How do we work toward Indigenous language learning in places where access to language is limited? This talk will discuss collective grassroots language revitalization efforts in a small urban Indigenous community in Canada over the past decade. I will describe some of the projects and approaches that have been have used, lessons learned, and future plans for community-based language learning for children, adults, and families. I will also talk about the impact that increased access to Indigenous languages has had for individuals and the community, based on my own experiences and community feedback. My hope is to share ideas and work together to help Indigenous languages to flourish in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.
Speaker:
Dr. Lindsay Morcom is a Full Professor and Canada Research Chair in Language Revitalization and Decolonizing Education in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. She earned her master’s degree in Linguistics at First Nations University through the University of Regina in 2006. She then completed her doctorate in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in 2010. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with experience in education, Indigenous language revitalization, linguistics, decolonization, wellbeing, and inclusion. She is of German, French, and Anishinaabe heritage and embraces the distinct responsibility this ancestry brings to her research. She is an active member of the Kingston urban Indigenous community and works collaboratively with the Kingston Native Centre and Languages Nest to foster urban Indigenous language revitalization.