Canada | UNESCO representative calls for Inuktitut to become an official language

(Ottawa) Inuk representative on UNESCO’s Global Task Force for a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages, Aluki Kotierk, calls on Canada to make Inuktitut an official language alongside English and French.

M^me Kotierk, who is also president of the organization Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI), responsible for protecting the rights and interests of the Inuit of Nunavut, believes that such a gesture would demonstrate Canada’s real commitment to protecting Indigenous languages.

About 70% of the population of Nunavut speaks Inuktitut and it is recognized as an official language of the territory. However, the majority of children are educated in English at school.

According to Aluki Kotierk, it is only by recognizing Inuktitut as the official language in Canada that schools would obtain the funds and support necessary to teach in the Inuit language, as is the case for English or French schools.

This recognition would at the same time ensure that all essential services, including health care, can be offered in Inuktitut.

As an example, M^me Kotierk told the story of an Inuk who tried to call 911 for help. As she only spoke Inuktitut, she was unable to make herself understood. For Aluki Kotierk, that must change.

Once again, if Canada recognizes Inuktitut as an official language, sufficient resources would be allocated, she believes.

The Inuk leader wants Canada to be inspired by Greenland, which is part of Denmark, and whose population is predominantly Inuit. She shares that she was touched to see traffic signs in Kalaallisut, the local language related to Inuktitut, when she went there to promote arctic languages.

Another Canadian representative on the UNESCO committee, Anicinabe Richard Kistabish, of the Abitibiwinni First Nation in Quebec, believes that all Canadians should learn at least a few words of the Indigenous languages ​​spoken in their region “as a way of recognition. For those people who were there first.

“It’s a question of principle,” he says.

Mr. Kistabish himself is fluent in Anicinabemowin as well as French and English.

He adds that being able to speak your own language should be “a right”.

In the case of anicinabemowin, he warns, time is running out since only 4,000 to 5,000 people still speak it in Canada.

Clara Morin Dal Col, a Métis leader who is also part of the UNESCO committee, would like to point out that Michif, born from a mixture of French and Cree, is currently “greatly threatened”.

She points out that it is still the first language spoken in parts of Saskatchewan today and that the language is also heard in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and other regions of Canada. Despite everything, the language is dying while it is mainly the elders who speak it.

Clara Morin Dal Col suggests that the Decade of Indigenous Languages ​​be used to create archival banks of recordings of elders speaking in their native languages ​​so that vocabulary and pronunciation are not lost and that future generations can study them.

“Our elders are so important for the transmission of the language. It is very important to teach our language and to archive it, ”she pleads.

M^me Morin Dal Col points out that the adoption of the Indigenous Languages ​​Act in 2019 has already done a lot for the revival of Michif and other languages. She now hopes that the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages ​​provides the momentum needed to do more.

In his mandate letter from the Prime Minister, Minister of Heritage Pablo Rodriguez was given the task of promoting and preserving Indigenous languages ​​in Canada.

Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout, who was sworn in in Inuktitut, her mother tongue, said “First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages ​​are essential to the way of life of our communities and that they are an important part of our identity ”.

She adds that Aboriginal people “should have the right to educate their children in their language.”