métis National Council, we did a project in Nicaragua about public health education. We were going to do one in Bolivia. Then we said we're going to review the program and the review never did happen. But the program, you know, discontinued. Now, something like this could happen with respect to language. We could—Indigenous peoples in—it's not for us, but we would be, like, we're the conduit to work with a partner. So, in terms of languages, if Canada set up a similar program---I've been pressing them for the last five years to do that. And also, funding the new ACIP (American Council of Indigenous Peoples), you know, it's been falling on kind of deaf ears. Again, not a criticism. I'm sure they're busy doing a lot of things. But if we could find some way for Canada to get back to being, not only advocates in terms of rights verbally, but, you know, assisting us in Canada to make real impacts in South and Central America to, you know, real partnerships which are very much needed.

GW: Those are great ideas and great thoughts. I can definitely see how that kind of international Indigenous exchange of knowledge and concepts, you know, are—can be of great value. Absolutely. Sébastien, I’ll ask you: any specific ideas or thoughts? You said some in your presentation, but you want to emphasize.

SG: The first thing I'd like to say is: the Decade must start today. What I've seen a lot and I think President Chartier and others have witnessed this. We don't have the luxury to wait for two, three, four subsequent decades to get actions and tractions on Indigenous languages. And I think that if we embrace the spirit and the objectives of the International Decade, we should start to plan right now. What we see a lot with International Years and Decades is the work get done are—like people start to worry about it when it's time to report back to the UN. And again, I think I've mentioned that, but let's be proactive. Let's be ambitious. And I think that for Canada, because we have enacted legislation, I think we should ensure that as a country, we can do what has to be done within the boundaries of this decade in terms of putting in place the very mechanism. And what I've heard on and on, everywhere I've gone, because most of efforts are done right now on shoestrings. Like, I visited people supporting language revitalization from their basement on a voluntary basis. And I think putting in place mechanisms that will not be revisited down the road because there is a change of government. Extending a call. I think there are lots of players out there who tend right now to see language revitalization as almost a lost cause. And we should convince them—like changing this narrative that I've mentioned is so important with civil society and private sector and foundation. That's something I've discussed with Chief Ignace, that I've discussed, even, with Premier Martin. We have to change this narrative and look, what is it that we can build very, very early on to ensure that we won't be fighting in 5 to 10 years down the road to have the right funding amounts or funding levels, appropriations to support this work. I would say to me—and again, it's something I've discussed a lot with various leaders. I think that in our ambition, we should try to also give something to the world on the part of Canada and Indigenous peoples living on this land. And we know that in many parts of the world, our Indigenous colleagues and partners have no means at all to carry on this work. And maybe we need to think along again the lines of what was raised by Grand Chief Littlechild. What are the appropriate mechanisms beyond, you know, the existing one within the UN system? Especially, I'm thinking about UNESCO because of its responsibility for the Decade in Languages. What are the appropriate engagement mechanism? And maybe could we envision a very ambitious fund to support sustained efforts over the long term? Because again, I see this Decade, like it's 10 years, and maybe as a country, our ambition should be to go to the people down the road and say, we'd no longer need another decade to ensure that the work gets done in Canada, and we will help build what is necessary to support and sustain those efforts on the global stage.

GW: Yes. No. That's good. Thank you. Crystal. Sorry.

CML: Thank you. I'm not—I mean. For the National Youth Council, our focus is primarily within Canada, but there are definitely times where I am asked to support Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada and some international initiatives to bring Inuit youth perspective. But I do understand that there are limits within the budget as well. So, like Mr. Clem was saying, you know, that support, I think, is really important from an international standpoint. You know, ICC (Inuit Circumpolar Council) Canada is engaged within the United Nations on different initiatives. However, I'm not entirely sure in terms of their funding arrangements or anything like that, but I do understand that there are also limits in terms of our involvement because there is not enough funding available for Inuit youth and Inuit youth internationally through the Inuit Circumpolar Council International. So, they're the representative body for all of the Inuit in Canada, Russia, Alaska, and Greenland. We have what's called the Emerging Leaders Program. In the Emerging Leaders Program is to—they identify Inuit youth who they believe have potential or has shown leadership one way or another and provide them with necessary skills and giving them that mentorship opportunity as well, participating or listening in on international Inuit issues. And I think that's a really important part for Inuit youth. You know, we are the future. We are part of the future. And, you know, my understanding with the Inuit land claim agreements in Canada, they were created for the future. It was created for the protection and promotion of our people, of our culture, of our language. And I think it's really important that Inuit youth are continued to be engaged in different aspects. Our Inuit organizations have been phenomenal at ensuring that there's Inuit youth perspective and participation in different committees and such. But just from a federal government standpoint, you know, and an international view, at that, there's very little support that is actually available so that Inuit youth can actively engage with other Indigenous peoples globally. And I think it would be great for Canada to put a little bit more emphasis in that and that they're actually, you know, following through on the TRCs (Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action) and following through on reconciliation as well.

GW: Thank you. Just a last question before I go to wrap up comments and I'll start with Sébastien this one and then Crystal and Clem. It's to do with the art and culture and media. So, that's very much a heritage focussed group, I mean, more broadly than that: how do you think that arts and culture and media generally in Canada, regionally here, or domestically can help advance the Decade's objectives? Or, I would say, not just here in Canada or domestically, just more broadly. Arts, culture, heritage, music, media. Sébastien.

SG: I mean, to me, arts, culture, and the media, like we could have an entire panel just on that because it's such a critical, important sector, but for sure, like, these are critical sectors that need to be mobilized because of their capacity to inspire. And I'm getting back to this notion that I raised earlier about changing the narrative and changing how people perceive and see languages and Indigenous culture. And to me, this participates from—mainstreaming affirms that I've raised a bit earlier. We should reach a point through this Decade where it simply becomes normal to hear and see a culture and languages as part of our various landscapes. And to me, when we reach this point, like, I would love when I listen to CBC Radio-Canada as the broadcaster, I would love to see those languages represented or issues relating to these—the languages discussed. And not simply maybe on the specialized channels that have been created. I'd love to see these issues discussed on the same foot. For example, I'm always stunned to see how little interest is paid to Indigenous rights and languages on social media. It's very difficult to get traction, like you all—I often say that we're speaking to the same people, those who are already convinced about the need to act. They are critical sectors to bring on board and maybe we need to invite them, especially at the institutional level and also through individual practices. We need to see what could be done to bring them as part of the overall efforts to revitalize languages.

GW: Yes. Okay. Great. Crystal.

CML: Just for Inuit, we have really in the last, I don't know, 20 years or so have really—actually, for a long time, arts is—Inuit are known for our arts, right? We're known for carving. We're known for our painting, for our drawings. And there's also—there's only one performing arts centre in Iqaluit called—what is it called? Qaggiavuut. And you know—and really, a lot of Inuit have been, especially during the pandemic, have been moving towards digital ways of performing as well and using different social media platforms, but also in a way to express some feelings from that. So, there's, you know, Inuit singers, songwriters that are creating these beautiful stories. And even so, you know, sharing history as well through their songs or through their performances. It's so important to have this ongoing support from our Federal Government because it's not just—it's not about showcasing our abilities or anything like that. It's about building confidence and it's about regaining our culture, and it's about regaining the sense of community that was almost ripped from us. So, having, you know, this arts being supported for Inuit, I think is so imperative for our mental health, our well-being, and to be able to pass on stories to the next generation as well. I know for NIYC, we are also recipients of funding from Canadian Heritage. We do receive funding for our magazine called Nipiit, and it's for Inuit youth, and we showcase Inuit youth that are, you know, doing all kinds of different amazing work within their communities. And we're so grateful for that. And you know, that magazine is a chance to connect Inuit youth as well. And, you know, having Inuit youth artwork incorporated into our magazines or having their poems incorporated into our magazines, it's so important that we, as people, are supporting each other and are, you know, building our confidence because we are, still to this day, impacted by intergenerational trauma, where Inuit youth and children and families are dealing with various social inequalities in their communities to this day. And for a lot of Inuit youth going to—you know, performing in the arts is something that helps them release some of the stress. So, it's not just about, you know, this is who we are, like, come take a look at us. It's about us and our sense of identities, our sense of communities, and our sense of culture as well.

GW: Yes. No. For sure. Our people are so talented and artistic and resilient in that way. Absolutely. Clem.

CC: Thank you, Gina. As you'll have noticed, my focus is more regional, like the Americas and the Caribbean. And not only did the OAS (Organization of American States) General Assembly in 2016 adopt the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which can play a huge role in what we're talking about. They also, the following year in 2017, adopted a four--year plan—implementation plan and Canada did support that plan. And that year there was a—no, not that year. The following year, as part of that plan, there was a one week—an activity set aside in Washington, D.C., around August 8th, which is the International Indigenous Day, and they had people from Central America, I believe, come here, do some performances. They had speakers and I did participate in that first one. And the four--year implementation plan, of course, is coming towards an end. But listening to Sébastien in terms of the fund, I would think the Organization of American States, which kind of joined under Prime Minister Joe Clark, should set up a voluntary fund for Indigenous languages that states countries could contribute to, you know, for worthy projects. And I'm sure there's going to be all kinds of them. And so, when you talk about, you know, the arts and culture, that week is supposed to showcase that and you know, at the OAS headquarters. More of that should be done elsewhere. I know I go to the—quite a number of the General Assemblies and they do have, at the opening, Indigenous—local Indigenous peoples, you know, do performance and such. But you know, it's not enough, you know, to do that just every once in a while. More needs to be done. But I'd also say that in terms of the media, you know, we do have APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) here, which is some 20 years now. And you know, that's good. And I was in Taiwan and interviewed the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Television, and again, that's good. And so in my travels—well in northwest Saskatchewan, where I live, we have Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation and they Dene hour and Cree hour and it's broadcast all throughout the whole province and in our villages. Pretty well every one of our villages has a local radio station, TV station where they could be utilized. They're not really being utilized for this purpose, but they could be, you know, if incentivized. And but also what—for example, when I was in Nicaragua. Well, I've been there several times, but they have their own radio station as well. And their broadcasting is all in the Miskito language and their music all their own local language. So, they're keeping that very much well and alive. Although, there was a big push in the, you know, after the 1979 success of the revolution of the Sandinistas to Spanishize them. And so, now all the young kids speak Spanish. The Elders speak Miskito, but some of them still speak English because they were colonized by the British on the Atlantic coast. But most of the young kids don't speak English anymore. They speak Spanish and hopefully, you know, Miskito. So, there are ways and means that if we can collaborate and get some resources directed in the right direction by willing countries, I think we can make a big impact in, you know, in the Americas—throughout the Americas.

GW: Yes. I can see that. Thank you. So, thank you all for your presentation. I'm going to turn it back to you just to say a few final words of farewell or thoughts, what have you, but just want to thank everyone for those ideas and thoughts on the International Decade. I'm really keenly interested in how we move forward on that, and I have a commitment to Chief Wilton Littlechild to be interested in the Decade. So, I am interested in the decade. So, I want to just ask Crystal to wrap it up. Any closing comments?

CML: Thank you. I really just want to thank Canadian Heritage for holding this very important symposium and, you know, just recognizing that there are so many Indigenous languages in Canada and to each Indigenous group they all have—we all have our own distinctive priorities as well. And I'm sure, you know, with collaboration with Indigenous organizations, the federal government will be able to create a strategy that works for everyone. That's my hope. And you know that this strategy is not being, you know—the strategy isn't being run by the government, so to speak. That's one of the reasons why we fought so hard for our land claim agreements was that so that we can have a say in what happens in our communities. So, for the strategy—when I say “co”, I'm more meaning, you know, Indigenous organizations having the upper hand on this strategy. I'm sure it's going to be difficult, especially with, like I said, the many different Indigenous groups. But I'm really looking forward to seeing great changes. And hopefully for those Indigenous languages that have been lost that they're able to revitalize their language for, you know, many more years to come as well. So, thank you so much for this time.

GW: Thank you so much, Crystal. Clem.

CC: Thank you. My first engagement in international matters was the 1976 Habitat Conference in Vancouver, where I had a chance to meet Indigenous peoples from elsewhere, particularly from South and Central America, and also leading up to that, I had the opportunity to meet and work with several times the great leader George Manuel, who instilled in me the obligation that we have to assist other Indigenous peoples elsewhere, not just within our own community. So, I really took that to heart, and I've been doing that as much as I can. So, as president of the Métis Nation through the Métis National Council, of course, I would say that, you know, we need to continue working closely with the Federal Government and our Indigenous partners to ensure that the roll out from the Indigenous languages legislation, you know, is meaningful, that it's inclusive and that it's, again, distinctions based, and so, that's very important, but Sebastien also said, and I agree, it's got to be a whole of government approach, not just, you know, some line departments, but everyone has to be in it and we have to make sure across the board that that takes place. And I didn't mention, but I'm the interim President of the American Council of Indigenous Peoples. And so, I have an obligation as well to, you know, continue advocating for Indigenous peoples in South and Central America. And again, I'm hoping that Canada will, you know, take a leadership role again, like it did in the 80s and 90s and sort of step forward and start saying, yes, we'll start looking towards Indigenous issues in South and Central America, you know, because they're so pressing and particularly this time, you know, during COVID. I mean, it's horrendous down there, but I'm not sure that there's any mechanism for us to actually communicate and reach out to them other than, you know, the limited ability we have through existing social media. That's just one example. We didn't know it was coming, but had we had our infrastructure all in place, it would have been a lot easier to be able to communicate and coordinate, and, you know, seek aid for those that, you know, desperately need it. So, this is a—it's an important issue, and it's actually one that binds us all together because that's who we are as Indigenous peoples. Our language is our us. And there's nothing better to tie us together, you know, than that. And here's a great opportunity over the next 10 years, 10 years plus, you know, to make huge impacts on this. And let's—you know, I myself, I'm not fluent in Michif. I'm not fluent in Cree. I can get by when I speak to Elders, but I couldn't give a speech in public because I'm kind of too embarrassed that I'll make a fool of myself. But—I don't have the confidence. But, you know, people like myself, even though we're getting on in years, need to learn to speak the language and we need to speak it publicly and openly. So, you know, I'm continuing to try to improve myself on that. But as I stated on a previous call with our own people, I challenge them that within five years that we hold a conference—national conference, but only in Michif and no other language. So, that's still out there, and I think that's a worthy objective that I'd like to see.

GW: That would be awesome. So, we're almost out of time, but I'm just going to ask Sébastien, maybe 30 seconds. Final comments

SG: Quickly. I think we all have a moral obligation to be exemplary. And I expect all the leaders in this country to be bold, ambitious, proactive, and imaginative. And please, Gina, do challenge them. Do tell them that we all bear our share of responsibility to advance the objectives of the Year. And let's also build the strongest movement of support in the world for Indigenous language revitalization. Bring on board all parts of civil society. And I think that, and I'll close on this: Canada has, on top of that, an obligation to be the strongest voice on this priority on the global multilateral stage. And I'm sure that Minister Guilbeault will do his very part. Thank you.

GW: Amazing. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you to the panel. Wonderful time. We had great contributions. And Merci tout le monde and I am turning it back to Mathieu.

MC: Merci, Gina. Thank you very much. Awesome conversation. Thank you, Crystal. Thank you, Clem. Merci, Sébastien. Great way to bring a close to our conversation. And we had four days—four and a half days of conversation. And I think that the—we've heard from—coast to coast to coast, we've heard about all the different kinds of initiatives. We had five themes throughout the whole conference. So, I do want to thank all our participants. And all for sharing their knowledge with all our participants.

[end of transcript]

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Date modified:: 2022-11-09

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Video — Indigenous Languages Symposium — January 29, 2021

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