Frost Hits the Rhubarb: Innovation -- Aboriginal Literacy Programs -- Learning Aboriginal Languages -- Inuktitut in Paris?

June 29, 2005

Innovation -- Aboriginal Literacy Programs -- Learning Aboriginal Languages -- Inuktitut in Paris?

Update 1: There was an error in the link below. Here is the corrected link.

Captain's Quarters, April 10, 2005

Innovation Policy Briefing

Innovation - Policy Briefing PDF, Industry Minister David Emerson on Canada's future innovation economy, the Hill Times, March 2005

See article: "Notable statistics, budgets on Canada’s innovation economy" and search:

ACOA , NRC’s technology based clusters in Atlantic Canada , Canadian Space Agency , "Funding for Technology Partnerships Canada, the government’s main vehicle to help companies commercialize new technologies" , Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs , "International Polar Year (IPY), set to take place in 2007-2008"

Aboriginal Literacy Programs -- Learning Aboriginal Languages -- Inuktitut in Paris?

The NWT Literacy Council

MULTIPLE LITERACIES -- Improving our support for Aboriginal literacy in the NWT

This is not too lengthy and worth reading. All emphasis is mine.

Table of Contents
PART I INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The NWT Literacy Council
1.2 The project
PART II BACKGROUND RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
2.0 Language in People’s Lives
2.1 The importance of language
2.2 Aboriginal languages in Canada
2.3 Aboriginal languages in the NWT
3.0 Language and Literacy
3.1 English literacy in the NWT
3.2 Aboriginal literacy in the NWT
3.3 Multiple literacy practices
4.0 Supporting Aboriginal Literacy
4.1 Models from other literacy coalitions
4.2 Funding for Aboriginal language activities in the NWT
4.3 GNWT initiatives
4.4 Aboriginal language communities’ plans
PART III CONSULTING LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES
5.0 Consulting Language Communities
5.1 The consultation process
5.2 Language issues, possible roles and suggested activities for the NWT Literacy
Council
PART IV A FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGE
6.0 Developing a Framework to Improve Our Support for Aboriginal Literacy
6.1 Our strengths and challenges
6.2 A framework for change
7.0 Conclusion
8.0 Appendices
8.1 Appendix A: Mother Tongue and Home Language by Age
8.2 Appendix B: Supporting Aboriginal Literacy in the NWT: Consultation Questions
8.3 Appendix C: Contacts

1.1 [. . . . ]

Since 1989, we have supported Aboriginal literacy directly by:

• Working with Aboriginal people to plan and deliver Aboriginal language writing
workshops.
• Publishing books in Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Chipewyan, South Slavey, Dogrib and Bush Cree.
• Including Aboriginal language books, where possible, as part of book bags for children.
• Promoting Aboriginal languages in print, on radio and on TV.
• Encouraging stories in Aboriginal languages as part of the NWT Writing Contest.
• Publishing Languages of the Land: A Resource Manual for Aboriginal Language Activists, which several language communities used when they developed their multi-year plans.
• Encouraging community family literacy projects in Aboriginal languages. [. . . . ]

4.2 Funding for Aboriginal language activities in the NWT

Most funding for Aboriginal language work comes through the GNWT. In 2001-2002, through the Canada-NWT Cooperation Agreement for French and Aboriginal Languages in the NWT, the federal government provided approximately $2.3 million for Aboriginal languages, which the GNWT administered. About 50% of federal money funds Aboriginal language community initiatives. The remainder goes to teaching and learning centres, language instructor training, Aboriginal broadcasting, language research and language promotion.

In addition, the GNWT provides funding for Aboriginal language work, much of which supports school programming. In 2001-2002, the GNWT allocated about $7.1 million for Aboriginal language programs. It also funds the office of the Languages Commissioner 25. The Assembly of First Nations administers funding from the federal government for Aboriginal languages, some of which is available through the Dene Nation. Other funding for language programming is available through programs like the Aboriginal Head Start program.

Philpott Report, Newfoundland / Labrador & Aboriginal Languages

Philpott Study -- "Dr. Philpott said the report is the largest educational study of its kind ever conducted on aboriginal youth in Canada"

Newfoundland and Labrador Gazette January 21, 2005, PDF

Educational reform in Labrador

Researchers developing Innu dictionary or here

Thirty-five per cent of Innu children in Labrador never attend school, partly due to being "plunged into an alien culture and language." [. . . . ]

Now researchers in Memorial's Department of Linguistics and Faculty of Education, working in partnership with Labrador Innu communities, are developing tools that will aid in the enhancement of literacy of the Innu in their own language, Innu-aimun. The research team, led by Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie, head of Memorial's Department of Linguistics, was awarded a
Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) grant of $996,992 over five years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for the project Knowledge and Human Resources for Innu Language Development. The primary endeavour of the group will be to develop a comprehensive tri-lingual (Innu-aimun, English, French) dictionary.

Dr. MacKenzie and her team have been
closely collaborating with the Sheshatshiu Innu Nation, the Innu Education Authority in Sheshatshiu and the Institut Culturel et Éucatif Montagnais in Quebec.

[. . . . ]

Search: Montagnais-French dictionary , readers, classroom materials and other teaching aids

Captain's Quarters, April 10, 2005 -- a speech by Joyal

Take a look at these excerpts from a speech made by Trudeau's last Secretary of State. The speech was made in French to The Acadian Association of Nova Scotia on November 13, 1982. (This Association is funded to the amount of half-a-million dollars per year by you the Canadian taxpayer.) A copy of the speech which, was not printed in any English newspaper, was sent to me by one of the few members of Canada's Parliament who had any inkling of what was happening in Canada, or cared. The relevant excerpt fom Mr. Joyal's speech are as follows: [. . . . ]

"The Canada of minorities is the Canada of tomorrow." [. . . . ]

Do not miss reading the rest.

The Canadian Geographic: Global Citizen edition, Nov./Dec. 2004
Education: Language of love
Why are there more students of Inuktitut in Paris than in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver? Ask their teacher, a feisty Quebecer
by Michel Arseneault, 132

[Michele] Therrien learned Inuktitut in an odd way. When she first went to northern Quebec in 1969, Quebec's Ministry of Education was setting up schools to counter federal English-only institutions. The new provincial schools were eager to teach Inuit children in their own language, but there were no Inuktitut-speaking teachers around. So the Ministry recruited francophones, including the young Therrien, who ended up in the little town of Salluit on the northern Ungava coast. She taught all her lessons in French, and an interpreter translated every word. "I'm not sure that my pupils learned very much," she confesses. "But by hearing my own words repeated over and over again, I ended up learning Inuktitut." [. . . . ]

French President Jacques Chirac was the first head of state to visit Nunavut, barely five months after it was created in April 1999. [. . . . ]