In this episode we will be exploring language and education. The reasons why the Miâkmaq language is in a desperate state are not mysterious. The Miâkmaq language is threatened by the legacy of colonialism, from residential schools to the modern education curriculum.
In the last podcast episode of PJILASI MIâKMAâKI, we heard about the âSixties Scoopâ, where Aboriginal children were stripped from their families and placed into Non-Native homes. The Sixties Scoop was also an attack on language.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently affirmed what tens of thousands of Aboriginal peoples in Canada have known for generations; that cultural genocide has taken place in this country on a massive scale. Attempting to kill the Indigenous languages of Canada is a prime example of âtaking the Indian out of the childâ. Perry Belgarde, in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissionâs report, noted that resuscitating the countryâs remaining 58 Indigenous languages must be a priority of reconciliation efforts.
âLosing my language is one of my biggest regrets,â says Bert Milbert, an Ojibway âSixties Scoopâ adoptee. âBecause we did speak when we were younger. And I think that thereâs a percentage of incompleteness within me by not speaking my own language.â
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