How to promote First Nations' languages and cultures?

[Machjo]

NB: This thread is about how, not whether, to promote First Nations' languages and cultures. If you wish to discuss whether, please feel free to start your own thread.

I'd found the following on-line which I'd found interesting:

http://www.afn.ca/misc/nfnls.pdf

I'd like to know what you think, especially the First Nations among you, about how to preserve First Nations' languages and culture.

According to the link above, there is growing concern over the preservation of some Frist Nations' languages. Yet, I'd found that the resources necessary to promote these languages are seriously lacking. For some languages at least, quality self-instruction books don't exist. I don't know they all have quality two-way dictionaries by now, but if not, that woudl be something else they'd need to publish. And that would be just for starters.

I could also see adopting a Hungarian-style second-language instruction and testing policy. According the the new rules in Hungary since 2004, each public school is free to teach the second-language of its choice as long as it uses a course plan already approved by the Ministry of Education or creates its own course plan to present to the Ministry of Education for approval to ensure its pedagogical quality.

Such a policy would put the local Aboriginal language on an equal footing with French and English as second-languages, at least policy-wise, throughout the public school system.

I could also see the Ministry of Education in each province funding the creation of the necessary textbooks and course plans for these languages.

What ideas would you have on this?

 

[DurkaDurka]

What is the point of teaching students an aboriginal language which will be useless to them outside the classroom? I can understand teaching aboriginals aboriginal languages but for the rest of the population, it is more or less useless.

 

[Cliffy]

What is the point of teaching students an aboriginal language which will be useless to them outside the classroom? I can understand teaching aboriginals aboriginal languages but for the rest of the population, it is more or less useless.

It might be useless to you and many others, but to all. I think it could be an electoral subject. Not all native kids want to learn it either. But in our town the aboriginal population is a mix of cultures from all over Canada, so the language issue isn't here, but cultural education is high on the agenda. The kids are begging for more information about their cultural backgrounds. Most of their parents have told them next to nothing because they don't want their kids to go through the trauma of persecution that they had to go through growing up.

 

[Machjo]

What is the point of teaching students an aboriginal language which will be useless to them outside the classroom? I can understand teaching aboriginals aboriginal languages but for the rest of the population, it is more or less useless.

I disagree. I'm not Algonquin myself, yet would like to learn it even if only as a matter of principle. So what are my options? Well, Anna G recommended a CD, but I don't learn languages well like that; it's too easy to surf the net.

For me, I'd really need books, yet they don't exist. Seeing that it is their land after all, would it not be reasonable for the government to fund at least the writing and publishing of the necessary self-instruction resources? I'd even be willing to buy the books at above-market price, but even that's hard to do when the books don't even exist.

So when you say 'useless', I take it you mean it in a very strictly material sense. For me, it would be useful for its simple cultural value. Add to that that the reason they may not be highly valued is owing to their legal status n society. For instance, Nunavut has a number of official language, all equal in nature, and guess what, their languages are now thriving.

We have to avoid talking in circles. We say those languages are useless, so waht's the point of promoting them. Yet have we considered that maybe the reason they're useless is precisely because we've failed to promote them? It's like the chicken and the egg.

Imagine if we didn't promote Frnech and English in Canada, through the Official Languages Act, language of education, labelling laws, etc. etc. etc. Same thing, same question. Are English and French so major because we supported them, or are they supported because they're so major. Same chicken and the egg question.

Of course Aboriginal languages are'nt so major because there is not government apparatus promoting them with our tax dollars compared to English and Frnech. So if I understand correctly, it's fine for the government to spend millions promoting English and French, but God forbid we do the same with FN languages. English and French are the most government-subsidized languages in the country, and then we talk of handouts for Aboriginal languages?

If we want to criticize nannystatism for Aboriginal languages, then let's scrap Official Bilingualism, compulsory English and French in school, etc. too, along with all the subsidies to English and Frndch for immigrants etc. If there's any language community guilty of nannystatism in Canada, the English and French-speakers are far more subsidized than the First Nations.

 

[gerryh]

NB: This thread is about how, not whether, to promote First Nations' languages and cultures. If you wish to discuss whether, please feel free to start your own thread.

I'd found the following on-line which I'd found interesting:

http://www.afn.ca/misc/nfnls.pdf

I'd like to know what you think, especially the First Nations among you, about how to preserve First Nations' languages and culture.

According to the link above, there is growing concern over the preservation of some Frist Nations' languages. Yet, I'd found that the resources necessary to promote these languages are seriously lacking. For some languages at least, quality self-instruction books don't exist. I don't know they all have quality two-way dictionaries by now, but if not, that woudl be something else they'd need to publish. And that would be just for starters.

I could also see adopting a Hungarian-style second-language instruction and testing policy. According the the new rules in Hungary since 2004, each public school is free to teach the second-language of its choice as long as it uses a course plan already approved by the Ministry of Education or creates its own course plan to present to the Ministry of Education for approval to ensure its pedagogical quality.

Such a policy would put the local Aboriginal language on an equal footing with French and English as second-languages, at least policy-wise, throughout the public school system.

I could also see the Ministry of Education in each province funding the creation of the necessary textbooks and course plans for these languages.

What ideas would you have on this?

The provinces education ministries already provide for the teaching of First Nation languages......and I have already supplied you with the links proving this for Alberta, Ontario, and BC at least.

 

[Machjo]

Essentially, if we want to talk of nannystatism, then let's scrap all official languages and let the language market run its course. Or are we more comfortable with double standards?

 

[Machjo]

The provinces education ministries already provide for the teaching of First Nation languages......and I have already supplied you with the links proving this for Alberta, Ontario, and BC at least.

I'm aware of that, but that's just a drop in the bucket of the support English gets. All schools in the province are required to teach it, all universities, even if they teach Aboriginal languages, teach them in English, and, oops, they're partly government subsidized too.

So how about this then, cut all government funding to public schools and universities, and go by way of a voucher system instead. Let the market prove itself with all languages having equal government recognition, even if that means having no official language.

 

[gerryh]

you're like a broken record.....I have a feeling that no matter what the government did you wouldn't be happy.....by chance are you indian?

 

[Machjo]

you're like a broken record.....I have a feeling that no matter what the government did you wouldn't be happy.....by chance are you indian?

So you support English nannystatism then?

And no, I'm not an Indian, but I do belive in respecting the local indigenous culture, and that's shown by a desire to want to learn it.

 

[Machjo]

Kinda hard to do with the lack of materials available though.

 

[Unforgiven]

geRlid~zoSaphad~prIMmelle~diMlawop.

translation:

Gimme some grant money mofo!

I wanna be equal too.:angry3:

 

[Unforgiven]

geRlid~zoSaphad~prImmelle~diMlawop.

translation:

Gimme some money mofo!

 

[Machjo]

You do have some points there. In that case, could we not turn the tables around? in other words, instead of giving money towards First Nations languages, we cut money towards English and French. the result would be more or less the same, but with reduced government spending.

For instnace, some Conservatives have recommended linguistic regionalism, whereby some regions of Canada would be officiallly English-speaking, and other officially French-speaking. It's estimated this could save Canada millions.

Then we could adopt a Hungarian-style second-language education policy combined with a Swedish voucher system to make schools more responsive to parents. This would mean that schools would no longr be mandated to teach this or that language, and woudl be free to teach the second-language of their choice as long as they coudl ensure equality. NGOs coudl perhaps provide the funding to create the necessary curricula.
THe money saved from Official Bilingualism could go first towards paying off the government debt and then later either towards improving education, reducing taxes, or some combination of the two. Either solution could help benefit First Nations languages. Increased spending on education would increase the incentive on the part of NGOs to create the necessary curricula. Reducing taxes would provide the funding the private sector would need to do that.

None of the above would involve increasing taxes or spending on any particular group, but they would all help remove obstacles, be they legislative or tax.

Seeing that this would involve no increase in government funding for First Nations languages, but rather reduced funding for two even bigger special interests (i.e. English and French), would you have issues with that?

 

[taxslave]

When my son was in elementary school in Pt. Hardy they taught the local native dialect. His class was about 30% native so I guess it made sense except that now he has lost it all. It was fairly cheap as one of the local native women taught it as a part time deal. Not the same as having a massive bureaucracy in charge. Other than that it is about a useless as teaching french in B.C.

 

[Machjo]

When my son was in elementary school in Pt. Hardy they taught the local native dialect. His class was about 30% native so I guess it made sense except that now he has lost it all. It was fairly cheap as one of the local native women taught it as a part time deal. Not the same as having a massive bureaucracy in charge. Other than that it is about a useless as teaching french in B.C.

So if ti's about as useless as French in BC, or English in La Malbaie, then why not let the schools choose?

 

[nobility]

There is money available to create language learning materials. What is required is a University to support the specific endeavor, plus a first nation political entity that wants to have the local indigenous language re-learned by the general public, that is, whoever wants to learn it. Grants may be applied for to facilitate this. What is sometimes a stumbling point is when there is resistance to current teaching practices, and often those who actually speak the language do not in fact want others to truly learn it, so they create stumbling blocks that are extremely frustrating. Take the nationalism out of the picture, and what we have is an anthropological endeavor that is most illuminating with regards to understanding an ancient culture.

 

[lone wolf]

Hot do you learn from books they which often weren't a written tongue?

 

[Cliffy]

Hot do you learn from books they which often weren't a written tongue?

You have writing on your tongue? Cool! It musta hurt though, eh!

 

[nobility]

Hi. A phonetic writing system must be developed for a specific language or even dialect, if one wants to generally distribute language learning materials. Its not straight forward. It seems that a language that was not written down is also more fluid, has more pronunciations or dialects, and is in more constant evolution that written ones. This is a big question, since most of us cannot understand what it would have been like to be immersed in a culture where there was no writing, and therefore it is also difficult to understand the discrepancies between speakers of ancient languages, as well.

Phonetic systems of language recording have been developed for many languages that were never written in the pre-contact times. When looking to preserve, document, a language, reference to recordings of actual born speakers is most beneficial, and specialists in Linguistics may be employed.

Your point is well taken. There are other ways to preserve and perpetuate ancient unwritten languages but these would not be open to whoever would like to learn.

 

[Lou Garu]

For those who need verbal reinforcement try this link:
Aboriginal Radio Stations and Programs