Indigenous Languages Gain Support

​The Department of Canadian Heritage has awarded Plenty Canada a grant to support our efforts to reclaim, revitalize, and strengthen Indigenous languages. This grant will build on our work last year when we held several cross-cultural and language workshops on topics such as transportation, canoe-building, traditional hunting, and foods. We also provided online Algonquin language lessons.
 
Each of the project components is focused on advancing Indigenous languages including Anishinàbemiwin (Algonquin), Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), Kanienʼkéha (Mohawk), and Inuktitut and other Inuit languages, as well as the vast knowledges and cultures of these diverse communities, strengthening the capacity of Plenty Canada to deliver ongoing programs and developing relationships that will further reconciliation efforts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
 
With this grant, Plenty Canada also plans to add more destination sites to The Great Niagara Escarpment Indigenous Cultural Map, a multimedia online prototype resource containing stunning photography, captivating video, and contextual information that identifies important Indigenous historic, cultural, and natural world locations along more than 750 kilometres from Niagara Falls to the western region of Manitoulin Island. Indigenous language sites that are in Kanien’kéha, Anishinaabemowin, and Michif are already implemented into the program, so this is an exciting opportunity to add more.
 
We aim to create positive momentum for the acceptance of languages that were once prevalent on the landscape in southern Ontario and which have developed a presence in more recent years (e.g., Inuktitut). We aim to connect land-based learning with language, in the spirit of ginawaydaganuc, the Algonquin way of saying "we are all connected". As we develop our program schedule, we hope you will join us for one of our cross-cultural workshops or a language lessons. Please stay tuned for more details.
 
— Deb Pella Keen