15 Apr 2016

Claiming a Name

When he was younger, James Costello wouldn’t correct people who thought he was Italian. It was an assumption made often, based on his olive skin and dark hair, and on the sound of his name. His grandmother, a survivor of the residential school system, saw his lack of...
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11 Apr 2016

Supporting Language Studies

Learning a language is usually a taxing activity, but for many students attempting to acquire one of Indigenous languages in Canada, the process fraught with additional pressures. Chelsea Vowel, a Plains Cree speaking Métis educator who currently lives in Montreal, recalls the...
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07 Apr 2016

Taking New Roots

Callie Hill’s yearning to learn the Mohawk language first began when she became a mother. Before that she had only had cursory interaction with the language, which had faded out of common use in her family during her grandparent’s generation. She refers to Mohawk as her first...
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06 Apr 2016

Keeping Languages Alive

One hundred years ago, the SENĆOŦEN, or Saanich, language enjoyed a healthy vitality among the Indigenous W̱SÁNEC people of southwest British Columbia and south Vancouver Island.  In 2014, 18 years after the last residential school in Canada closed, only six people were known to...
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