Increasing funding for language programs has led to a rise in speaking of several Indigenous languages
Dool understands the importance of keeping her language alive. At one point her great grandmother Ts’ats’elexwot was one of only two fluent language speakers left in her community and was strong in Halq’emeylem revitalization. Now there is only one fluent speaker left in the community.
Neither Gwa’amuuk nor Dool considers herself a fluent language speaker. Even though they want their children to learn their First Nation’s languages, both women said they need to be deliberate about speaking it in the home and not slipping into English. Dool makes her three children — Keanu Ritchie, 15, Brody, 5, and Ryder, 1 — and her husband, Cody, tell her two words in Halq’emeylem if they are asking her for anything. They’ve also swapped out English for Halq’emeylem when it comes to saying thank you, please and you’re welcome.Article content
“It makes me really happy. It makes me feel motivated to keep learning. It makes me motivated to stay active with language learning. It makes me active to keep studying. It makes me active to keep teaching because it’s not something I’m going to learn, write down and put away. It’s something that’s going to be used for the rest of our life,” she said.
In 2018 there were two full-time immersion programs and now there are eight such programs in seven languages. There has been an increase of close to 2,000 adult learners ages 20 to 64 since 2018. There were triple as many full immersions for early childhood-aged children in 2022 compared to 2018.
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