Vancouver School Board to vote on Indigenous languages program

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver students could have the opportunity to learn Indigenous languages next year, if the Vancouver School Board approves the program.

School trustees will decide on Tuesday at the annual budget meeting whether there is room for a new language program in the district.

Trustee Jennifer Reddy says the dollar amount shouldn’t stand in the way of something so badly needed.

“It is a small ask, in that it is to help us get started on the work. So, it isn’t about getting it perfect, it won’t be perfect — we’re dealing with a pretty heavy colonial system,” she says.

Reddy says pushing back the program for another year would be a mistake.

“Why delay something that public education really does have a role in correcting, some of the issues that that we’ve taken part in, in the erasure of Indigenous languages which are so inextricably tied to Indigenous rights,” she says.

However, the proposal has not gained the support of the district’s Finance Committee ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Reddy says it would cost $200,000 to implement the program — a fraction of the more-than $600-million total annual budget.

Reddy says she has been receiving letters from parents and community members who support the move.

“Some have shared a variety of perspectives, some being ‘how do we not have this already.’ Some folks from even outside of the city who are excited about the prospects of bringing more Indigenous language programming to different towns and cities that they’re from, but also the desire to to commit something to move forward,” she says.

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Jamie Smallboy, a Cree parent in the Vancouver School District, believes that teaching Indigenous languages in schools could help reconnect students with their “true self identity” after their languages have been lost through colonization.

“This could really bring that back, and it could also teach the non-Indigenous population a lot about the people whose land that they are living on, surviving on, learning on, and it could open a whole new set of doors for them if they brought that in,” Smallboy says.

Smallboy is hopeful that the program will be implemented, but isn’t holding her breath.

“Past experience shows that there’s always a delay, there’s always something that comes up. They shouldn’t have to nitpick it to death. It’s really a simple request,” she says.

Smallboy’s nephew, Richard, believes that if the school board wants to aid in reconciliation, they need to get behind the program.

“You would think that as much as they boast about being a city of reconciliation, and having a good relationship with the host nation, that there would be a little more support for such program. And the partnering that they would do would be with the host nations, and the language speakers of the host nations, and those who are already doing the work in the city,” Richard says.

Richard says the language program is one way to address the history of residential schools in Vancouver.

“This is just such a small step that the school board should be taking to address the systemic racism that is present within their institution,” he says.

Smallboy says that as a settler herself, it would be helpful for her own children.

“If my children were able to learn the language, they would learn and understand the ways of the coast people. Same with the non-Indigenous people, and I think that’s the appropriate thing.

“It really should have taken place years ago, and it’s seriously the right thing to do,” Smallboy says.