My colleague Kahtehrón:ni Iris Stacey and I were invited to do a workshop at the Language Policy Planning conference at McGill University today – August 25, 2022.
This was the first hybrid conference presentation that I participated in. Fortunately, the conference was well organized and the folks on hand managed the technical side of things. The title of the workshop was:
Language policy, activism & strategic planning: over fifty years of Indigenous language reclamation efforts in Kahnawà:ke
Our talk including the following key things:
- Our backgrounds and community
- An overview of our doctoral research
- Sharing our learning journey (as second-second language learners of Kanien’kéha)
- A brief history of language reclamation efforts in Kahnawà:ke
- Language revitalization projects at the Kahnawà:ke Education Center that we have worked on (Skátne Enionkwaio’ten & NEȾOLṈEW̱)
We appreciated how enthusiastic and engaged participants were with what we shared. We were surprised to be presented with generous gifts at the end. This was definitely one of my favorite speaking events this year.
Niawenhkó:wa to Mela & her team for inviting us and for treating us with great care and respect.
Photo courtesy of Bianca Gonzalez – McGill University.