New census data punctuates need to revitalize Indigenous languages

That promise aligns with various calls to action (CTA) within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final report which outline that the government must protect the right to Indigenous languages, including the teaching of them as small credit courses (CTA #10), and for the government to acknowledge that Indigenous rights include Indigenous language rights (CTA #13).

The TRC also calls for these languages to be recognized as a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture, and for funding to revitalize them (CTA #14), as well as for post-secondary institutions to offer degree and diploma programs in Indigenous languages (CTA #16).

Contrary to national figures, the number of people in Red Deer who identify their mother tongue as an Indigenous language is up.

In 2016, 90 people in Red Deer reported that their mother tongue was an Indigenous language; now, it’s 100.

“The number one thing our membership asks for when we do surveys is Cree classes,” says Nadette Agecoutay, director of programs, Red Deer Native Friendship Society (RDNFS). “There’s definitely a want for it in the community, but we can’t always do it because we need teachers, and those aren’t always easy to find.”

RDNFS received a grant from Lifelong Learning prior to the pandemic to offer Cree language classes, and while they were well-attended and well-received, they eventually had to stop.

Agecoutay, a Saulteaux woman with roots in Saskatchewan, would love to take language classes with her family, but again, space is limited, and opportunities are scarce.

“It needs to become more accessible in order to help us regain the knowledge so many lost due to residential schools and colonization,” she says.

“It feels like something was taken from me before I had the chance to embrace it. My kokum — Cree for grandmother — would speak to me once in a while in her language, but a lot of things she’d already forgotten because she went to residential school,” says Agecoutay.

“She would scold me in her language and ask me if I knew what she’d just said. I missed out on understanding all of that. When elders try to teach things and are using their language, they can try to translate, but there’s something that gets lost and you can feel that missing piece.”

Agecoutay adds that learning and preserving languages is crucial to understanding more than just one’s own worldview.

Meantime, Statistics Canada says the main Indigenous languages spoken at homes across the country are Cree and Inuktitut.

As in other census years, The Canadian Press writes, the data says more people report being able to speak an Indigenous language than those who report having one as a mother tongue, which suggests people are learning Indigenous languages.

In Red Deer, while 90 people reported their mother tongue as an Indigenous one, 300 said they have a working knowledge of one. That’s up from 190 in 2016.

At Ermineskin First Nation north of Red Deer, census data shows a population of 2,256, with just 310 reporting their mother tongue was an Indigenous one. While the population decreased by 201 people (-8.2%) in the five years between censuses, the mother tongue figure dropped from 430 to 310 (-27.9%).

Lori Idlout, MP for Nunavut and NDP representative, says after constituents raise issues around housing, elder care and mental health, language is next on their list.

“Everyone is very much aware that we’re losing our language very quickly,” she said of Inuktitut.

The latest census data can be seen here.

(with files from The Canadian Press)

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

New census data punctuates need to revitalize Indigenous languages

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