Language revitalization event to return to Fort St. John in April

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — After a successful inaugural year, a local First Nation will host another language revitalization event. 

‘Reawakening of our Language’ will take place on April 24th and 25th at the Pomeroy Sports Centre, hosted by Doig River First Nation (DRFN) in partnership with the University of Northern British Columbia and Northern Lights College (NLC).

Like last year, workshops, keynote speakers, and other sessions will be dedicated to preserving languages like the Beaver language of the Dane-zaa people.

Christopher Parkin of the Salish School of Spokane, located in Washington State, will again be in attendance. 

The school, founded in 2010, features an Indigenous-centric education for students from Kindergarten through grade eight, ensuring a generation of Indigenous language speakers.

DRFN cultural language and heritage manager Thomas Whitton says the DRFN is in a position similar to the Salish people’s “15 to 20 years ago” in growing its language.

“Doig is building out a similar model with Dane-zaa, but it’s based on the layout [they] created,” said Whitton. “We need to get more people involved in that.”

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. In 2024, the atrium and classrooms inside NLC were the backdrop for the gathering. 

Whitton says the change in venue came from the massive demand for participation.  

He says the 200 seats set aside for last year’s event were gone in “about three weeks.”

“We noticed that there was a huge need for more space and the need for just more people to join,” said Whitton. “So we needed to double the space to about 350 seats.

“[NLC’s] facility was great, but we realized if we were going to grow, we needed a larger facility.”

Indigenous artists will be on hand to showcase and sell their art, and the event will wrap up with a tea dance and a performance by DRFN and Meander Drummers, who hail from Meander River First Nation in Alberta.  A dinner will follow on April 25th. 

While Whitton says DRFN’s community might not be large enough to create their own institution, he admits “nothing is off the table” in terms of the growth of the Dane-zaa language. 

Other speakers will include Dane-zaa author Molly Chisaakay, who wrote the book “The Elder’s Drum”, anthropologist and First Nations language expert Patrick Moore of UNBC, First Nations activist Teresa Sutherland and DRFN Chief Trevor Makadahay.

Admission is free to the event, and registration is now open. To register, contact NLC’s Karen Tom at ktom@nlc.bc.ca or by phone at (250) 782-5251 ext. 1213.