{"id":46627,"date":"2022-06-14T10:18:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T14:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.canadahelps.org\/?p=46627"},"modified":"2024-11-04T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T15:26:08","slug":"the-resurgence-of-indigenous-cultures-and-languages-in-the-canadian-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadahelps.org\/en\/giving-life\/the-resurgence-of-indigenous-cultures-and-languages-in-the-canadian-north\/","title":{"rendered":"The Resurgence of Indigenous Cultures and Languages in the Canadian North"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There are over 600 Indigenous communities in Canada, within three distinct cultural groups: First Nations, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis Peoples. These communities are diverse in spirituality, customs, traditions, and language. After over 150 years of colonization and assimilation, The Indian Act and Residential Schools, these diverse cultures have been impacted by losing their connection to and relationships with their land, traditional practices, families, communities, and languages. These are the very ties that strengthen Indigenous identities and communities.<\/p>\n

Connection to culture, language, and land is essential to the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples’s identities and communities. As told by Lori Tagoona, Inuit Nunangat, in her article Indigenous Response in the Canadian Arctic: Investing in Culture and Communities<\/a>; \u201cFor our people, connection to the land, water and ice is foundational. In the past, our migratory patterns, our sources for shelter, food and clothing, our times of renewal and celebration were all dictated by the environment. Today, we are not as dictated by the elements, yet we still find great strength through our relationship with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tribute to the resilience, self-reliance, and ingenuity of Indigenous Peoples that we are in a period of Indigenous cultural and political resurgence in the North. This is an act of decolonization where Indigenous communities are reconnecting with their traditional cultural practices. At the forefront of this movement are Indigenous-led organizations. These organizations are focused on increasing community-based culture and language resurgence programs to increase fluency in Indigenous languages, advocating for policies that protect and amplify Indigenous culture and languages, and promoting cultural ways of knowing and being.<\/p>\n

Organizations like Pitquhirnikkut Ilihautiniq \/ Kitikmeot Heritage Society<\/a> in Nunavut are protecting culture, language, and history of Inuinnait. With less than 600 fluent speakers of the Inuinnaqtun language remaining, their work seeks to protect their identities, tied to language, from extinction. By sharing traditions, speaking to elders, and teaching language, they give the young people in their community a sense of identity and connectivity to their land.<\/p>\n

In this video by CanadaHelps and the Kitikmeot Heritage Society<\/a>, members of the organization explain the threat of extinction to Inuinnaqtun language and the importance of preserving language and culture to strengthen communities and the importance of passing down Inuinnait traditions to future generations.<\/p>\n