The First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council issued a report last spring that revealed the troubling state for native languages in BC’s First Nations.

But while the report’s findings were a cause for concern, there is also reason for celebration in some Nautsumawt Tribal Council (NmTC) communities.

Snaw-naw-as First Nation has just released a DVD called ‘Footprints of the Elders’ that will be celebrated by the community in late July.

In creating the touching and powerful film, Snaw-naw-as received help from one of the acknowledged leaders in language preservation, Stz’uminus First Nation.

“We were inspired by Willie Seymour’s DVDs on the Hul’qumi’num language,” Snaw-naw-as councillor Lawrence Mitchell said. “We were struggling to find ways to empower people to want to learn our language.”

The First Peoples’ Council provided funding and a Snaw-naw-as language revitalization working group was formed. Community members surveyed the community, interviewed Elders and made research road trips to the thriving language department at Stz’uminus.

“I watch it once or twice a week to inspire myself more,” Mitchell said of the film. “It clears my mind and I always understand more about our language and culture.”

The DVD was finished in February, taking two days working with professional filmmakers. The stars of the show are the Elders including three who are still fluent in the language and another who is knowledgeable.

The film includes extensive interviews with Jim Bob, Ann Bob, Dorothy Bob, Evelyn Louie, Bonnie Jones, Velma Page, Roseanna Lee, Vanessa Bob, Carla Page, Jake Bob and others.

Language alive at Stz’uminus

The resurgence of the Hul’qumi’num language at Stz’uminus began more that ten years ago with the building of the Nutsumaat Lelum daycare and pre-school centre. Thanks to leaders such as Charlotte Elliott (now a councillor and education manager), small children took words and phrases home to teach their parents.

Today, the original language is central throughout the Stz’uminus pre-school, primary and secondary schools. One of the main goals of Sulxwe:n Lelum (Chemainus Native College) is: “to facilitate the capacity of Hul’qumi’num people through embracement of Hul’qumi’num language and culture”.

Hul’qumi’num stories, songs, vocabulary and hands-on experiences with Elders and other community members play a central role in the education of people of all ages. The language is heard as students interact with carvers and help with cedar harvesting and weaving. Singers of all ages often perform at events at Stz’uminus and neighbouring communities.

Chief and council meetings often begin with mini-classes in the language.  Many of the more 100 employees of Stz’uminus, many of them non-native, are learning Hul’qumi’num words and phrases.

The language celebration later in July when a new book – Pulling for Stz’uminus: The Pearl Harris Story – will be launched at a Ladysmith bookstore. It features language teacher Harris and the story of the champion St. Andrews canoe club of the early 1980s. This fall it will become part of the curriculum at the college.

Report offers grim reading

The First Peoples’ Council report shows that fluent First Nations language speakers make up a small and shrinking minority of the population. A total of eight languages are classed as severely endangered and 22 others are nearly extinct.

The report shows that most fluent speakers are over 65 years old and that the majority of classroom teaching is insufficient to create enough new fluent speakers to revitalize languages.

Hul’qumi’num and the associated Halq’eméylem and hən’q’əmin’əm are classed as Severely Endangered with just 278 fluent speakers. SENĆOŦEN and the associated Malchosen, Lekwungen, Semiahmoo and T’Sou-ke are classed as Nearly Extinct with only 60 fluent speakers.

 

 

 

 

The council’s First Nations Language Map shows the following information about the state of language in NmTC nations. The first number after the Nation’s name is the registered population as of June 2010.