(Photo above) More than 1,000 Naskapis now live in their community of Kawawachikamach in Quebec, surrounded by forests and swamy muskeg (peat bog). Before settling here in 1983, the group roamed throughout northern Quebec and Labrador, following vast herds of caribou. Today, many Naskapis continue to hunt, fish and trap. (Alan Hood, photographer)

Across Canada, indigenous peoples are struggling to save their languages. In many communities, it is only the older people who speak their mother tongues relatively fluently. 

This situation exists for several reasons. Over most of the 20th Century, the federal government undermined use of indigenous languages by removing 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and putting them in residential schools, where abuse was all too prevalent and mother tongues were banned. In addition, today’s Aboriginal youth are speaking less and less of their languages as they are constantly exposed to English and French through TV and online devices.

Apologetic governments want to help revitalize Aboriginal languages, as a means of reconciliation after their role in the residential school tragedy. Aboriginal communities are increasingly seeing the importance of strengthening their languages for community wholeness, well-being, and reconciliation.

Both can look for inspiration to the Naskapi, an indigenous group of 1,100 living in the community of Kawawachikamach, in northeastern Quebec. For decades, the Naskapi have successfully worked to revitalize and promote their language—with key support from SIL International.

Forty years ago, Naskapi leaders, including visionary chief Joseph Guanish, asked several SIL linguists to help start a foundational grammar and dictionary project for the Naskapi language (which uses syllabics).  

SIL’s Bill Jancewicz has been serving as resource linguist since he and his wife Norma Jean joined the community-based Naskapi language and culture development strategy in 1988.

(Photo left) SIL’s Bill and Norma Jean Jancewicz lived and served among the Naskapis as part of a community-based language and culture development strategy. Bill is resource linguist to the project, which has yielded a Naskapi dictionary, mother-tongue literacy and education, printed Naskapi stories and legends, and translation efforts, including Scripture. (Photo right) One aspect of the Naskapi project is translation of Scriptures, like these, used widely in Sunday readings by the local Anglican Church. The Naskapi language has a symbol-based writing system, called syllabics, with roots in the script first developed in the 1830s by Methodist missionary James Evans. Syllabics are commonly used by Aboriginal language speakers in northern Canada, in three language families. They consider syllabics to be part of their cultural identity. (Alan Hood, photographer) Click image to enlarge

The effort has since grown to include promoting mother-tongue literacy and education, publishing of Naskapi legends and stories, and supporting translation efforts, including Scripture. Naskapi elders and younger parents, like Amanda Swappie, are determined to keep their language alive.                   

‘“Language is very important because that is our identity, what makes us unique as Naskapi people,” says Swappie, a team language specialist and translator since 2013. “Without it, our culture and traditions would not be the same. This is the main reason I do what I do—to help keep it alive for generations to come.”

“It should be important for children to speak in their mother-tongue, because when we lose it, we lose ourselves, our identity, the very core of our beings.”

The dictionary, though out of print, is available online. In 2018, work began on its extensive revision and expansion. About 1,000 previously uncollected words were added from the growing Naskapi legends and stories project and from Bible translation efforts. A smartphone dictionary app is also in the works.

The Naskapi legends and stories project continues to grow. Such titles as ᑯᐃᒂᒐᐤ (The Wolverine), ᒥᔅᑎ ᒥᒋᓱᐤ (The Giant Eagle), ᐃᔎᒋᐛᑎᓂᓱᐅᒡ ᑭᔭ ᑯᑎᑲ ᑎᐸᒋᒧᐅᓇ(Caught in a Blizzard and other stories) and ᐛᐱᒪᑯᒡ ᑲ ᓄᒐᐊᑭᓄᐅᒡ (A Whale Hunt and other stories) have been published (many on the Internet) in this important cultural series.

“This provides not only a connection to their past in practice—Naskapi storytelling was an important part of their pre-contact cultural practice—many of the stories also include historical eyewitness accounts, as well as specifics about the Naskapi territory,” explains Jancewicz. “Land, names of places, travel and journey accounts are part of the 40+ story archive.”

The stories are well used at the 300-student Jimmy Sandy Memorial School, where pupils are taught with Naskapi as the language of instruction from Pre-K to Grade 3, and then as a subject in the curriculum to Grade 11.  

“We have it [use of Naskapi] going at the school and we’re using it and it’s strong,” stresses Shannon Uniam, a staunch advocate for revitalizing Naskapi who has taught for six years.

(Photos left and middle) At the 300-student Jimmy Sandy Memorial School, pupils are taught in Naskapi as the language of instruction from Pre-K to Grade 3. It is then taught as a subject in the curriculum to Grade 11. (Photo right) With photos of their once-nomadic ancestors in the background, two young Naskapi girls peruse a book (the New Testament) in their language. In a rapidly-changing world where they can access satellite TV and the Internet in English and French, these youth can read and write their Naskapi language to keep it alive and strong. (Alan Hood, photographer)
 Click image to enlarge

“I’m a mother and my community has a Naskapi nation to preserve, and the language and culture to preserve. It’s my duty to keep this going. That’s my community, that’s my life, that’s my language, that’s my culture,” says Uniam. “I tell my kids that all the time.”

Whether it’s students playing math bingo in Naskapi or learning their symbol-based alphabet, mother-tongue classroom instruction is vital for the future of the group, she says.

The language development successes of the Naskapi, in such areas as literacy, education and translation, are getting noticed, says Jancewicz. They have caught the attention of other indigenous leaders, who are dealing with the lingering negative impact of residential schools on their people.

“Community and church leaders from the James Bay Cree (Waskaganish, Quebec), Oji-Cree (Kingfisher Lake, Ontario), Western Swampy Cree (Split Lake, Manitoba) and Mushuau Innu (Natuashish, Labrador) are all aware of the progress made by the Naskapi . . . and in various ways have begun local efforts to create the synergy that has [been] created in Kawawachikamach."

 

SIL is pleased that 2019 has been declared as International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) by the United Nations. For us, every year is a year of languages. That’s because researching, revitalizing and promoting use of lesser-known languages is at the heart of who we are and what we have been doing for the past 85 years. This articleis one in a series that explains SIL’s work as it relates to key themes of IYIL.