Fwd: Onowa McIvor (UVic): Life and Death of Canada’s Founding Languages

[TESL Network Canada]

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Life and death of Canada’s founding languages (and not the two you think)

Onowa McIvor, University of Victoria
Guest Contributor

Fedcan Blog - Equity Matters (2 March 2011)
<http://blog.fedcan.ca/2011/03/02/life-and-death-of-canadas-founding-lang
uages-and-not-the-two-you-think/>.


Most Indigenous languages in the land now called Canada are on the decline. I have seen the language die in my family in one generation through the premature deaths of both my maternal grandparents. My grandparents chose not to pass their language Muskego-Nîhîyaw (Swampy Cree) to their children either due to their own learned disregard for the language or a belief that their children would truly be better off without it, or both. I fear I will witness the death of most of the first languages of this land within my lifetime.

Many factors have contributed to the devastation of Indigenous languages, particularly over the last 100 years. Of course, this varies depending on the region as each territory has its own story. For instance, some parts of Canada have had much longer sustained contact with settlers (east coast versus the west coast). Further still, some languages appear to be safer from extinction due to population size and vast reach of territory (such as the Anishnaabe and the Cree) or due a more remote location (many Inuit communities).

However, many of the factors that have contributed to the decline of Indigenous languages are common across Indigenous nations, such as the effects of contact with Europeans in the form of disease (some nations had 50-80 percent of their population wiped out by contact with European-introduced diseases to which they had no immunity), warfare, the creation and enforcement of colonial law banning cultural, spiritual and governmental practices (all of which were important vessels for continuing the language), and lastly, the erosion of land and water-based sustenance lifestyles due to the diminishment (through various means) of territory.

In addition, there are many contemporary contributors to the continued and further devastation of the first languages of the land now known as Canada. They include the (unofficial) promotion of monolingualism in Canada through the lack of support or encouragement for a state-supported multilingual society; the globalization, expansion and promotion of English worldwide; a plethora of competing and pressing issues facing First Peoples’ communities due to the lingering effects of colonization such as poverty, addictions, mental health issues, physiological health issues, treaty negotiations/struggles, (re)building self-governance, and relentlessly new and reoccurring environmental battles with government and industry.

• Listen to Onowa McIvor discuss Academic contributions of Indigenous scholars


Read the rest of this entry at:
<http://blog.fedcan.ca/2011/03/02/life-and-death-of-canadas-founding-lang
uages-and-not-the-two-you-think/>.


Read other Indigenous entries at:
<http://blog.fedcan.ca/tag/indigenous-education/>.