“We’re at a critical stage with our language with only a few fluent speakers left…”
– Erin Pauls, Dusk’a Head Start Program
Prince’s Trust Canada supports Indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize and protect their languages.
Some successful initiatives and collaborations include:
Prince’s Trust Canada has partnered with Indigenous organizations including First Nations University and the Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre to produce and publish children’s books written in several languages including Southern Tutchone, Cree (Plains, Swampy, Woods), Saulteaux, Dene, Nakota, Lakota, Dakota, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree and Inuktitut. An accompanying app was created to allow children to follow along while listening to a native speaker narrate the stories. The books and app have been widely distributed to libraries and schools and given to students from kindergarten to grade three.
This project is a continuation from an earlier initiative where Prince’s Trust Canada created a content sharing partnership between SayItFirst, a publisher of traditional Indigenous language content for children and One Laptop per Child Canada (OLPC).
As part of this partnership, digital books written in Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Ojibwe and Cree were made available to 15,000 Indigenous youth through laptops and e-readers provided by OLPC. The content was placed on community servers to make downloading easy in areas without high-speed internet. All new content produced is added to those servers through our ongoing relationship with OLPC.
The books were written in the traditional language (regular script and phonetics) as well as English and targeted to children ages 3-8, the age most likely to acquire language.
A special thanks to the Government of Canada, First Nations University of Canada and SayItFirst for their support.
First Nations University project brings Cree children’s books to Sask.
CBC News, March 2017
Prince William and Kate to deliver book written in rare native tongue to indigenous children
Toronto Star, September 2016
Revival of endangered aboriginal language empowers speakers in Yukon
The Globe and Mail, October 2016
In 2018, as part of our commitment to supporting the revitalization of Indigenous languages, we partnered with Nelson Publishing, First Nations University of Canada and the Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre to create colouring books in Swampy Cree, Ojibway and Oji-Cree.
We approached our Artist-in-residence Patrick Hunter, a Woodlands artist from Red Lake, Ontario to illustrate and write the colouring books. Children in schools across northern Ontario received their own copies of the colouring books.
Thank you to the Department of Canadian Heritage for funding the project. You can download a copy of the book using the links below. Either the phonetics or a pronunciation key is found at the end of each book.
Things to Colour from Mother Earth – Swampy Cree
Things to Colour from Mother Earth – Ojibwe-Cree
Things to Colour from Mother Earth – Ojibwe
Beautiful Words from Turtle Island – Swampy Cree
Beautiful Words from Turtle Island – Ojibwe-Cree
Beautiful Words from Turtle Island – Ojibwe
Prince’s Trust Canada has partnered with One Laptop per Child Canada (an organization committed to promoting digital literacy amongst Canada’s First peoples) and First Nations University to provide Indigenous youth with training in the fundamentals of computer animation and programming with an emphasis on revitalization and preservation of local culture and language.
The workshops, held so far at seven Indigenous schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Prince Edward Island give students the skills to create original projects in their languages and share them with the community.
The laptops used for the training remain as a permanent donation to the school.
Prince’s Trust Canada has supported the production of a video with a focus on teaching Plains Cree language fundamentals to children (ages 3-5). The television program is dramatized entirely in Cree using puppets, animation and live-actors from Cree speaking communities. The video also features the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan speaking Cree as part of the opening sequence.
The video has been shared widely with teachers, schools and the general community as a tool to instruct students in the Cree language.
We are currently exploring funding possibilities for future episodes in Cree and other languages.
Upon learning of their efforts to revitalize Inuktut and create a unified writing method for Inuit across Canada’s Arctic, Prince’s Trust Canada arranged for the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) language committee to travel to Wales for a week-long study tour.
The committee met with academics, government officials and artists to learn from the successful revitalization of the Welsh language. The trip served to inspire as well as provide practical ideas that could be adopted to the Arctic context.
Thank you to The Government of Canada, The Gordon Foundation and Shelly Jamieson for their support of our visit.
How to save a dwindling language: Inuit fly to Wales and back
CBC News, December 2016
Inuit inspired by Welsh language asks Prince Charles for help
BBC News, December 2016
Inuit delegation look to Wales for language preservation lessons
Global News, December 2016
“I have been greatly honoured to be welcomed into quite a large number of First Nations communities during my many journeys to Canada and to experience the diversity of their peoples and cultures.”
– His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
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