Newly published: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages in Toronto: The Responsibilities and Potential Roles of non-Indigenous Peoples

Abstract:

In the place known as Toronto or Tkaronto, Indigenous peoples are dedicating themselves to revitalizing and reclaiming their languages. How can the non-Indigenous peoples of this place end the neglect and assault on Indigenous languages and support their goals? I spoke with ten, mostly First Nations, people who are engaged with languages in the Toronto area to ask for guidance. I learned about the different kinds of relationships and responsibilities that hold us together, including wampum belt treaties, reconciliation, our relationship with the land, and for some, common experiences of colonization or language oppression. I learned about the roles that non-Indigenous peoples can play, including supporting Indigenous community-based organizations, political action and land back, raising awareness and visibility, removing barriers, challenging stereotypes and assumptions, and perhaps learning the languages. This research is intended as a foundation for public education to stimulate informed solidarity and action in Indigenous language revitalization.

Keywords: Indigenous language revitalization, language reclamation, allyship, solidarity, Toronto, Anishinaabemowin, Haudenosaunee languages

About this research:

This paper is based on conversations that were part of research for an MA degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. I would like to acknowledge and say a big thank you to those who shared their knowledge, experience and insights with this project. Your voices are the heart of this work. I understand that you shared your knowledge with the intention that I pass it on. I hope that I have done a good job.

A big thank you, Gchi Miigwetch, ᑭᐦᒋ ᒦᑵᐨ Kihci Miikwec, Niá:wen’kó:wa, Yawʌ’ko, ᑭᓇᓈᐢᑯᒥᑎᐣ Kinanâskomitin, Marsi, Nakurmiik, Woliwon, Wela’lin, Merci Beaucoup.

The late Elder Grafton Antone, Elder Iehnhotonkwas Bonnie Jane Maracle, Elder Laureen Blu Waters, Executive Director Cynthia Bell, Professor Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Professor Ryan DeCaire, Professor Ninaatig Staats Pangowish, Marie Laing, Marcia Walker (Pseudonym), and one Anonymous speaker.

This website is a work in progress. The knowledge shared in the interviews will be made available in more accessible ways.

Who I am

My name is Sara McDowell. I am a settler Canadian of Scottish, Irish, English and German-speaking ancestry and have spent most of my adult life in Toronto. I have worked as a librarian and earlier as a language teacher.

I believe that everyone has a right to their languages. I am doing this work because I want to fulfill my responsibility towards the languages of the land that I live on by supporting Indigenous-led and community-based language revitalization.

In the Toronto area and across Canada, many Indigenous people have lost the ability to speak their languages because of policies such as the residential school system, continuing systemic neglect, and the global influence of English. Today Indigenous people in Toronto are working hard to bring their languages home again.

Canada needs to return the languages that we have tried to steal away.

Canadians come from many different backgrounds. Let us each do what we can to support Indigenous-led and community-based language revitalization and to eliminate the systems and inequalities that get in its way.