The importance of sharing our stories

A word from FGM – June 2024

Across Canada, more than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken. According to the United Nations, all of them are considered at risk of disappearing. In fact, on a global scale, one does so every two weeks. It is in that context that the UN proclaimed the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032). Its goal is to draw attention and to mobilize resources for the preservation and revitalization of over 4000 Indigenous languages worldwide. Thus the importance of “sharing our stories”.

The loss of a language constitutes an existential threat to the people whose identity and history are tied to it. It means the disappearance of knowledge systems, collective memories and cultural traditions that have been shaped, shared and transmitted for millennia. Those are essential to maintaining social cohesion and building a sense of belonging and community.

In Canada, the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) acknowledges that Indigenous languages are central to preserving Indigenous worldviews and ways of life. It also explains that their decline was the result of systematic, government-sponsored attempts to destroy Indigenous cultures through, among other policies, residential schools.

Article 13:1 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes that “Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons”. Similarly, the Call to Action 13 of the TRC calls for recognizing Indigenous language rights in Canada.

For our communities

In Greater Montreal, this movement translates into community-led initiatives to revitalize Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) language. Very much endangered, this language is now spoken by fewer than 4000 people. In recognition of this fundamental work, the Foundation of Greater Montréal decided to lend its support to some of those initiatives.

One of them is Ionkwaká:raton (“Sharing Our Stories”), launched in 2022 by the Kahnawà:ke community newspaper The Eastern Door. It started as an insert in the newspaper, featuring words in Kanien’kéha with their English translation. Then, it grew into a weekly feature with short stories shared by Kahnawà:ke and Kanehsatà:ke Elders, in both languages. It is now a non-profit organization that offers a number of learning tools. Among those are a dictionary and a digital archive, all supported by a network of community storytellers, translators and cultural interpreters.

Ionkwaká:raton is committed to preserving not only the language, but also the (hi)stories, the knowledge and the values it carries. It is one of several projects aimed at reviving (or “replanting”) Kanien’kéha after decades of cultural repression and erasure. It does so by featuring stories, both happy and sad. Those stories are about land stewardship, traditional food systems, culture, people or events that happened in Kahnawà:ke and Kanesatà:ke. They are all told in the first voices. The story below is one of them.

Karel Mayrand
President and CEO
Foundation of Greater Montréal