SICC conference focuses on promoting, preserving Indigenous languages
- Fraser Needham | December 17, 2013
Pop artist Susan Aglukark says language and culture are inseparable.
"Language is the grounding part of a culture and without that, the culture is broken," she says.
The Inuk singer, who performs her songs in both English and Inuktitut, was one of the keynote speakers at the First Nations' Language Keepers Conference in Saskatoon last month. The annual conference, which is hosted by the Saskatchewan Indian Culture Centre, consists of two days of presentations and workshops with the goal of preserving and promoting Indigenous languages.
About 400 delegates from across Canada participated in this year's conference. Some of the Indigenous languages featured included Cree, Dene, Nakota and Lakota.
Aglukark says she feels it is important to use her position as a recording artist to give back to Indigenous communities and participate in conferences like the language keepers. She adds growing up in Arviat, Nunavut, she never really thought it would be possible to pursue a career as a professional singer. It wasn't until she moved to Ottawa to work for the federal government that Aglukark started to believe she could pursue this dream.
She says Indigenous communities need to do a better job of teaching their young people that it is possible to dream big while retaining your language and culture.
"Another presentation I do is called nurturing the dreamer we don't. In our communities and northern reserves we're not set up to nurture the dreamer. Had I been asked, 'What would you like to do?' I would have said, 'I want to be a singer.' It just wasn't going to happen, not in my mind anyway."
Allan Adam ran a workshop on Indigenous languages and mass media. The longtime broadcaster says he began posting interviews he had done with Dene elders on the Internet about five years ago to help others learn the language. He now owns and operates his own website, which contains videos and audio files to help people learn First Nations languages.
Adam says people can access files in eight different Indigenous dialects on his website. Some of the dialects include Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota and Ojibwe. He adds people from all over the world are making use of the site.
"Today, I just got an email from somebody in Vancouver looking at the webpage and liking it, and somebody else was asking about it, so they are going to share my webpage information with them," he says. "People from Texas talking Dene languages, related to Navajo."
The language keepers conference also featured the SICC annual book writing contest. The contest, which started in 2011, is open to Saskatchewan First Nations students in kindergarten to Grade 12 who write a book in their own language with English translation. First place winners receive $500 and 20 copies of their published book.
This year's book writing contest winner is Krista George from St. Louis School in Patuanak for her Dene book called Whats Wrong With Me? The 2012 book contest winners were also on hand to talk about their book. The Dene book, The Giant Mariah, is a joint effort by students Delbert, Chelsea, Jessie and Keitha Sylvestre and teacher Ashlee Bekkattla of Buffalo River Dene Nation School.