Themes, thoughts, and theories on
strategic planning for
Hul'qumi'num language revitalization
Suzanne Urbanczyk1, Joanne
Charlie2, Brian Thom2, Edna Thomas2
University of Victoria1,
Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group2
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the help,
support and wisdom of the members of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group Language
Revitalization Committee: Ruby Peter, Mina Pagaduan , Janet Moore, Mabel Aleck, Florence James,
Arvid Charlie, and Ron George. [Su: please add more thanks here...]
1 Introduction
This paper discusses some of the current
activities and goals for teaching and speaking Hul'qumi'num and how they relate
to stages of language revitalization proposed by current language theory. Our findings show that community members have
concrete ideas which directly support academic models of revitalization. We hope through the development and
implementation of a strategic plan for language revitalization which follows
these recommendations, significant progress will be made in the long term
maintenance of Hul’qumi’num.
There are currently a number of activities
underway to teach Hul'qumi'num and encourage its use. The Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group has undertaken
a project to develop a long-term strategic plan for revitalizing
Hul'qumi'num. This paper presents an
interim report on the direction the project is taking and situates the research
within broader theoretical models of language revitalization developed by
Fishman (1991). One component of this
study is to determine the types of language programs currently in use. The range of activities includes day care
programs, elementary school instruction, family get-togethers, a number of
college and university-level courses and programs, community-based programs, as
well as church services. We will point
out how the range and diversity of the Hul'qumi'num activities and short and
long-term goals parallels various stages of language revitalization. Community members have discussed needing to
coordinate language revitalization activities in terms highly congruent with
the stages suggested by current language revitalization theory. Implementing these recommendations, informed
by this theoretical perspective, is recommended as an important way to maintain
language vitality through future generations.
We first present the basic method of
research, followed by a brief overview of theoretical perspectives. To understand the current state of language revitalization,
we present narratives from community members who have been working as language
advisors and who are fluent speakers of Hul'qumi'num. The central theme in this community discourse
is that the guidance we are receiving in envisioning long-term language
revitalization, resembles in striking ways, current theory about successful
language revitalization efforts.
2 Method
and theory
Upon direction from the Hul'qumi'num Treaty
Group chiefs, a language advisory committee was formed consisting of seven
fluent speakers of Hul'qumi'num, who are also actively involved in language
teaching, cultural teaching, and policy making from various areas represented
by the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group (HTG).
Approximately every two weeks the committee and authors meet for two
hours to discuss different themes for determining the goals of the community in
terms of language renewal and current and past language teaching projects,
activities and resources. These meetings
are recorded and transcribed to document accurately the members vision of
language revitalization.
A second major component of the project is
to compile and review all relevant literature on language revitalization, to
determine what has been effective and to avoid any pitfalls that others have
encountered. The literature compiled
thus far ranges from theoretical to practical, books, articles, chapters, news
stories, etc. We have compiled a lengthy annotated bibliography summarizing
much of this research.
A widely cited source for strategic planning
is Fishman's (1991) research on Reversing Language Shift (RLS). In this model, the heart of language shift
lies in the disruption of language use between the generations. The key to RLS is to restore
intergenerational communication. Rather
briefly, Fishman likens the reduction of intergenerational communication in a
community to an illness. Through a series of detailed studies of global RLS
initiatives, he "attempts to diagnose […] and to prescribe ameliorative
and restorative efforts in a sociolinguistically informed way," (Fishman
1991:1). The framework for such
diagnoses involves the identification of a language on a graded typology of
threatenedness, parallelling the 'Richter Scale', which measures intensity of
earthquakes. The scale is referred to as
GIDS (Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale). The higher the number is, the more severe the
disruption of intergenerational communication.
Stage 8 represents the most severe case, stage 1 is the best case
situation. Because language permeates
all of society, there can be components of language use that are at one stage,
while others might be at another. As one
might expect, there is greater opportunity for RLS the lower on the GIDS scale. Once one has determined where on the scale a
language lies, one can plan to reverse the situation.
Fishman's scale is largely based on the
Hebrew RLS model, which has been revived from a sleeping state to a national
language. As such, Hinton (2001) points
out that it may not be as useful for many indigenous languages, in which the
language is in gradual decline and may not be a national language. Therefore,
Hinton has modified Fishman's scale to a series of stages one might undertake,
to be more directly aimed at language revitalization of indigenous languages. She has added an additional first step on
language assessment and planning. Other
than that, the remaining eight steps closely mirror Fishman's GIDS scale. The steps are presented in the following
section, accompanied by quotes from our own research, which illustrate the
direction and advice provided from the language advisory committee.
3 Plans
and directing energy
As mentioned above, Hinton has added an
initial step on language assessment and planning. She is careful to note that the order of the
steps may vary depending on the circumstances in the different
communities. The following quote
illustrates this point very clearly.
In fact, what often happens in language
revitalization is that a few dedicated individuals begin activities at some
later step, such as learning the language from elders (step 3) or teaching the
language to their children at home (step 7), which then provides inspiration to
the community as a whole, whereupon language planning might begin to take
place. (Hinton 2001: 6)
This is precisely the situation which led
to the HTG project to develop a strategic plan.
There are many activities at many different stages initiated by a
variety of individuals and organizations.
FEMALE VOICE: […] And I said development of
some programs and for the young adults to be taught the language. I said that was the most important because
there's so many of our young parents that don't even speak the language. That's what I said.
And she said, well, how about getting a
group together to start a long-range program that will cover all the needs of
the Native people, the six nations [in the treaty group].
The remainder of this section outlines the
various ideas, suggestions, and goals of the language advisory committee.
Step one involves a range of planning
activities, as can be seen below.
(1) Step 1.
Language assessment and planning: Find out what the linguistic situation
is in the community. How many speakers
are there? What are their ages? What other resources are there available on
the language? What are the attitudes of
speakers and non-speakers toward language revitalization? What are realistic goals for language
revitalization in this community?
(Hinton 2001: 6)
A large-scale survey of the Hul'qumi'num
communities, which is aimed at getting answers to these questions, has not been
conducted. However, a great deal has
been learned through the language advisory committee meetings. The preceding quote indicates that there are
not many young adults who speak the language and there is general consensus
that there are not enough speakers.
FEMALE VOICE: ...with the limited number of
talking Hul'qumi'num people we don't...we have to have the numbers out there to
be really strong. And I think with
different nations combining their efforts that's the only way that we are going
to be able to get the language strong again.
But you also have to have the pride of our people before. Why aren't they thirsty for this
knowledge? How many years...how many
years does the Hul'qumi'num be out there and to have...what...a hundred
speaking people out of how many thousands [almost 6000] of people from that is
Nanaimo to Malahat, is it, these numbers?
FEMALE VOICE: […] In Duncan we are...I can say we're rich with
our Hul'qumi'num speakers. But in the
same sense we are really at and close to the endangered part of our language
because just [inaudible] the list we've only got about 27 fluent speakers...
In terms of the rate and cause of the
language shift, it must have been relatively recently.
FEMALE VOICE: ...canoe races, soccer, soccer
tournament. There use to be always a
soccer tournament every Easter over in Kuper Island. We would go to the village there and there
would be just a lot of people and they just spoke nothing but
Hul'qumi'num. And that was the only
language spoken all over on the islands.
But now there's no need for the [inaudible] you know when they get together
it's all English. There's no more
Hul'qumi'num.
FEMALE VOICE: When do you remember when
everybody spoke Hul'qumi'num? Was that
[inaudible]?
FEMALE VOICE: Well when I got out of school
like in 1954 it was all Hul'qumi'num.
In terms of a question from above -
"What are the attitudes of speakers and non-speakers toward language
revitalization?" - a desire to learn more has been expressed.
FEMALE VOICE: So that is a real poor figure
for the amount of people that are speaking.
Pitiful. And I think before even
the efforts of the language, cultural teaching assistants and what not, we have
to find out why aren't our people interested in building. It's sad for the amount of time that there
have been classes that there is still not retaining any from which. They are not using it. It's part of the culture, it is the culture
the language and we don't have that.
After an assessment on the status of the
language and goals of the community in terms of renewing it, comes determining
where to begin.
Stage two is the most severe case of
language shift - no speakers - doesn't really apply for Hul'qumi'num, as there
are speakers of the language. However it
does apply to certain broad areas of the language such as specific classes of
words or discursive patterns.
(2) Step 2.
If the language has no speakers: Use available materials to reconstruct
the language and develop language pedagogy.
(Hinton 2001: 6)
Even so, there is the recognition that much
knowledge has passed on with the passing of elders and there is a desire to
make that knowledge accessible to the larger community.
MALE VOICE: So I've said this time and time
again, and I'll say it again. We need to
read that confidential stuff because maybe 99% of it doesn't have to be
confidential, extract any information that needs to be confidential, and then
use this information for education. I
could say all the old elders that I've talked to recently in the past 10 years
have all said don't let this information gather dust like the rest of our
information that we shared. Goes into
the office of whoever collects it, goes on a shelf and it stays there.
There is often overlap between steps, as
one leads into another.
(3) Step 3.
If the language has only elderly speakers: Document the language of the
elderly speakers. (This may also take
place at the same time as other steps.) (Hinton 2001: 6)
MALE VOICE:
The other one that I think about too that falls into that is when we
talk about materials we need the information, so, you know, they hold the
information, the elders hold the information in our communities. And there's a lot of that information that we
need to compile in order to have these lesson plans in place. And so, you know, because so many of them
still carry the knowledge that they, you know.
Documentation takes many forms: visual,
audio, book, and multi-media.
MALE VOICE: Yeah. So I'd like to -- my hope is to have the
pictures, videos and possibly slides.
Slides is getting kind of obsolete with this, what do you call it,
computer [inaudible] or something?
FEMALE VOICE: … If you haven't already made
it could be easy to put in the computer.
If you have the funds, which I don't have, [inaudible] all of these
materials, it could take time, put it in and whatever you want to do with
it. Make a dictionary or make your
little published materials for the schools.
You would have it ready. That is
only my suggestions. [inaudible].
MALE VOICE: I'm also working on just
talking words that are not in the dictionary.
And I have probably more pages than this of words that are not in the
dictionary. Some of them are just word
for word like (HUL'QUMI'NUM LANGUAGE SPOKEN), Hul'qumi'num and some of them are
phrases. So Chuck Seymour does the...put
them on the computer for me, for us and hopefully that be able to just...to
anybody that wants to make [inaudible]. […] Cause a lot of these words are
never used anymore by anyone. The elders
know I'm interested in bringing back those things that aren't used
anymore.
FEMALE VOICE: Yes, about how to do things,
so [inaudible]. [inaudible] important
things that we have to [inaudible]. This
kind of project would be really [inaudible] in terms of documenting the
language and developing [inaudible] culture and stuff [inaudible] how much work
[inaudible]. I'm thinking 36 hours a
tape, 200 tapes. So just copying them of
course and then making sure that there's video copies of [inaudible].
Linguists have also been involved in
documentation.
FEMALE VOICE: Over the years I've been
doing sentences for Tom [Hukari, a linguist], so he's got a lot of material on
making up sentences for each word and tape recording them. So there are tape recorded things. There's a lot of material that we've worked
on before.[…]: Well, from '73 to what.
Over the 30 years.
The following illustrate that there is a
strong desire for more detailed analysis and documentation to be done by
speakers and community members.
FEMALE VOICE: I'd like to see some more
people take linguistic courses for the, what do you call it, [inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: Yeah, to train people to be
linguists.
FEMALE VOICE: Yes. Yes, because we're teaching at the writing
system, but taking linguistic courses I think that's very important. I know it's worthwhile to have for people to
know to be able to understand what linguists they support [inaudible]. I think that's very important.
Hinton points out that documentation is an
ongoing activity, and that many of the steps can occur in different orders,
depending on the community.
(4) Step 4. Develop a second-language
learning program for adults […]. These
professional-age and parent-age adult second-language learners will be
important leaders in later steps.
(Hinton 2001: 6)
This need was pointed out initially as an
impetus for the current project and is echoed by the following.
FEMALE VOICE: It's really hard on young
people. They are just in their 30s and
40s and they still don't know the language.
These are the people we have to teach to now, not later, because they
are the ones that are starting the language.
And there hasn't been any adult classes because there has been no
funding for that education. Young people
have been asking to have classes and there hasn't been any.
FEMALE VOICE: Yeah, I think that's important because she
[inaudible] with what she said about the teachers because that's the most important
for the future. It's not only for the
present but for the future, too, to have teachers trained and have them know
how to make programs as well as learning the language. So it goes into short then to the long range
too. Because we need teachers now, that
are the ones that are speaking now, to teach the ones that are going to be
teaching in the future; and this will be young people that will have to take
training.
FEMALE VOICE: […] We
are very, very lacking in teachers so what can we do without teachers. […]
That time is going to have to be sacrificed to get teachers out, and
unless you've got -- we've got the Hul'qumi'num but we've also got to have them
go to school for their linguistics.
FEMALE VOICE: Can't we make that a goal, to have Hul'qumi'num
teachers just do a one-year program for now, being as they're just teaching
Hul'qumi'num? Could be it's not a
realistic one but it could be if we make it that.
There is also a need to educate adults
using traditional teaching styles.
MALE VOICE: The mentor, again I would go
back a long time ago it was easy. We
didn't call it mentorship but that was just part of growing up. You went with somebody, sometimes, not all
the time, some of it was -- like for me, ,when I was small before I went to
school, my [Hul'qumi'num spoken] told me things that I had to go implement them
in my later life; some of it in my youth, some of it in my later years. So there's certain levels, as my cousin was
saying, of different levels of learning.
FEMALE VOICE: I guess before that happens
there should be a class for the teachers, for the elders too. It's a real necessary factor that the ones
teaching are going to be all on the same wavelength if you must say. It's...you have to have other means of
teaching. And some people just...they're
just going read, read, read. And you
have to be able to present your classes and at least have it [inaudible] that
you want to stay there. You know you are
going to be bored and [inaudible] if it is going to be blah, blah, blah. So there has to be a class for teachers.
To address this lack of adult speakers,
some recent initiatives have been taken.
FEMALE VOICE: there is one that is...they
are just looking at...looking into organizing now down here at the Chemainus First
Nation College. We think that it will
start this spring.
We are looking at an eight month
course. Mm-hmm. So it will be similar to what I took with
[inaudible]. Mm-hmm.
FEMALE VOICE: Are there teacher training
courses. There's a number of different
programs that are all over the province right now to [inaudible] language
teachers. So that's part of the plan
would be for [inaudible] and see what [inaudible] could add. There is one in Nanaimo and one at
[inaudible]. But there is such a shortage of language teachers now that's how
come Chemainus First Nation is putting on one at the College. [inaudible]. All that three years and for
eight months, so we are going to get some language teachers into the schools
and [inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: … I think we just go into the
language and get as many teachers as we can that are interested in
teaching. Because teachers can be
taught, young people can be taught to teach just everyday sayings, very, like
from kindergarten to Grade 2, all in that area, and they can become teachers of
the elementary school and kindergarten, nurseries and things like that. But the ones that are advanced, it has to be
really people that are fluent in the language.
They have to be fluent to be able to teach higher grades, like the
junior secondary and the highschool. And
they have to be able to write the language and develop their material, if it
has to be developed.
In the section above, it was hinted that
teaching should be culturally relevant and appropriate because of the strong
connection between culture and language.
This refinement of the type of teaching and training of adults leads
into the next step.
(5) Step 5.
Redevelop or enhance cultural practices that support and encourage use
of the endangered language at home and in public by first- and second-language
speakers. (Hinton 2001: 6)
FEMALE VOICE: I think what's most important
isn't how to keep the language going, it's how to get it in the homes
somehow. That seems to be the biggest
problem no matter where you go, because you can teach the children in the day
care or in the schools, but when they go home it's not - they don't get nothing
at home because the parents don't use the Indian language. So we're trying to get the parents to use
what language they do know at home because that seems to be the problem.
There are ideas about combining the
language with a range of teachings and skills regarding traditional knowledge.
FEMALE VOICE: Cause even harvesting is a training in
itself, and there's a lot of Hul'qumi'num that happens. You just don't go out for a walk, you know,
everything's explained from when it's there, why it's there, how it's there,
and how long it will be before the next.
So those kinds of things are -- it's not just point A to point B. There's a lot of little things in between
those points.
MALE VOICE: […]. You know, I guess the old way of [inaudible]
was no flash cards, but field trips, or in the case of what you were talking
about, work areas, where there's be a clam bake or a meeting or whatever. So bring some of the students there and it
would be good for that. In respect of
our field trips, that's where the other teachers [check tape] coming back. The older people that can teach that are not
able to get out.
MALE VOICE:
Well, of both. Both, yeah. And under short-term, training for teachers
and creating First Nations curriculum material.
Along with that there needs to be some kind of funding for gathering
material or to make material, whether it be pictures or videos. Making material, one could be actually
getting the material out there in the woods; another could be actually fixing
something. I'm not going to talk about
sweaters or baskets. But spear or
getting it or something, an actual harvest of material, making the web, making
the dip net, and the use of the dip net.
It seems like easy to go and dip net but it's an art in itself. One person can destroy a dip net in half an
hour or less, one that doesn't know how to use it.
MALE VOICE:
I really agree with my shyeth [phonetic]. I remember one time they were giving a
workshop on spear-making, and so, you know, the pole was provided, the rods
were provided, the points were provided, all the string was provided. And all I needed to do was to be there and
then just learn how to tie. And I
thought, we're not really doing any justice to them, you know, and going out
there and having that prayer for that fir tree, you know, praying to that tree
that it's giving up its life so that I can give life or nourishment to our
people, in with the art and the skill of spearing. You know, the shaving it down, making the one
end heavier than the other end, so all those kinds of things that weren't
really in place.
I know what it's like to forge points,
'cause I done that, you know, and that's a lot of work, and so they don't --
it's something more than that when you make something that it means so much
more to you, that you're going to look after it for as long as you can, eh, and
it's going to mean more to you. And so I
think -- I really believe in the resources being a part of that, right from its
start, you know, to this, whatever this end product it's going to be.
In fact, there are a great many ideas that
combine the language with cultural knowledge.
The following are a few more.
FEMALE VOICE: [regarding high-school
students]… We've got mountains here so [inaudible] and some of our people,
their pride, their self esteem might...they'll go off into the mountains. And that's going to be their [inaudible]
they'll be able to be somebody there. In
the schools they're...they really are ashamed to even learn their
language. We've got six private [check
tape] schools in Duncan and a lot of the teachers have come and said it's our
own people that are ashamed to come and sit in with them, with the Hul'qumi'num
class that day. So there is an in cry of
our people. So we have to find what can
be done to develop that pride in going up in the woods might be one area where
they are going to be.
MALE VOICE: I guess the other one too that
I could kinda look into is that...I'm not sure if it's in [inaudible] has a
mentorship program. Yeah. And so I see that...I see that working with
one commitment from these students to working [inaudible] with someone that's
involved with the big house or someone involved with harvest and medicines and
that and sort of that connection to the environment. Someone almost that could be with all of the
sea pools and that. You know that
connection, that mentorship.
And then I heard you know really after a
two year program like that is that it's so highly successful that they say that
they come out as fluent speaker. But if
it's a commitment from the elders and it's a commitment from the students but
it is governed by a body people that are ensuring that it carries on, that they
are following through with it.
MALE VOICE: In thinking about wellness and
talking to all this, I'm thinking about sort of leaning [inaudible] I see the
[inaudible] I don't think it's often just there in front of the band office in
the program. I think that you can really
- is getting well for things like the bingo, getting well with Shaker Church,
getting well, you know, people just getting educated. But there seems to be a lot of other places
that [inaudible] programs that have them.
So I'm trying to connect that back to the language. I'm thinking, well, other places than just in
the schools that you can link that, getting the wellness and the language
together and trying to build them in. Is
it too hard to bring the language into these other places that - where there's
so good or some positive [inaudible].
One recurring goal has been for everyone to
gain fluency in the longhouse.
FEMALE VOICE: This has been asked for -- by the long
houses, eh? When we go to the long house
you see children, see young people -- I say children because these children are
30, 40 years old, and they're hitting each other saying, what's that person
saying? What's that public speaker
saying? And they're in their forties, 45
years old. Okay, these are the ones where we want to see the
language, that they be speaking their own language and understanding what is
being said. Everywhere that we've gone
to, all the long houses, even to the American side, and they ask the same
question: what's being said on the
floor? What are they saying? They look for somebody that speaks the
language and say, what is being said.
That's where we want -- we want to see the language, we want to see the
people understand that they can speak the language.
FEMALE VOICE: A basic of the things, announcements in the
long house can be developed. All the
things that happen, whether it's naming, whether it's announcements of
honouring somebody. And that can all be
written down, and the young people can learn from that by listening to -- you
can see all the young people having those little radio things that they're
carrying around and they're here to [inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: Maybe there should be a
[inaudible] talking about what Mabel was saying there, that a lot of little
people don't understand, and the work that goes on in the longhouse, there
should be a program for that so they can understand. Like, they call into the kitchen or they ask
them to come forward, and there's a lot of things that can be put into a book
just for the longhouse [inaudible], what goes on there. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to go
into the explanation of anything, it's just sentences that come out in the
longhouse, words that - [...].
FEMALE VOICE: People do go around at the
longhouse and they invite people to go to another place, and they're always
inviting - there's two or three groups that go around, and they go around the
whole longhouse and they invite people to go to another place, maybe in the
USA, and they say the date and ask, invite the people to be there on that
certain date. That goes on all the
time. But that's in English, but maybe
some day they'll all speak Indian. It'll
be understood in Indian. If a book comes
out something like that, then that would help a lot of people, a lot of the
young people. And even some tapes, tapes
to go with it because it wouldn't be such a thick book, it would be a very
small one. It would be a bit bigger than
this.
FEMALE VOICE: What I've been wanting to do over the years,
in the kitchen of the long house -- and I never, because of my health I haven't
been able to do it, is go into the kitchen part and have language sessions with
the ones that are in there. All these
Cowichan, Clem Clem, the ones in Chemainus Bay, in the kitchen part where they
announce things, every time there's a meal, every time there's something going
on there, initiation or what, they have a table and all the young people
speak. They share their teachings to
each other.
There are also many Hul'qumi'num activities
at the Shaker Church.
FEMALE VOICE: It's [inaudible] and really the older
language [inaudible]. And not very much
English. When I went there it seems to
be all the prayers are all in Hul'qumi'num.
There's no English whatsoever.
But if they speak, if there's a non-speaker then it will be in
English. But the Hul'qumi'num is very
loud [inaudible]
FEMALE VOICE: This one isn't home-based but
it's church-based. [inaudible] is
teaching his songs. So on Thursday nights
we will start -- start there. That's why
I was wondering about tapes for [inaudible] might be able to open [inaudible]
need to what might be out there so we could make some more tapes [inaudible] go
way back, and find something for Thursday to have a copy. So we've put the word out to Saanich. And I was just over at the Native College and
I put the word out there, what kind of songs, what kind of [inaudible] culture
[inaudible] we need taping of [inaudible].
Funerals have also been mentioned as strong
places for the language.
FEMALE VOICE: When there's a funeral in
[inaudible] they use a lot of Hul'qumi'num language. A lot of the people have to [inaudible]
funerals. [Inaudible] they're coming
there with the Native language to talk to the bereaved family, all the things
that [inaudible] ought to do.
The next step is to dedicate programming to
children, who have a natural capacity for language acquisition.
(6) Step 6.
Develop intensive second-language programs for children, preferably with
a component in the schools. When
possible, use the endangered language as the language of instruction. (Hinton 2001: 6)
It is clear that there are a number of
projects to teach Hul'qumi'num to young children both in the school system and
in community-based programs.
FEMALE VOICE: So all this is so natural around our area and
they're picking up the language very quickly.
Because we have the daycare part is for newborns to four year olds. And then we have the kindergartens being
bussed down every afternoon. So I spend
all that time with the kindergartens in the afternoon. And we go for walks down the beach and we
talk Hul'qumi'num all that time. And the
teacher that comes down with them on the bus from North Oyster school she took
up language with the evening classes for two years before she accepted this
job. So she knows quite a bit about
Hul'qumi'num too.
FEMALE VOICE: I find that that's how they
really go the language is through songs.
Because I sing a lot of songs at the daycare. Sometimes I just make them up as I go. I change the names from Jack and Jill to Mary
and John.
FEMALE VOICE: That's how come I think the
daycare is the ideal place to be. You
know because we give the kids breakfast.
Some of them are there like 7:30 in the morning. We have them right till 3:30. Then they are hearing the language all day
long. That's the ideal place for the
children to be learning the language.
MALE VOICE: These children are, I'm
guessing, three years and five years.
They're [inaudible]. Then one of
the things we need to do, we talked about childcare, which I take is the real
young ones, pre-kindergarten. But one of
the things we need to do, we should be looking at, is those everyday
caretakers, or whatever they call them, teachers, is increase their
Hul'qumi'num skills where they can share their knowledge with these
babies. That's the best place to learn
Hul'qumi'num, is when they're very young.
MALE VOICE: Here's something
interesting. I'll say this part first
and then it's the next part that's interesting.
Only until recently did I start thinking in English, meaning if I spoke
in it I was thinking in Hul'qumi'num and then having to translate while I'm
talking to English. This is the
interesting part here, is that I've heard some of the CTAs [community teaching
assistants] and others say, I'm starting to learn, I'm starting to learn to
think in Hul'qumi'num. So some of the
CTAs have said that. They're the opposite,
they're having to translate [inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: Yeah, [inaudible] and have
that as the resource place, you know, would be nice. Sto:lo Nation has something similar to that,
I think, with a [inaudible] and you go around and you've got the room and
you've got, the last part they've got a fish drawn right on the floor in the -
[…] Kids love that. I mean, they lay inside the fish and they
measure themselves [inaudible] and all those kinds of things are -- they can
relate to. They live by [inaudible] most
of our First Nations people.
MALE VOICE: Yes, I do take different schools
out for a walk, and classes. It's really
the older youths, probably Grades 6, 7 and up.
But there'd be no problem in taking younger ones out. And this is where [HUL'QUMI'NUM LANGUAGE
SPOKEN] is coming in, unofficially I think he's taking my place helping them
with the language and all the things that go with it, [HUL'QUMI'NUM LANGUAGE
SPOKEN], the whole works, in hopes that he'll share this knowledge, the wisdom
of the elders.
A recurring theme and struggle is to have
more time dedicated to teaching Hul'qumi'num.
FEMALE VOICE: They have French a credited course and they
have Spanish a credited course, so that would be a long-term goal to have
Hul'qumi'num a credited course. And
whatever red tape or loopholes you have to go through to get to that, that's
what's probably holds back the Hul'qumi'num as being -- maybe that would make a
difference.
While there currently are no programs for
some age groups, the desire to develop further Hul'qumi'num programs extends to
teen-aged students. It is also
recognized that teaching to this age should be connected to teaching other
important life skills and cultural knowledge.
FEMALE VOICE: [CHECK] This is important with our young
people, eh? Because they -- if they do
that -- I think the high-school students are more easy to teach than the junior
secondaries, because they have interest in their own language. So the high-schools, there's a different
program that goes into for the high-school and the -- which we never got into,
was teaching, teaching the program we had.
But a development would have to be made that goes into the council. It would be about the tribe, all the things
that are done, learning the -- learning to become a councilor and the
responsibility of councilors and chiefs and things like that.
FEMALE VOICE: So, you know, you've got the role model
there, you've got somebody that you could talk to that knows these things. Then with that, maybe that would eliminate --
I think further back it had about training the babes and the pregnant
women. Maybe that would eliminate having
-- I don't know if this word would be right to use on the whole for young
ladies and young men when they're changing to become young ladies and young
men, the girls and the boys. Maybe we're
the elders on staff, maybe that would eliminate that. But even that is so critical with our people,
how you are when you become a young lady and a young man.
Too many of our people are just scattered
with their minds, it's not focused on being responsible people. They're not focusing on direction they can
take because they haven't done those things that need to be done when they're
of that age. But that starts back from -
The connection between language and
cultural knowledge and skills is also recognized as an important key to
reaching and connecting with teens.
FEMALE VOICE: With the teachings Auntie Ruby was talking
about, the depth of the teaching is lost when it's spoken in English. It doesn't -- the parallel isn't the same
when the teaching is put down in Hul'qumi'num it's way up, then when it's posed
to English the depth of that is really, really lost.
FEMALE VOICE: […] If
there was such a home where they would have elders as the teachers there, they
could bring them out into the woods and have them harvesting some of these
things that we need to. Because there's
been such a loss, even with a lot of our medicinal stuff out there, that that
needs to be saved or -- I don't know what word to use. But, you know, because of all the logging and
stuff we've lost a lot of the medicinal herbs and roots and whatnot. So if somehow that could be planted again
with these young people that are in change of life, they could be there for a
six-week period or whatever and they could be learning these things. So I don't know.
A key step to regaining intergenerational
communication is to have the language spoken at home.
(7) Step 7.
Use the language at home as the primary language of communication, so
that it becomes the first language of young children. Develop classes and support groups for
parents to assist them in the transition. (Hinton 2001: 6)
FEMALE VOICE: I think the language we've
got at home...used at home more than, you know, we have to try and take care of
kids and teach them, as young as they are, the Indian words that they can, you
know, grasp and start to understand you.
I think if you are around people that speak Indian language they
will...they grasp it. You don't have to
teach your children like a baby how to speak.
They learn from listening to others.
You know he's speaking Indian all of the time, every time, you know, no
English words they grasp it.
I think from a very young age is the time
to start training them to learn how to speak at home. That's where I teach. [inaudible] class where things really imagine
95 with [inaudible] and at that time they pointed out that a four year old you
know [inaudible] by ages, by the time they are eight or ten they raised. They are just a sponge and they're just
speaking all of the words that are there.
FEMALE VOICE: I have the home programs in
the summertime. I saw their plan from
April to August, and they didn't have materials also at the time. Like [inaudible] and then I feel like
[inaudible] bring them up and show them the plants, flowers that they had
planted in the spring, trees, naming them, down to the beach. [inaudible] ages. I don't do it any more but [inaudible] from
April [inaudible] August. That bird
[inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: [inaudible] granddaughter,
she's only about...she looks about seven.
She can write, she watches her dad.
Like she's scared to climb up in the program [inaudible] computers of
the writing systems and she can write it just from watching her grandfather,
which is [inaudible]. So they are really advancing really quickly. So [inaudible] they're applying them. Learning fast.
Ideas or diagnoses for why the language
might not be spoken at home and some remedies to the situation have also been
shared at the meetings.
FEMALE VOICE: […] Can you imagine them with
Hul'qumi'num. It's zero seconds
minus. So I think until family's start
restructuring or...then maybe there might be some...then of course you'll get
your self-esteem back, your pride. Until
that, we will get to be [inaudible] I don't know that [inaudible] wants to be
they will have pride in their Hul'qumi'num.
Now that they don't have that within their own families.
One vision is that fluency for children can
be a key to reversing language shift.
FEMALE VOICE: My parents learned how to
speak English through us coming home from school. That is how they learnt how to speak English
because they never went to school. They
learned English through us and that's what I think that's going to happen
here. I think all the parents are going
to learn Hul'qumi'num from the children.
MALE VOICE: Just one further to the
children coming home and teaching their parents and uncles and aunts how to
speak Hul'qumi'num. There's another
thing. The kids that come to visit my
mom's place, children from all over come to my mom's, both my nephews, and my
brothers and their gang, and a lot of them go home and they sort of teach their
family on how to eat Indian food.
[Inaudible].
In addition to having the language spoken
at home, having it spoken in the broader community is a significant step in
reversing language shift.
(8) Step 8.
Expand the use of the indigenous language into broader local domains,
including community government, media, local commerce, and so on. (Hinton 2001: 6)
The domains above have been mentioned as a
goal for increased language usage.
FEMALE VOICE: [inaudible] Another area that needs tending to is the
workers at all the complexes [inaudible].
People, they should be answering the phones [inaudible]. They should have people in there. I don't know how...you know it's going to
take the managers of all of these places to start enforcing that. If that's not done, why are we telling our kids
to learn when the adults aren't even doing anything. So a lot of these areas have all Natives in
there and you don't ever hear... I hate that anyway.
FEMALE VOICE: I think if there was enough
money that there should be a video done.
Like, it was so kind of interesting [inaudible] nature walk through -
like, it had different themes for every little thing. Like that poem. And then the whole video game in
Hul'qumi'num, and then like could read at the bottom; how some child has like
English on the bottom. I think that
could be one way. Just different themes,
[inaudible].
FEMALE VOICE: But we need to make the managers know the
value of Hul'qumi'num and of the culture.
And how do you do that when a person hasn't lived the culture. […] So
how do you undo the wrong, if "undo the wrong" be the term I
use. So unless the managers and chief
and council know the seriousness of it, we can't really -- until they help us
move along, we're not going to move unless they're aware of that.
In terms of level of commitment to language
use, official recognition of the language is seen as a factor in reversing
language shift.
MALE VOICE: So the other part I really
wanted to touch up on is, you know, many times we talk about the programs and
the resources and that for schooling, but we really need to hit our
community. You know, that's where we
need the motivation, you know, is to wake up our people. You know, we have so much interest in a
general meeting, they talk about, you know, bang, bang, they're knocking on the
table and everything, we need language and all of that. And so when the time comes, those people
aren't there, you know. So we need
something there to really wake them up, to motivate them. So that could be a short-term or a long-term
[inaudible].
And the other one that we really wanted is
to, you know, just this community alone has been here for so many generations
that we should be telling the city here, you know, we're having First Nations
Hul'qumi'num language and so it should be a whole part of the community, this
whole Cowichan Valley. And so we need to
have all of our leadership, you know, in with that, eh, into getting that
moving.
And I like that idea about all the tribes
coming together and then having one declaration. I think that should be just a big enough
place to be able to go to that and looking at all the chiefs and the councils
and all of the communities that this is our vision, this is our law. And it's going to be law for everyone in
these communities. And it could be done,
you know, in our traditional way that this is what they're going to be doing
and we're standing by it, and we want everybody else to stand by that too. Amen.
Again the overlap between stages is
evident. The final step involves usage
at an even larger societal scale.
(9) Step 9.
Where possible, expand the language domains outside to promote the
language as one of wider communication, regional or national government and so
on […]. (Hinton 2001: 6)
Notice that the goal of regional level
usage of Hul'qumi'num is discussed at the end of the preceding quote. This calls into question issues of identity
and nationhood. If the term
"national" in step 9 is interpreted in a euro-centric perspective,
the chances are remote that any indigenous language of British Columbia will
attain step 9. The greatest linguistic
diversity in Canada is found in British Columbia, which is home to half the
number of languages in the country, belonging to 7 distinct language families. However, if the term "national" is
interpreted as it is with treaty negotiations, then the attainment of step 9 is
a clear goal, which can be attained in the long term. The current treaty negotiations position Hul’qumi’num
speaking people in a ‘nation-to-nation’ relationship with the state. Language has been identified as an important
topic for negotiation in the Agreement-and-Principle of the Treaty Group. It is hoped that the status and importance of
Hul’qumi’num will be recognized and affirmed through these treaty negotiations,
forming an important part of the future nationhood of the Hul’qumi’num people.
4. Summary
A great deal of work has been done by many
dedicated individuals to create many diverse Hul'qumi'num-speaking
activities. One can now see how
Fishman's (1991) proposal works: language shift can be reversed with more
activities at advanced stages. However,
one can also see that there are many plans yet to be implemented. We hope that all the Hul'qumi'num activities
thrive and all plans are implemented. We
close with the following.
FEMALE VOICE: But too many times it's happened that we've
had these things put down on paper and nothing is ever done. Too many times there's been surveys going out
and nothing has come of it. And people
just get in distress about how do you make this go on and be -- and realize the
fruits of this meeting.
References
Fishman, Joshua. 1991. Reversing
Language Shift Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to
Threatened Languages. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Hinton, Leanne. 2001 Language revitalization: An overview. In Leanne Hinton and Ken Hale (eds) The Green Book of Language Revitalization
in Practice. New York: Academic
Press, 3-18.
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