Finding Our Talk Season One

Episode 1: Language Among the Skywalkers - Mohawk

This episode looks at how the Mohawk language has survived in the community of Kahnawake, Québec, in an urban setting and surrounded by two influential European languages. It is the story of the legendary Mohawk Ironworkers and of new approaches to language instruction for both adults and children within the contemporary community of Kahnawake.
Read More and view clip

 

Episode 2: Language Immersion - Cree

This episode traces the history of the very successful Cree Language Immersion Program, developed and implemented in schools in the Cree communities of Northern Québec. Through archives, interviews and actuality sequences, we get a sense of the dedication and commitment necessary to the creation of viable, long-term language revitalization programs.
Read more and view clip

 

Episode 3: The Trees Are Talking - Algonquin

This episode, filmed in the community and surrounding lands of Lac Simon, Québec, home to some 1200 Algonquin people, contrasts a situation in which language is transmitted through family, from generation to generation, with modern educational methods involving classroom and extracurricular activities.

Read more and view clip

 

Episode 4: The Power of Words - Inuktitut

Complimentary sides of the language and education equation in Nunavik are the subject of this episode. At a Language Conference in Puvirnituq, we witness efforts to keep Inuktitut alive and up-to-date, largely through the knowledge and commitment of elders. At the local school, we look in on efforts to keep the language current among the new generation of speakers, the children who, in effect, hold the future of the language in their hands.
Read more and view clip

Episode 5: Words Travel On Air - Attikamekw/Innu

This episode was filmed at the SOCAM radio network headquarters at Wendake and in the Attikamekw community of Obedjiwan, located on the northern shore of the Gouin Reservoir. A young Attikamekw journalist working at SOCAM makes a trip to her home community to tape interviews and legends told by elders in their native tongue, as part of the network's language initiative.

Read more and view clip

Episode 6: Language in the City - Ojibway/Anishinabe

This episode focuses on Isadore Toulouse's weekly trajectory to four different urban-based schools where we witness first-hand, and with raw immediacy, his efforts to pass on his own enthusiasm and passion for the Ojibwe language.
Read more and view clip

 

artistEpisode 7: Getting Into Michif - Michif

In this episode, we enter the fascinating and complex world of a language considered by some to be unique in the world - Michif - the language of the Métis of Canada and the US. We meet some of the movers and shakers working politically and through the education system to have Michif recognized as the official language of the Métis, as well as those whose passion and dedication are evidenced at the grass-roots level.
Read more and view clip

artistEpisode 8: Plain Talk - Saulteaux

This episode follows the work of a virtually self-taught, highly motivated language teacher. Stella Ketchemonia has devoted her life to teaching the Saulteaux language. She is now a member of the dynamic staff of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.

Read more and view clip

 

artistEpisode 9:Breaking New Ground - Mi'kmaw

This episode looks at two projects: a pilot to have Mi'kmaw adopted as an official second language in high school curriculum and Mi'kmaw as the language of instruction for a university level science program.

Read more and view clip

 

artistEpisode 10: A Silent Language - Huron/Wendat

The Huron language today survives primarily in hymns, religious texts, dictionaries and turn-of-the-century wax recordings - it is, to all extents and purposes, an extinct language. This episode looks at the historical roots of the language’s demise, present-day efforts to rekindle it in spoken form, and the cultural significance and implications of language as a ceremonial artifact.

Read more and view clip

artistEpisode 11:The Power of One - Innu

Florent Vollant is a dynamic Innu singer-songwriter, one-half of the internationally acclaimed Native pop duo KASHTIN. In Montreal and his home community of Maliotenam, we follow Florent on his musical campaign to inspire Innu youth with the passion and concern he feels for his language.

Read more and view clip

 

artistEpisode 12: Syllabics: Capturing the Language - Cree

In this episode, we look at the historical development and contemporary applications of syllabic writing systems among Native languages in Canada. Though conceived by missionaries and used by them to aid in bringing Christianity to the North, syllabics went on to play an important part in the spread of literacy through aboriginal communities and continue to evolve in this direction today.

Read more and view clip

 

artistEpisode 13: A Remarkable Legacy - Saanich

This episode tells the story of Dave Elliott, a Saanich fisherman who almost single-handedly resurrected the dying language of his people - Sencofen - by creating an alphabet system, recording the elders and developing a language curriculum for local schools. Though Dave Elliott passed away in 1985, his remarkable legacy lives on in the efforts of his son John and daughter Linda, teachers and language activists who are pioneering innovative computer programs and materials for teaching the Sencofen language.

Read more and view clip