A sign on River Street in Prince Albert shows several Indigenous languages. (Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Craddock

PRESERVING LANGUAGE

Awareness for Indigenous languages growing amidst new census data

Aug 18, 2022 | 2:00 PM

While new census data may be showing a decline in the number of Indigenous language speakers, one college instructor sees hope for the future.

According to the census information recently released on languages spoken at home, the number of people speaking an Indigenous language as their first language has declined almost seven per cent since 2016.

In 2021, 189,000 people reported having at least one Indigenous mother tongue and 183,000 reported speaking an Indigenous language at home at least on a regular basis. Cree languages and Inuktitut are the main Indigenous languages spoken in Canada, followed by Innu (Montagnais) and Dene languages.

(Statistics Canada)

There were many surprises that came from the census data on languages, including the number of people who declare French as their first language declining in Quebec.

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“English is so dominant that even the French language feels threatened,” said Andrea Custer, an instructor at First Nations University in Prince Albert.

Custer is fluent in Cree and teaches that language to her students. Although the decline may seem concerning at first, she’s looking at the big picture and seeing the work being done to grow the number of Indigenous language speakers.

“There’s a lot of wonderful, amazing work being done at the grassroots level,” she said. “There was a lot of awareness raised on the state of our Indigenous languages. Now organizations and schools are all working together to develop programs because they recognize they need to do something and it’s urgent.”

One of those schools’ is John Diefenbaker School in Prince Albert which, starting this fall, will expand its Cree language program to include Grade 2 and pre-K. The kindergarten program started in September of 2020.

READ MORE: School division launches Cree language program

It’s programs like this that bring much encouragement to Custer, who said she’s seeing more children aged eight and nine speaking their native language at home.

“There are more speakers at that age level. This shows that families, they’re taking more of the responsibility to pass on that language to their children. Schools are developing more programs to support language revitalization.”

Giving a personal example, she said she’s grateful her daycare was able to accommodate a Cree language speaker to make sure their young child doesn’t lose the opportunity to learn their family’s mother tongue.

“We’ve been talking Cree to our child since even before he was born. Thankfully, at the PAGC daycare, the director got a fluent speaker to work with my son. I’m grateful that I have that support there but what about other child care centres that need that.”

It’s that family system that Custer believes will only grow the number of Indigenous language speakers and hopefully put a more positive number on the next national census.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock