The primary agenda of Indian Residential Schools in Canada was “to kill the Indian in the child”. The devastating ripple effects caused by residential schools are still present today in our society, ranging from and not limited to the continuation of abuse, alcoholism and the extinction of language.
The residential school that was in Shubenacadie was the only school in Atlantic Canada; aboriginal children that were collected from surrounding reservations went to this school. Children that chose to speak their native language or practiced their culture in any form were punished by the nuns and priests who ran the school.
The current population of the Mi’kmaq is currently around 65,000 including the newly formed Qalipu First Nation Band in Newfoundland and Labrador. Out of the entire Mi’kmaq population currently only 12.3% speak Mi’kmaq. That percentage speaks for itself, It is evident that we are slowly losing our language due to the after effects of residential school and assimilation. If nothing is done, the Mi’kmaq language just like many other languages will eventually become extinct.
Experts expect 90% of the world’s approximately 7,000 languages will become extinct in the next 100 years as cultures mesh and isolated tribes die out. The loss of language is a loss of that link to the past. Without a link to the past, people in a culture lose a sense of place, purpose and path; one must know where one came from to know where one is going. – LANE WALLACE
The loss of our language will have detrimental effects on our identity, mental and physical states. The loss of identity has been linked to the thoughts of suicide in aboriginal youth. Elders often advocate the importance of keeping our language alive to their children and grandchildren by teaching and speaking it in the hopes of keeping it alive for the generations to come.
If you don’t understand the language, then you don’t understand the culture
– Late Kji-Keptin Alexander Denny
Speaking or learning the language is often difficult due to ridicule by your own people. When I was growing up, children were often made fun of for speaking their language in school by the children who were not able to speak the language. Today this is not the case, people who speak the language fluently often make fun of others who try to speak the language simply because they do not correctly pronounce words in Mi’kmaq labeling them as “weni’sit” which means “talk poorly”. In order for our language to flourish this has to end.
Lately, #speakmikmaq has become viral online which has been successful in encouraging others to speak Mi’kmaq through social networking sites such as facebook, vine, twitter and youtube.
Below are several videos on how one could speak Mi’kmaq.
Two-Eyed Seeing for Health 