Squamish Nation celebrates new official language centre, ‘Language Nest’

The Squamish Nation celebrated the opening of their new official language centre Friday in a building that is over 100 years old and was once slated for demolition.

It’s the first official public open house for “The Language Nest,” formerly known as “The Little Yellow School House.”

“This is the first dedicated space to learning our Squamish language,” said Samaya Jardey with Language and Cultural Affairs for the Nation. “We haven’t had a fluent speaker in roughly 90 years.”

The Language Nest will be the learning centre for 12 families — including 18 children — to learn the Squamish Nation’s language, which has been on the verge of extinction ever since residential schools banned students from speaking it.

“We had multiple generations of our families, our children who were taken away, who were forbidden to speak our language,” Jardey said.

“The prayers of our elders have been answered, to hear their language again echoed by our people.”

Kaiya Williams, the school’s head teacher, says the language will be taught through singing songs and storytelling.

“We are set up in a home-like environment, so we don’t have a traditional curriculum or everyday lesson,” Williams said. “We have our language acquired in a natural setting.”

Glyn Lewis, the owner of Renewal Home Development, led the task of saving what was once Henry Hudson Elementary School, built in 1912 in the traditional village of Senakw — also known as Kitsilano — and moving it to its new forever home in North Vancouver’s Capilano neighbourhood.

“The summer move was the intense part — early August — and moving the building over night, taking it through Kits beach and onto a barge and around Stanley Park,” Lewis said. “Those 48 hours were incredibly intense.”

He says the process took over a year to complete.

Williams says the opening of the school shows the Nation is moving forward in a good way.

“We will not go backwards from here,” she said.

“We have our ancestors who suffered from trauma, and there is also intergenerational trauma we are going through, but we are still here today and we are so proud of who we are and where we come from.”