Publish at July 06 2020 Updated March 18 2022
How to travel and discover a language in these difficult times when the summer of 2020 is shaping up to be tough for the tourism world? You had planned a trip, a language trip perhaps? But no, everything is in question, so why not stay in our country and take advantage of it to boost our local economy and go in search of the unknown? That's what I'm proposing today by going to the very heart of Canada's cultural and historical roots, to meet the native people and their multiple languages.
Canada is the second largest country in the world, by area, just after Russia. In 2019, it had a population of 37.6 million, of which 1.4 million (2011 statistics) were Aboriginal, that is, people claiming to be of First Nations ancestry, representing 4.3% of the entire Canadian population.
But these Native Americans, as they are still called, who are they? In fact, the term "Native" includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit. It should be noted that the term "Indians" is definitely to be avoided, as it is discriminatory. Most of the time, they prefer to be identified by the nation to which they belong, such as the Anishnabe (Algonquins), the Huron-Wendat, the Mohawks...
Speaking of nations, there are no less than 634 spread across Canada! On the language side, the diversity is also beautiful, with about fifty languages spoken from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from West to East of the country. These Aboriginals are important to Canadian society; they were the first occupants of the territories of present-day Canada and it was with them that the first contacts with European settlers were made in the 16th century.
Established in 2003 as an initiative of the First Peoples' Cultural Council, First Voices, literally "First Voices," is a website that offers to discover recordings of Indigenous oral culture in order to promote and revitalize the linguistic history of these Indigenous peoples, especially since many of these languages are endangered and threatened with extinction.
This collaborative project aims to keep track of these languages and solicits indigenous people to share their resources, recordings... so that they can pass to posterity and thus be accessible to future generations. The future, precisely, is another of FirstVoices' priorities.
In fact, it is based on a very wide access of this site, whether on computer, tablet or smartphone. The digitization of archives, but also the more "old" media, such as audio cassettes or other sound documents, is very important in this project.
Two other sub-projects are also in development, concretely, they are two applications, downloadable via the App Store (IOS) and Google Play (Android), entitled Dictionnary (dictionary) and Keyboard (keyboard). As their names suggest, the aim is to offer users multimedia content and a keyboard suitable for use in their native languages.
In the section called Explore Languages, the web user can access nearly 60 native languages. Each of these languages, upon clicking, takes us to detailed content, namely a general introduction to the language ("about us"), preceded by the word "hello" in the targeted language, geographic information (where this nation is located) and possibly related first words and links.
On the same page, one can also access four other sections, namely, "learn our language" (words, phrases, songs, stories, alphabet), "play a game" (in fact, there are even six fun activities!), "photo gallery" (not always complete, unfortunately!) and "Kids Portal", which is more or less the same thing, but with a children's version. So this site is definitely meant to be accessible to everyone, young and old alike!
Finally, exploring one's own country, one's own culture, one's own national languages, can be a good alternative to discover the riches of our countries.
In addition, on June 21, 2019, the National Languages Act received Royal Assent, proposing a collaboration of the Canadian ministry with indigenous organizations to develop a new approach to investing in a component specifically dedicated to indigenous languages.
This supports "the reclaiming, revitalization, maintenance and strengthening of Aboriginal languages through community-based activities."
These projects include, for example, community-based language training programs, the development of resources to increase the use and fluency of an Aboriginal language, the development of systems to facilitate communication, digital tools to convey information, materials and resources...
So yes, Canada is officially bilingual. But while French and English are indeed the languages brought by the French and British settlers, we must not forget the languages that were already present before the arrival of the Europeans, namely the native languages. The Canadian government is finally becoming aware of their importance and is working to revitalize them. It is now our turn to participate and to give them back their rightful place, that of the first peoples of Canada.
Sources and illustrations
- First Peoples' Cultural Council, http://www.fpcc.ca
- Aboriginal People in Canada,
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-011-x/99-011-x2011001-fra.cfm
- First Nations, the Canadian Encyclopedia,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/premieres-nations
First Voices, https://www.firstvoices.com/
- Aboriginal Languages Component, Government of Canada,
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/aboriginal/languages.html
- Amerindian, https://pixabay.com/images/id-2166398/
- Dreamcatcher, https://pixabay.com/images/id-72104/
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