YELLOWKNIFE
- People attending the Akaitcho Assembly say they want to improve
aboriginal language services in their N.W.T. communities.
Akaitcho
delegates suggested paying elders and teaching syllabics.
They
say a lack of money and a cumbersome bureaucracy interferes with
getting more people fluent in their native languages.
Elders
are often considered great teachers, but many of them aren't paid
as such when they help children learn their native language, the
assembly heard.
N'Dilo
chief Darrell Beaulieu wants the territorial Education Department
to recognize them and pay them as teachers.
"But
the N.W.T. Education Act says, 'no, your elders have to have a university
degree to teach the language.' There is no university that teaches
our elders their language," says Beaulieu.
"The
elders are probably the professors in this area here."
The
discussion concerning the importance of saving native languages
lasted for hours at the Akaitcho Assembly.
Some
delegates spoke about teaching people syllabics as well as how to
speak it.
George
Marlow of Lutsel'Ke, says on his travels he found that syllabics
form much of the curriculum among the Dene communities in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta.
"I'm
really happy when the little kids, real small kids speak Chipewyan.
Nobody talks English. In Lutsel'Ke everybody talks English. It's
not right by me,"says Marlow.
Toni
Heron, from the Salt River First Nation in Fort Smith, wants the
Akaitcho to control government money earmarked for language and
culture.
Some
representatives say a lack of funding is one of the major challenges
in the battle to preserve language.
The
Akaitcho government's language co-ordinator works part time and
community programs that already exist have limited resources.
Some
people at this meeting say pressuring schools to bring in a stronger
language curriculum may help.
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