R(16)476 - Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is hosting the first Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Summer Institute this month, a partnership between the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) and the University of Victoria Certificate Program in Aboriginal Language Revitalization (CALR). The two-week Institute runs from July 19th to the 31st, 2010 and brings together 21 community language workers and teachers representing official Aboriginal languages of the NWT.

“We heard clearly at the recent NWT Language Symposium that Aboriginal people want to connect to their culture through language. The Language Institute gives us the opportunity to help people do so, by helping language workers from across our territory learn the best ways to spread and revitalize Aboriginal languages,” said Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Jackson Lafferty. “It is our hope that this and other initiatives will help enable more people to speak their Aboriginal language in the coming years.”

The partnership with University of Victoria (UVic) program benefits from the University’s relationship with the En'owkin Centre, the post-secondary educational institution of the Okanagan First Nations known for its commitment to language revitalization. En'owkin Centre and University of Victoria staff and faculty worked closely with ECE’s Official Languages Division and community language coordinators to develop the Institute. The facilities at the Yellowknife campus of Aurora College will be used for the duration of the Institute.

“In sponsoring this Institute, the GNWT is taking very important steps in promoting the use and revitalization of the diverse set of Inuit, Dene, and Cree languages of the Territories,” says Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, Executive Director of the En'owkin Centre. No other jurisdiction in Canada has adopted a strategy of professional development for Aboriginal language specialists of the scope of the NWT Institute.

The Institute's instructors are two First Nations scholars and teachers. Iehnhotonkwas Bonnie Jane Maracle has taught in UVic's CALR program since its inception five years ago and is also a doctoral candidate and instructor with Trent University and Queen's University in Ontario. Brock Pitawanakwat earned his doctorate at the University of Victoria and taught at First Nations University and the University of Winnipeg before accepting a secondment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Plans are already under way for an expanded Aboriginal Languages Summer Institute to be offered in partnership with the University of Victoria in 2011.

For more information, please contact:

Ashley Green
Public Affairs Officer
Department of Education, Culture, and Employment
Tel: (867) 920-3059