Sara Child and Caroline Running Wolf are working to preserve Kwak’wala, an endangered language spoken on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland coast of the province.
Their team is working with elders to develop a framework for a new teaching method for Kwak’wala, grounded in the unique cultural lens of Kwakwaka’wakw communities. The language, deeply tied to land and health, means it cannot be taught using conventional Western pedagogy alone, Child explained.
“Our languages aren’t just about speaking, our languages are intricately tied to our wellness,” she said in an interview.
“It’s vital to help revitalize our languages because of the amazing and incredibly important knowledge that is carried and encoded in our languages that help us to walk on this Earth in a very respectful and humble way.”
Source: Researchers in B.C. could help save one of the world’s most complex Indigenous languages | Globalnews.ca
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