A celebration was held at the BC Royal Museum this morning for the B.C. government's announcement that they would be allocating $50-million to revive First Nations languages.
There are fewer than 6,000 people who speak the 34 First Nations languages in B.C., which has caused some concern that the languages would die out. The B.C. government in their 2018 budget announced that they would be allocation the funds to help combat that possibility.
First Nations Summit co-chair, Ray Harris says that he hopes this funding will change the way First Nations people think about their languages.
“I thank Mr. Fraser and the speaker before me that they acknowledged the residential school, I’m one of the products of a school, and it was such a sad way to lose our language,” Harris said. “But from today on we want to say, it’s such a big move being made, that maybe from today on instead of the sadness that we have when we think of our language, we’ll be thinking of happiness.”
A member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Giesele Martin, spoke about the difficulties she encountered in learning a language where she had no one else to speak the language with.
“My whole life growing up I really wanted to learn our language, but I came across different little road blocks, it’s hard to pronounce, there’s a lot of different dialects, it’s really confusing, there’s barely anyone to speak with,” Martin said. “[But] beginning to learn the language was like learning to see the world in full colour for the first time."
Scott Fraser, the minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation said he worked to get this education funding into the budget, and was encouraged when it was approved.
“If you take away someone's language, you take away their voice,” Fraser said. “By investing in culture, in identity and pride, communities can begin to heal together to address the fundamental social issues stemming from Canada’s colonization through the residential schools, and the Indian Act.”
Fraser said there are 17 First Nation language's that have been approved for curriculum in kindergarten to grade 12, and six more languages are under development.