This Sept. 30 marks our fourth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.
Importantly, the holiday gives First Nations the opportunity to honour those lost or harmed by Canada’s colonial policies, including the devastating residential and day school system.
While that reflection happens outwardly, at public events or community ceremonies, it’s equally important to reflect inward.
One thing we ask you to examine this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is the tendency to view acts that reclaim Indigenous culture as attacks on Canadian culture more broadly.
Here at the North Shore News, we have received letters complaining that Indigenous names and words are sometimes spelled out in a “secret language” designed to be obscure to English speakers.
However, with a Google search, you’ll learn that those characters are based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, which has been used by university linguists to represent sounds of various tongues around the world.
Using that alphabet has become an essential tool to help Indigenous people preserve their languages. Until recently, speakers of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim (Squamish language) as a first language had almost entirely been lost.
But now the Little Yellow Schoolhouse is home to the Nation’s ta tsíptspi7lhḵn Language Nest, where today’s little ones are speaking their native tongue in a home setting for the first time since Canada’s residential school system sought to take that right away.
For the parents, seeing their children using their traditional language on a daily basis represents a brighter future for the Nation. This and other acts of cultural revitalization should be viewed in the same bright light by us all.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
