Coming up tomorrow and Friday is the Nuu-chah-nulth Language Festival hosted by the Nuu-chah-nulth Language Authority, a group made up of representation from each nation.
The festival is a two-day event that will be held at Maht Mahs gym. Doors open at 9 a.m. and sessions begin at 10 a.m.
The first day will be a brainstorming session and on Day 2 the festival will showcase what the communities already have and do to retain, revitalize and restore the language.
The festival is an opportunity for people to share what they are doing, and discuss what needs to be done. The festival goal is to have enough to move forward toward phase 3, the implementation of a language strategy. The first phase was the development of the authority, and the festival is part of phase 2.
One of the challenges that the group hopes to tackle is to encourage language use in the home. Nuu-chah-nulth children learn their language lessons in Nuu-chah-nulth-operated schools, but because the language is not regularly in use in the home, it makes it difficult for the kids as well as difficult to advance language use.
Committee member Jack Thompson, chief of Ditidaht First Nation where they put great stock in language preservation, said children can’t learn the language if it’s not being heard or used daily.
Kathy Robinson, who has dedicated many decades to language retention and renewal, including her efforts with her own children and grandchildren, agreed.
“They don’t learn as fast if the parents don’t learn it at home. I heard the language all my life,” she said. Mrs. Robinson said she has a grandchild that is only 10 months old, and she talks to that baby every day in the Nuu-chah-nulth language.
Thompson said he’s looking forward to the tribes coming together and sharing their strengths. It’s important he said to be at that table.
Each nation has developed its own programs and resources, including a language app for the I-phone developed by Ehattesaht.
In Kyuquot, the community hosts a language potluck each Monday, and participants endeavor to use Nuu-chah-nulth in their interactions.
Language Authority committee member Derek Peters of Huu-ay-aht also said he was looking forward to the festival. Huu-ay-aht has made a huge commitment to its own language program.
He said the state of the Nuu-chah-nulth language is pretty serious, and he’s happy and proud that his nation and the authority is moving revitalization in the right direction.
Peters said he thinks people will be surprised at how much is already being done in this area, but he says the reality is that there are a lot of challenges still to be tackled. Of that there is no doubt.
One such challenge is that in some communities almost 80 per cent of the population lives away from their homelands, and this is especially true of elders—the fluent speakers—who move to urban centres for health reasons and to access other services.
And those left in remote communities with few resources have difficulty. Language lessons have been held in Port Alberni regularly, but that’s not much comfort to those living in Uchucklesaht’s community at Kildonan for example, who would have to travel more than an hour by water to attend.
These are the kinds of challenges the language festival is meant to discuss so solutions can be uncovered.
Peters said he’s hoping the festival will help Nuu-chah-nulth break through to the next level. Thompson said he’s hoping the festival will light a fire of interest within the community.
