Today, on National Indigenous Languages Day, I am happy to share that a very special piece I wrote last year, about language transmission through generations, has been shortlisted for a JHR Indigenous reporting award.
Here's the link to read the story: https://www.tvo.org/article/for-our-children-how-families-are-passing-down-indigenous-languages
This piece was dear to my heart because of my own language learning journey. I wanted to show that these journeys do not all fall neatly into the framework of 'resiliency' that the media would have you believe - it's tough, like really tough. Canada has banked on the resiliency of Indigenous people and communities to assuage them of guilt for too long. I don't want to tell neat stories. I want to tell messy, real stories about messy, real people, like myself.
I am so grateful to all of the families who shared their stories with me for this piece: Rochelle Allan, Marsha Ireland, and Karen Mosko. And to the translators who helped this piece get published in four Indigenous languages: Ian McCallum, Debbie Parliament, Mina Beauvais, Jason Jones, and Shirley Andy. As well as the beautiful illustration by Tehatsistahawi Kennedy - Nyawen'kó:wa!